Sprint Game Ball Of The Week

If there's one thing that you could label as a good thing with this year's team, it's the surprising effort and production from Terrell Owens. For our part, we as fans had no idea what we were getting with Owens this year. Would he be the knife in the back to cause a serious lockerroom explosion? Was he too old to make a serious impact on offense? What was Owens all about?

As simply as we can put it, Terrell Owens is the best player on offense. With 55 receptions for 770 yards receiving and seven touchdowns this year, Owens has exactly the same number of receptions this year as he did through 16 games with the Buffalo Bills last season. Owens has 15 more receptions, nearly 300 yards receiving and five touchdown more than the team's second leading receiver, Chad Ochocinco. Through eight games this year, Owens has recorded a 222-yard receiving performance and two 10-reception games. He's caught a touchdown in the previous five games and in his last two games, he's recorded four touchdowns. Owens is on pace for 110 receptions, over 1,500 yards receiving and 14 touchdowns.

And the truth is, without Terrell Owens, the Bengals 27-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers Monday night would have easily turned into a blowout. With ten receptions for 141 yards receiving, Owens' two touchdowns kept Cincinnati in the ball game, giving Cincinnati their first score of the night and a beautiful over-the-shoulder reception to reduce Cincinnati's deficit to 13 points, giving Cincinnati energy to nearly produce an amazing comeback, being the first team ever to beat the Steelers after Pittsburgh built a 20-point lead.

Owens took charge and set the second-half tone for the Bengals. His overall production pushed the Bengals, nearly leading Cincinnati into an amazing comeback over the heavily favored Steelers.