Here's some Monday morning fallout from the Bengals' 24-13 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in front of a record crowd of

WHAT WE LEARNED

1. RECIPE FOR DISASTER:  Mix very little pressure on the quarterback with poor coverage and even worse tackling ... and that sums up the Bengals' porous defense. 
2. FLY THE (WHITE) FLAG: Trailing 14-3 and facing fourth-and-1 at the Steelers' 2-yard line at 2:21 of the second quarter, head coach Marvin Lewis called time-out ... then sent out the field-goal unit. Shayne Graham's 20-yard field goal represented the white flag of surrender.
3. KNOCK ON KENNY: The biggest bugaboo with tailback Kenny Watson is ball security. He fumbled a shovel pass at the Steelers' 16-yard line with 3:27 to go. Watson suffered a mild concussion on the hit from linebacker James Harrison, who got the tackle, forced fumble and fumble recovery.

WHAT WE STILL DON'T KNOW

1. RESPONSE TO ADVERSITY: Can and will the Bengals put this horrible performance behind them when they travel to Buffalo on Sunday, Nov. 4? We'll soon find out. The spunky, feisty Bills are hanging tough at 3-4.
2. FIRST HALF COMA: Why can't the Bengals play a decent first half? They've trailed at halftime in every game except the opener against Baltimore. They've been outscored, 82-37, in the second quarter.
3. WHY OH WHY: Would any Bengals fan want to relive the torture? The NFL Network will re-air the game in a fast-paced, 90-minute format tonight (Monday, Oct. 29) at 7 p.m.

What did you think of Marvin Lewis' decision?

Here's a post-game comment from an unsettled Cincinnati Bengals dressing room:  "When your back's against the wall, you gotta come out and fight. If you curl up like a coward, it's gonna be a long season."  That was from receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.  It was not coach Marvin Lewis, who ended up in the fetal position on this one.

There are several reasons Cincinnati lost 24-13 to Pittsburgh Sunday and fell to 2-5, but there was one play, one decision, one big momentum swing that everyone was talking about afterward.  Down 14-3 with just over two minutes left in the half, the Bengals had a fourth-and-one at the Steelers' two yard line.  At first it looked as if Cincinnati was going to go for it and the record crowd roared in approval. Then Lewis called time-out and after some spirited sideline discussion — Houshmandzadeh admitted he and some other Bengals lobbied to go for the touchdown — the coach sent his field goal unit out as the crowd booed.

To borrow a line from one of the Shirelles' 1961 smash hits, "Mama said there'll be days like this."  Days when you run into a team that's superior, and you come away exposed, exhausted and embarrassed. 

That's what happened to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.  They may have looked tiger-tough in their all-black uniforms, but they tackled like pussycats and got mauled by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-13, at Paul Brown Stadium.  It was the seventh straight victory here for the Steelers, who have turned PBS into "P(itts)B(urgh)S(tadium)."

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis' news conference was more like a confession: "We were outplayed. We were out-executed. Hell, I'm out-coached," he said. "I've got to do a better job of getting us ready. For whatever reason, we can't come out and get started at the beginning of the game, and I don't understand why.  "We can do some things correctly later in the game. But for whatever reason, we have early breakdowns. We've got to look at who's breaking down and see if we've got a better choice."

Steelers (4-2) at Bengals (2-4)
Kickoff: 1 p.m., Paul Brown Stadium (FieldTurf, 65,500). 

Forecast: Sunny, high of 59 degrees

Story line:  The Bengals try to climb back into the AFC North race against the team that knocked them out of the playoff hunt last season. Cincinnati ended a four-game losing streak last week by beating the woeful New York Jets, but they needed 28 consecutive second-half points to do it. The Steelers will be a much stiffer test.

What's at stake:  The Bengals' viability as an AFC North contender. A victory would put Cincinnati only one game behind the Steelers. A loss would drop the Bengals three behind. With nine games remaining after this week, and Cleveland and Baltimore also ahead of them in the standings, that would be an untenable situation.

I only get excited three days a year; Columbus Day, Halloween and Bengals-Steelers Sundays. I can only thank Vince Lombardi that I will be celebrating two of those days on Sunday. For one minute, we’re going to forget that the Colts and Patriots are as unstoppable as California wildfires. We’re also going to not talk about how the Dolphins-Giants game in London is a worse idea then Trojan selling condoms with holes in them to vindictive ex-girlfriends.
This week’s rankings are going to completely focus on how badly the Bengals are going to mistreat Pittsburgh. If the Steelers are terrorists, then the Bengals are Jack Bauer. Let the torture ensue.

NFC

1. Dallas Cowboys- A little over ten years ago, the Cowboys vanquished the Steelers in a Super Bowl that still makes me smile. This means that if the Cowboys were playing this weekend, I would pick them to win by 54, sadly, they have a bye.

The Bengals can't stop Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but they hope to contain him. What will he bring to today's game?  "I hope Ben doesn't bring a whole lot, actually," Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. "I told our guys, 'He's playing like a huge Doug Flutie.' He's making guys miss him in the pocket and he's making real positive plays. He's playing really well."

The Steelers' one-two punch of tailbacks Willie Parker and Najeh Davenport presents a formidable challenge for the Bengals' 27th-ranked run defense.  Parker (600 yards) is a sleek, fast, cut-back runner, while Davenport (215 yards) is a tank.  "(Parker) is special," Lewis said. "He can make a guy miss, and he can bounce and get outside of leverage very, very quickly.