The Bears travelled to Heinz Field to face the winless Pittsburgh Steelers in their first NBC Sunday Night Football matchup of the season. Pittsburgh had lost the previous week to Cincinnati to fall to 0-2 for the first time in 11 years. In the last game between the two in 2009, the Bears triumphed 17-14. The Bears were the 1-point favorites; eight CBSSports.com experts voted on their predictions for the game, with a 5-3 result favoring Chicago, while four ESPN analysts predicted that the Steelers would win. One of the goals of the defense was to contain Ben Roethlisberger in the passing pocket, especially as the offensive line suffered the loss of center Maurkice Pouncey. Additionally, the Steelers also had the 31st-ranked rushing offense and had yet to score a rushing touchdown, who was expected to regain first-rounder Le'Veon Bell. Alan Rubenstein of ChicagoNow writes that the Bears should attempt to improve their pass rush, which was only able to record two sacks in the last two games. Marc Trestman cited the weather as a factor for the poor performance, stating, "It's tough to rush the passer in wet weather... For both sides. It's tough to get a pass rush with a soggy field and a wet field. It's an advantage throwing the football. On a rainy day (versus) no rain, really the advantage goes to the offense. Because we can sit back there and protect. And it's really hard to configure a pass rush to get close." On offense, the Bears should attempt to attack the Steelers' 14th-ranked rush defense. A key matchup was the WR-CB duel between Brandon Marshall and Ike Taylor; Taylor contained Bengals receiver A. J. Green, who recorded 162 yards against the Bears in week one, to just six catches for 41 yards in week two. Chicago started the game with Robbie Gould's field goal, followed by Matt Fort&#233; and Michael Bush's touchdown runs to take a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Pittsburgh then scored on Shaun Suisham's 27-yard field goal, but the Bears then scored after Major Wright returned Roethlisberger's interception 38 yards for a touchdown for the 24-3 lead at halftime. In the second half, the Steelers began to rally with Roethlisberger throwing two touchdown passes of 33 and 21 yards to Antonio Brown, followed by Suisham kicking two more field goals to narrow the margin to 27-23. However, Jay Cutler threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Earl Bennett; the pass was initially ruled as incomplete, but was reversed. Eventually, Lance Briggs stripped Roethlisberger, and Julius Peppers returned the fumble 42 yards for a touchdown. Although the eventual extra point by Gould was blocked by Troy Polamalu, the Bears finished the game with Chris Conte intercepting Roethlisberger with 1:39 left in the game for the fifth takeaway by Chicago on the night and the 40-23 win, dropping the Steelers to 0-3 for the first time since 1986.
How many points did the Bears win by?
17