BENGALS LG CORDELL VOLSON VS STEELERS DTS CAM HEYWARD AND LARRY OGUNJOBI
Sunday’s marquee matchup in the opener with the Steelers (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) pits new Bengals hired gun right tackle La’el Collins against everyone’s defending NFL Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt.
But the more intriguing and the showdown with maybe the bigger impact finds the rookie Volson making his NFL debut against Heyward, the future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer who has the most tackles and passes defensed by an NFL tackle in the last four seasons.
A graduate of North Dakota’s nine-man high school football league in a county with a population slightly more than the 3,500-seat capacity of Joe Burrow Stadium in Athens, Ohio, Volson could end up Sunday playing before the most fans ever to watch a football game in Cincinnati.
And if Heyward isn’t enough, there’s also Ogunjobi on some passing downs. Larry O. as he’s known around these parts is making his first start for the Steelers on the same field he broke his foot in the last game of last year here at Paycor in the Wild Card, ending his lone season with the Bengals with seven monstrous sacks.
The Steelers may not have Big Ben. But they are still the Steelers and that means they have led the NFL in sacks the last five seasons. In his 11 seasons, Heyward has peppered the Bengals with 10.5 sacks, 19 quarterback hits and seven passes defensed, his most against any team.
“Obviously he’s earned our trust and the trust of the organization,” says Ted Karras, the new veteran center making his first Bengals start next to Volson. “He has kind of a quick baptism going against Cam Heyward here. I think he’s very much up the challenge.
“Cam’s played for such a long time. You really can’t throw anything at him that he hasn’t seen. He’s a very large man. He plays really hard and he plays the game the right way. It’s always fun to go against guys of that stature and see what you’re made of.”
Volson is made of the hearty stuff of northern North…
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