CINCINNATI -- October games, December games, playoff games and meaningless games. Close games, wipeouts, overtimes. There are many ways to skin a cat, and the Steelers have used them all when they've played the Bengals in Paul Brown Stadium.

The Steelers won their eighth in a row in PBS (PittsBurgh Stadium?), something the Bengals have never done. Yesterday's 38-10 rout came late, but it seemed only a matter of time before the Steelers exerted themselves in this town again.

"Here in a hostile environment against a division opponent on the road -- we don't take those for granted," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said after a late, three-touchdown explosion by his team. "We're glad to get a win. We'll put it with the rest of them."

They are 5-1 with the next four of five at home, starting with the Super Bowl champions Sunday.

If the Steelers were looking past the winless Bengals (0-7) to the New York Giants, it was only apparent in the second quarter when they hit a lull after a fast start.

The rest of the game, they were dominant.

"For whatever reason, we just seemed to dissolve in every area," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said of the Steelers' 21-point outburst in the final quarter.

Halfback Mewelde Moore pulled off the second-best imitation of the weekend after Tina Fey when he filled in for injured Willie Parker and ran like Willie Parker. As Parker did in the season opener, Moore scored three touchdowns -- two rushing and one receiving -- and topped 100 yards for the first time in a Steelers uniform. He ran 20 times for 120 yards, one game after he got 99 yards in Jacksonville.

"It's awesome to come here, be the new guy, step in, study hard, work hard and see your hard work paying off," said Moore, a free-agent signing from the Vikings this year.

Ben Roethlisberger, who loves playing the Bengals, completed 17 of 28 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns, the first one of the game to Moore for 2 yards and his last to Nate Washington of 50 yards.

Hines Ward even caught Byron Leftwich's first touchdown pass with the Steelers of 16 yards in the fourth quarter, and Jeff Reed remained perfect on the season when he kicked a 21-yard field goal.

Even better for Roethlisberger, he was not sacked, only the second time that has happened the past two seasons, both against the Bengals. On the other end, the Steelers sacked Cincinnati quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, playing for injured Carson Palmer, seven times with linebackers James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons picking up two apiece.

"Even as we were shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit in the first half," Tomlin said, "I thought we were controlling the line of scrimmage."

They led by just 10-7 at halftime, a surprising score seeing how they dominated play.

They moved 75 yards in nine plays to open the game, two of them long passes on third down from Roethlisberger to Ward for 29 yards and to Santonio Holmes for 32 yards. The latter put the ball on the 2 and Roethlisberger deftly faked a handoff to Najeh Davenport, rolled quickly right and hit Moore wide open in the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

Things looked so easy in the first quarter that the Steelers may have gotten a little greedy.

Harrison and Aaron Smith blew up an end-around for a 15-yard loss and then a 15-yard punt gave the Steelers a first down at the Bengals' 30. They moved to a first down at the 3, but then three consecutive passes fell incomplete and Reed came on to make it 10-0 with a 21-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter.

Cincinnati did not get a first down in its first five series, then strung together seven of them on their sixth possession. The drive carried 92 yards on 14 plays and ended with Johnson's 5-yard catch for a touchdown.

So, while the Steelers dominated the Bengals early, they did not take sufficient advantage to lead by more than three points at halftime.

"There was disappointment in the way we played, disappointment the game was that close," safety Ryan Clark said. "Not because of Cincinnati's record or who they were, but because of the opportunities we were giving them in first half."

The Steelers' first drive of the second half produced their second touchdown and a 17-7 lead. Moore scored again, taking a hand-off on third down and, behind an outstanding trap block from guard Darnell Stapleton, ran untouched around left end for 13 yards and the score.

The Bengals responded with a 26-yard field goal by Dave Rayner to make it a one-touchdown game again at 17-10 late in the third quarter.

Midway through the final period, though, all doubt ended. From the 50, Roethlisberger faked a hand-off and lofted a pass at least 60 yards in the air. Washington had cornerback Geoff Pope, signed Friday from Cincinnati's practice squad, beaten by a step.

"We saw something on the sideline that we thought we could take advantage of," Roethlisberger said. "I used play-action, got the safety to kind of sit there, looked him down and the next thing I know Nate's just taking off. He's so fast the only thing I could think of was to throw it out there and let him run under it."

Washington caught the ball over his shoulders in the middle of the end zone.

It was 24-10 with 8:17 left and there was little chance the Bengals would score twice, not the way the Steelers' defense was playing.

Timmons sacked Fitzpatrick to end the next Cincinnati series. A 38-yard pass interference penalty and three plays later, Moore ran 2 yards to make it 31-10.

Leftwich replaced Roethlisberger on the next series and completed the rout with his touchdown toss to Ward.

"There is room for us to improve," Ward said. "We've got a lot of guys banged up, and we have a tough stretch of games ahead of us."

There is relief at the end of that stretch, though, because the Steelers' fourth home game in the next five is against the Bengals.