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Player of the game: Defensive end Brett Keisel.

Keisel continued to play at a high level as he had four tackles against the Bengals and helped the Steelers limit Cincinnati to 61 rushing yards on 29 carries.

He also got credited with a quarterback hurry, and he nearly intercepted a Carson Palmer pass deep in Steelers’ territory in the third quarter. A leaping Keisel got both hands on the Palmer pass near the line of scrimmage, and while he couldn’t hang onto it he forced the Bengals to settle for a 32-yard Shayne Graham field goal.

The Steelers limited the Bengals to 218 yards of total offense in their 18-12 loss to Cincinnati, and for the second consecutive week they did not allow an offensive touchdown. A defense that took Chad Ochocinco out of the game played well enough for the Steelers to win but their kickoff coverage team and offense let them down as Cincinnati took control of the AFC North race.

Play of the game: Bernard Scott’s 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Who could have guessed that when Scott, a rookie, exploited the Steelers’ leaky kickoff coverage unit following a first-quarter Jeff Reed field that his first career touchdown would be the only one of the game?

It proved to be the difference in the field goal/snooze fest that the Steelers and Bengals staged in front of the second-largest crowd (65,392) ever at Heinz Field.

Hit of the game: Ryan Clark drilled J.P. Foschi early in the third quarter, stopping the Bengals in his tracks and a yard short of a first down.

The Bengals had to settle for a short Graham field goal after their defense had intercepted Ben Roethlisberger and given the offense a short field.

Telling statistic: The Steelers and Bengals were a combined 7 of 29 on third-down conversions.

Both defenses did an excellent job of getting off the field, which explains why Reed and Graham each kicked four field goals.

After their first possession, the Steelers converted just once on 13 third downs. Yikes.

Need to fix: The kickoff coverage team.

The Steelers’ have now given up three kickoff returns for touchdowns in their last four games, and with all due respect to Scott, the 209th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, he is not in the class of Joshua Cribbs or Percy Harvin.

Reed doesn’t help on the front end with his short kickoffs. Nor the back end where he offers virtually no help should a return man break into the open field.

But the Steelers are simply not doing the job when it comes to shedding blocks and making tackles when they are in position to do so.

Coach Mike Tomlin indicated after the Bengals swept the Steelers for the first time since 1998 that a shakeup of the kickoff coverage unit could be coming.

“I’m open to all considerations at this point,” Tomlin said. “I’d put myself out there if I thought I could do the job.”

Notable quotes

“I wish I had a crystal ball. I don’t. Part of the reason why big plays weren’t there was because of the Cincinnati Bengals and Carson Palmer. They take very good care of the football, they make great decisions. As long as we continue to work hard and hustle hard to the football and be where we’re supposed to be big plays are going to come.” — Tomlin on a defense that had been opportunistic not forcing any fumbles against the Bengals.

“It’s something where everybody is going to have to pitch in and do their job to make that part of our game better because it’s affecting the outcome of the game so we’ve got to get better in that area.” — Steelers inside linebacker James Farrior on the kickoff coverage team.

“I played bad and it starts with me up there so I’ve got to make corrections and adjustments, pick up my play.” — Roethlisberger after completing only 50 percent of his passes for 174 yards and no touchdowns and an interception.

“They’re a very good defense, they’re very well prepared and I think they had a number of good schemes. But I think, at the end of the day, we out-schemed them with some of the stuff we were doing with the run game and play-action game. We knew we weren’t going to come in here and score 40 points. But we kept grinding and at the end of the day I think the offensive line won that battle up front and pushed them around and gave us a chance to finish off that last drive with a field goal.” — Palmer on the difference in the game.

“I feel like in order for us to do that we’ve got to win out. Are we capable? Yes. But you’ve got to win each week and take every week as it is.” — Clark on the Steelers’ chances of winning the AFC North despite falling essentially two games behind first-place Cincinnati.

“I wouldn’t say that at all. I just think they got a lot of pressure up front and that kind of disrupted a few things. Ben took too many hits today and we know that’s unacceptable.” — Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes on whether the passing game was simply out of sync against the Bengals.

“I’m almost diabetic right now it’s so sweet” — Bengals linebacker Brandon Johnson on the significance of Cincinnati’s win over the Steelers.

Next up: At Kansas City The game could be a get-well one for the Steelers.

The Chiefs won only their second game of the season today, and it came against the lowly Raiders. Look for the Steelers to try to impose their will on the Chiefs in next Sunday’s 1 p.m. game, something they obviously weren’t able to do against the Bengals.