>> al: roethlisberger throws and cotchery makes the catch. it's a gain of 23 out to the 43 yard line. in the afc north you've got cincinnati now 2-1 with their win over green bay today. baltimore seems to have gotten it together. they beat the texans so they'll be 2-1. and the steelers on the verge of dropping to 0-3. number 48, david paulson, makes the catch. >> michele: an update on charles tillman. the bears tell me if they needed him to come back in this game, he could. but he's being bothered by a groin right now. because of the lead they're going to let him rest the rest of the night. >> al: wise choice. second and four. zack bowman is in there. meanwhile, there goes ben going down again but he gets the pass away to emmanuel sanders. corey wootton got to the quarterback that time. it's a first down, gain of ten.

>> cris: another hit on the tail end of this one. give the guy credit, pretty amazing. just flat-footed, looks at the last second to get that ball in there. he is going to have a little trouble getting out of bed tomorrow morning. they haven't always sacked him, but they have had plenty of hits on him. >> al: a flag thrown as jonathan dwyer makes the catch. >> referee: holding, number 73 offense. ten-yard penalty, remains first down. >> al: ramon foster. well, the bears will go to detroit next week. then they have back-to-back home games against new orleans and the giants. it would behoove them to build up early currency. when you look at their schedule down the line, four of their last six games of road games.

>> cris: i'd say 3-0 is a little currency. >> al: it's a little currency. that's what's upcoming for them. and the season will end in soldier field against green bay. from the 48. and roethlisberger fires deep downfield. that's caught. that's brown. to the 26 yard line. and for brown, a total now of eight catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns. that's to the 27. >> cris: you talk about filling in the role of mike wallace. he was not a happy camper on the sideline last week, although i talked to todd haley and he said, oh, it's nothing. it happens every week, a guy is unhappy you're not throwing him the ball. especially with todd. we've seen a few incidents with him over the years. but this has been one big breakout night for antonio

brown, and it's so key. in those three by one sets by the steelers, if they leave somebody one on one on the back side of that and he is now the one, it is tough to play this football team. and right now antonio brown is proving worthy of that position. >> al: of all the crazy numbers, and there's always crazy numbers in a game, the craziest might be ben roethlisberger tonight has thrown for 400 yards. from the 25. the steelers down by 17, and that is not caught. leaping for it, emmanuel sanders. second and ten. >> cris: you know, i can't get the jay cutler play out of my head, though. remember the playoff game a few years back where people questioned whether or not he could have come back in the question or not and questioned his toughness and all that? this is a different jay cutler on a lot of levels out here. he's becoming the team leader

and just -- the steelers safety, when the game was on the line, robert golden did not expect that. >> al: second and ten. roethlisberger throwing and it's incomplete. chris conte coming over to brown and getting there simultaneously with the ball to bust it up. it's third down. >> cris: i don't think there's any question conte made the catch. did his feet get down? well, if that knee hit the ground, that might be an interception. the old john madden book, one knee equal its two feet? we'll see if the knee hits down. it was a clean catch. looks like the foot may have come down first out of bounds. >> al: third and ten. roethlisberger buying time, pass incomplete.

lance briggs was there. and that's going to make it fourth and ten. last gasp coming up for pittsburgh. >> cris: you wonder what's going through mike tomlin's mind at this point right now. this is a guy that has never been two games under .500, right, correct, getting ready to go three games under. >> al: seventh year, as you look at the dan rooney and art rooney, second lower left. tomlin coaching his 99th regular season game. just 36 losses. and here is brown, close to a 200-yard night taking it to the 19, but on a fourth and ten, ain't good enough. so with 2:20 to go, chicago will take over. a game in which the third loss occurred.

you go back under mike and the last five seasons, well into the season, except for last year when they struggled early, got hot in the middle and then injuries just did them in at the end. >> cris: two home losses now too, which doesn't help the cause any. >> al: and chicago can pretty much run it out, even though pittsburgh can stop the clock twice and they'll have a stoppage at the two-minute warning. bush is in and he'll take it to the 21 yard line. tillman and peppers going over some stuff on the sideline. >> cris: how many veteran players on that defensive side of the ball. of course tillman, mr. punchout, all the forced fumbles that he gets. tim jennings on the other side. lance briggs. came up big tonight. >> al: two-minute warning. chicago two minutes away from going to 3-0.

>> al: big one in atlanta next week. in our postgame report, michele with the star of the game, bob, tony and mike take a further look at this one and what's happening around the league and cris and i will look ahead to new england at atlanta. second down and eight for chicago. they give the ball to bush.

to the 24 yard line. it will be third down, and pittsburgh will take a time-out. well, marc trestman, you know, when you look at trestman, years ago, and you've got a lot of bears fans here because most of the steeler fans are in the parking lot at the moment. but trestman, about 20 years ago, was one of the very hot young assistant coaches in the league. everybody said, you know, this guy is going to be a head coach some day. then all of a sudden time just went on and he kept moving around and was out of it for three years, as we said. went into bond trading. george seifert brought him back to san francisco, he was in oakland. he was on the oakland staff when they went to the super bowl and lost to tampa bay and then he sort of disappeared. everybody said what happened to marc trestman. well, he was up in montreal. then we talked to phil emery before. he said i looked at this guy, looked at him closely and thought he would be the best fit.

but it is odd, cris, when you see a guy who all of a sudden here's the new, hot young assistant coach. whatever happened to him? then he becomes the coach of the chicago bears at 57. >> cris: doesn't he seem like a good fit with jay cutler. jay cutler, he's an emotional guy and we've seen everything before. and trestman is a bond trader. you know, he just looks straight ahead. he's a teacher. he's putting together a game plan. he's keeping him from getting hit too often. and the relationship with wins is growing rapidly now. >> al: you think about it, he took over -- it's a good team. i mean lovie smith had a good deal of success, took them to one super bowl. and lovie's team last year were 10-6. they were 7-1 and injuries helped to do them in. but phil emery felt like, hey look, we needed to get the offense better, basically. >> cris: he said i walked into

an unbelievable situation. this was a good team, you just put in your system and they were ready to go. >> al: podlesh's punt is downed at the 26 yard line. a little special teams fun right there. well, the steelers, we talked about, will go to london late. normally when teams play over there, they go there a few days in advance and practice over there. they get acclimated to the time change, but not mike. he's going to take them over thursday night. they're going to land on friday. we talked about this earlier. practice on friday after they get off the plane. do a walk-through in the hotel. won't even see wembley stadium until they get there on sunday and play the game and come back home. of course on the other side of it is a bye week. and roethlisberger fires and that's going to be picked off.

chris conte who almost had a pick earlier and then you've got a flag coming in because you saw what brown did at the end of that play and you know what that's going to be. a penalty and a fine. >> cris: turnovers galore. >> referee: personal foul, unnecessary roughness, number 84 of the passing team. 15-yard penalty. first down. >> al: so that's five turnovers. >> cris: you know, one of the other things is the steelers are always used to playing with a lead, which creates opportunities defensively, because offenses have to push a little bit. when you're constantly playing behind, those turnover opportunities don't present themselves in the same kind of way. this was just an air mail shot from roethlisberger, really had no chance from the beginning. the receiver turned out, i think.

ben thought he was going down the seam and a gift for chris conte. >> al: 1:30 and a couple of kneeldowns are going to do it. >> cris: the bears are definitely getting interesting, though. you've got to believe with mel tucker their defense is going to keep improving, as they get more acclimated in his system. offensively you can already see the improvement. the offensive line, the young right side played well tonight. interesting team. >> al: well, we know a lot of rabid bears fans. i'll tell you whose as rabid as any bears fan i know, doc rivers. >> cris: your old partner. >> al: now the coach of the clippers, of course comes from the celtics, grew up in chicago and loves, loves, loves the bears. i told that to trestman last night. he said i'd love to meet doc

some day. >> cris: he plays golf with him, make sure he keeps his head low. >> al: that's going to do it. the bears, who took a huge early lead, then appeared to be in jeopardy, but turnovers do it at the end and it wraps it up and it was a killer for the pittsburgh steelers, who head to england. merry old england. not so merry for the pittsburgh steelers nor for the minnesota vikings, who they'll face next week. coming up next, it's the wendy's postgame report after these words from your local stations.

well, five steelers turnovers lead to 23 chicago points, as many as pittsburgh scored in the game, and the bears win it 40-23 to take them to 3-0 and dump the steelers to 0-3. not an overwhelming game statistically for jay cutler, a tidy one, though. 20 of 30 for 159 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions. his picture will go up on the side of the sunday night football bus during that roll call of honor. major wright is our other player of the game and both of them are

down on the field with michele. major wright had an interception and of course fumble tonight. >> michele: jay, the steelers had cut your lead to four. you're facing a third and ten. they blitz you. you decide to run, you see robert golden in front of you. who happened next? >> i had to make sure i had to get the first down. we didn't play that well in the second half, especially on third down so i just wanted to make sure i picked it up. a little collision happened but we got the first down and kept rolling. >> michele: and what happened next was a 41-yard pass to brandon marshall and the touchdown throw to earl bennett. how much do you think that shoulder to golden sparked your offense? >> well, they were all yelling me when i got back in the huddle to get down so i don't think they were too pleased but the guys hung in there all night. we didn't play as well as we wanted to. i didn't play as well as i wanted to but proud of the offensive line, proud of the receivers. they hung in there and made plays when we needed them. >> michele: the chicago bears have been known always as a

defensive team. marc trestman comes in and takes over. what kind of impact has he had on your offense? >> huge impact. just from my standpoint, helping me to be a better quarterback. offensively i think we're really sound with what we're doing protectionwise and schemewise. our defense is still pretty good, so we've got that in our back pocket. >> michele: indeed you do. thanks very much, jay. >> thank you. >> michele: the defense is good and major wright is a good example of that. let's talk about jay, though, and that shoulder he threw at robert golden. what were you thinking on the sideline? >> i was thinking get down, but he's a tough guy. we know he's capable of doing stuff like that, so i'm just glad that he got out of there safe. >> michele: how much are you guys going to enjoy watching that one back at film. >> we'll probably repeat a couple of times and laugh at it, have fun and move on. >> michele: meanwhile a forced fumble for you and pick six. new coaching staff, but this defense remains the same, turnovers and scoring. how has the transition been so smooth? >> it's been great.

coach trestman has been doing a great job with us. it's a better defense. takeaways, we preach on that and we practice takeaways. >> michele: well, it worked tonight, major. congratulations. >> thank you. >> michele: bob, back to you. >> let's bring in tony dungy from new york. tony, your reaction to tonight's game? >> well, bob, i said in the pregame i wasn't sold on the bears yet. i got a thousand tweets from bears fans out there, do you believe yet, do you believe? i believe in these guys now. they played good football on the road, and i was really impressed with that drive when the score did get close, 27-23, jay cutler under control the whole game made three big plays. this is a good football team. the other side of the coin, pittsburgh, i think they're in really, really big trouble. they just don't look like that solid, steeler team that we're used to seeing. >> so the bears win the game and make a believer out of coach dungy. thanks, tony. we'll turn now to mike florio of pro football talk.

what are among the big stories you're working on for tomorrow? >> we're keeping a close eye on san francisco where the 49ers are facing the first crisis of the jim harbaugh era. this is the first time the 49ers have been under .500 since harbaugh became the coach. they have been outscored 56-10 the last two weeks. aldon smith now on an indefinite leave of absence after a friday dui arrest. running back frank gore reportedly had words with jim harbaugh late in today's loss to the colts. and quarterback colin kaepernick, no touchdown passes, three interceptions, 277 total passing yards the last two games combined and they have to pack it all up on a short week and go to st. louis to face the rams, who were 1-0-1 against san francisco last year. >> mike, thanks. for all that information and more, don't miss mike florio on "pro football talk" presented by chevrolet tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. on nbcsn. the final, bears 40, steelers 43. al and cris will wrap things up

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>> al: all right. so back in pittsburgh, we head to atlanta where the patriots go in 3-0. atlanta all of a sudden 1-2, in some jeopardy in their division, a tough one. it doesn't matter who tom brady is throwing to these days, just bring in anybody and of course it's tom brady so we'll see him next week. >> cris: who knows if gronkowski might be back for this one. really this will be the first major test for the patriots. they're 3-0. most people would say by their standards they have been winning a little bit ugly, maybe a little better today, but you go into atlanta with some of those receivers that they have down there, roddy white, julio jones and tony gonzalez, you're going to have to put up some points in order to win down there. >> al: so that's the matchup for

you next sunday night. the atlanta falcons, matt ryan and company. and the new england patriots on sunday night football. coming up next except on the west coast, your local news followed by "dateline." this is al michaels. for cris collinsworth, michele tafoya, our entire gang saying good night from heinz field in pittsburgh.

>> announcer: nbc bay area news starts now. >> good evening. i'm diane dwyer. it has been an eventful and controversial day for bay area sports. the latest of oracle team usa still very much in the america's cup race. first, straight to the latest on those 49ers and the leave of absence for alden smith. >> you know, two days after d.u.i., smith stepped on the field to face the indianapolis kolts.

they told the rams smith will not play against st. louis. instead, he will take an indefinite leave of absence from the team. as more comments. >> first off, i want to apologize to the team, you know, the organization, my family, everybody i let down, you know, i just want to let it be known that this is a problem and something that will be fixed. i'll do everything in my power to make sure that this never happens again. i also want to let everybody know that i'm sorry and, like i said, this won't happen again. >> clearly, what consideration has gone into this? >> a lot of consideration. and i think that's a very valid question. our opinion was sitting somebody down and paying them to sit down when they're going to seek treatment in the future, that didn't seem like an appropriate punishment.

i know it might not sound reasonable, but for alden to be able to face the media, to face his teammates and take full responsibility for what he is doing, we felt that was the best situation for alden himself, and for the team and ultimately, the community at large. i realize people might not agree with that decision, but that was the decision wed felt was best. >> by the way, the 49ers last the game to the colts. there is some good news taking place on the diamond. coming um, we go inside the a's clubhouse for player reaction. you don't want to miss these interviews from the heart of the celebration. >> all right, thanks a lot. there was, as expected, some mixed reaction from fans today about the decision to allow smith to play in this afternoon's niner game.