Monday Night Football Open Thread: Steelers v. Bengals

It's Monday Night and that means - of course - Monday Night Football, as the Cincinnati Bengals host the Pittsburgh Steelers to close out week 2 of the 2013 NFL regular season.

The Bengals, as you'll recall, blew a double-digit lead as a certain team clawed back from a 21-10 deficit midway through the third quarter, not least due to their disciplinary mishaps. They're not really happy about that given their playoff aspirations, with some pundits predicting them to win their first playoff game since beating the old Houston Oilers 41-14 in a 1990 season wildcard game (more trivia: quarterbacked by Boomer Esiason, with Ickey Woods scoring one of the TDs).

The Steelers, for their part, somehow managed to lose to a Titans team that only got 70 yards on the ground from Chris Johnson (2.8 yards/carry) and is still quarterbacked by Jake Locker.  Jake. Locker.  And not Jake Locker having an exceptionally good day, either.  It was worse-than-his-career-average-passer-rating Jake Locker.  Things can only go up for the Steelers from there, though there are rumblings that Ben Roethlisberger isn't happy with offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Imagine that, a QB and his OC being less than harmonious...

The best reason for watching this game, if you need one, is that the Steelers are our next opponents as we visit Pittsburgh on Sunday night. With injuries to Center Maurice Pouncey (torn ACL & MCL), LB Larry Foote (torn biceps) and RB LaRod Stephens-Howling (torn ACL), how well will their backups fill in?  Is there anything we can look to exploit on Sunday? And how many times will the commentary team ponder whether Tim Tebow could land on one of these teams next season?

(In Dane's voice): This is your Monday Night Football Open Thread... Have fun!