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Steelers weigh bus trip to Cincinnati after FAA ground stop halts flights before Bengals game
A nationwide FAA ground stop put the Steelers' Saturday flight to Cincinnati in doubt, but a bus trip gives Pittsburgh an easy fallback before Sunday.
The Pittsburgh Steelers may make the trip to Cincinnati by bus this weekend. A nationwide FAA ground stop on Friday halted air travel across the country just before the team was due to fly out for Sunday night's game against the Bengals.
SB Nation's Behind the Steel Curtain reported that Burt Lauten, the team's senior director of communications, told WPXI the club is "monitoring the situation." Pittsburgh was not scheduled to leave until Saturday, which gives it more room than teams that had planned to fly earlier. Behind the Steel Curtain noted that a bus would take longer and be less comfortable than a charter flight, but that it shouldn't disrupt the team's preparation much.
The disruption may not last that long. Al Jazeera later reported that the FAA had lifted the ground stop after several hours and that flights were resuming. That makes it more likely the Steelers keep their original travel plan. If they don't, the drive to Cincinnati is about as easy a fallback as any team in the league has for a road game.
Travel isn't the only open question for Pittsburgh. Behind the Steel Curtain has listed defensive lineman Derrick Harmon as questionable for the game, and a team reporter told the outlet he does not expect Harmon to return against Cincinnati.
What it means for Sunday in Cincinnati
Pittsburgh arrives at 6-2 with four straight wins. The streak began with a 34-22 win over Indianapolis and continued with a 26-19 win at Tampa Bay, a 16-10 home win over New Orleans and a 27-6 win over Cleveland last week. The Steelers have already beaten the Bengals once this season, 30-27 at home. Their two losses both came on the road, 20-3 at New England and 27-24 at Cleveland. Sunday's game airs on NBC.
The board for Steelers at Bengals still has Cincinnati favored even though Pittsburgh has the better recent form and won the first meeting. Novig, one of 11 venues listing the game, has the Bengals favored at -170 on the moneyline and the Steelers at +167. On the spread, Novig has Cincinnati -3.5 at +102 and Pittsburgh +3.5 at -104. Novig's total is 49.5, with the over at -100 and the under at -104. The best over price anywhere is Fanatics at -110 on a total of 49, a half point below Novig's number. Sportsbook hold on the moneyline ranges from 3.2% to 5.3% across the venues, so prices vary a little from venue to venue.
The outlook changes the week after. For the Nov. 22 game at Philadelphia, Novig has Pittsburgh favored at -212, and the spread at Steelers -4.5 with a low total of 38.5. Before that, the team has to get to Cincinnati. With the FAA ground stop lifted and a bus ride available if needed, the travel problem looks unlikely to affect Sunday's game.
Follow the season on the Steelers team page.