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Moore helps Steelers down winless Bengals

Oct 19, 2008 - 9:59 PM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The loss of Willie Parker has not been a problem for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mewelde Moore scored three touchdowns Sunday to lead the Steelers to their third consecutive win, a 38-10 triumph over the woeful Cincinnati Bengals.

Starting in place of the injured Parker for the third straight game, Moore rushed for 120 yards and a pair of scores on 20 carries. He also hauled in a 2-yard TD catch in the first quarter to open the scoring.

"We gave him the game ball," Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin said of Moore. "He is fast becoming a favorite in the locker room. We make no secrets about how we feel about each other and its based on deeds."

Parker had missed the last two games because of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and was expected to return for this contest, but he aggravated the injury Tuesday and has not practiced since.

Moore was called upon again and he did not disappoint. Moore gave Pittsburgh a 17-7 lead with 8:29 left in the third quarter,breaking off a 13-yard TD run for his first rushing score of the season.

A five-year veteran out of Tulane, Moore struck again with 5:17 remaining in the game to put away the contest. He plowed in for a 2-yard TD to give the Steelers a 31-10 advantage.

"I signed here as an in-case-of," said Moore, who mostly returned kicks for the Minnesota Vikings the last four seasons. "It's awesome to come in and be the new guy, to step in and study hard. Its awesome to see the work paying off and getting respect from your teammates."

Ben Roethlisberger passed for 216 yards and two touchdowns - including a 50-yard strike to Nate Washington - for Pittsburgh (5-1), which improved to 3-1 on the road this season.

A Findlay, Ohio native, Roethlisberger has not lost to the Cleveland Browns and Bengals in his home state.

"I'll take the blame for the first half," Roethlisberger said. "The line played great, they blitzed almost every play. We were able to pick them up and communicated."

Tomlin said his team played hard but was a little rusty coming off a bye week.

"We were concerned about our execution coming out of the bye," he said. "We played fast, but we need to get better. We left some points on the field in the first half."

Roethlisberger took a break after Moore's final touchdown of the day, but the Steelers' offense did not. Backup Byron Leftwich connected with Hines Ward for a 16-yard score with less than twominutes to play, providing the final margin.

Ryan Fitzpatrick had 164 passing yards and a score for the Bengals, who are off to an 0-7 start for the fifth time in 18 years. Fitzpatrick delivered a 5-yard TD pass to Chad Johnson just before the half to close the deficit to 10-7 at the break.

"I'm angry. It's not good. It's not what professional football is all about," Lewis said. "We haven't had a fragile mindset until today. I think it would be interesting to see the sequence of plays and events that brought that on."

The Bengals allowed seven sacks.

"That definitely hurt us," Fitzpatrick said. "We were between the 30- and 40-yard-line. If we get a first down, who knows? I felt like we could have gone in there and scored."

Cincinnati also lost its first-round draft choice Keith Rivers in the first quarter on a hard crackback block by Hines Ward.

"Keith sustained a broken jaw," Lewis said. "He will probably be lost for the year."

"I'm not going to change the way I play," Ward said of the block, which was within the rules and well before the whistle. "There was no penalty on the play."