The Pittsburgh Steelers took it to their division rivals in Week 10. Here’s a recap of their blowout win against the Bengals.
I’ll admit that while I predicted the Steelers to win, I didn’t exactly see the game playing out like this. Though there’s no question that Pittsburgh is more talented than the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Tomlin’s team looked extremely flat against the Dallas Cowboys just a week ago. In Week 10 at Heinz Field, however, they looked like a completely rejuvenated team.
The game didn’t exactly start with a bang. Pittsburgh’s offense looked out of sorts and Ben Roethlisberger was off the mark early in the contest. Fortunately, they were aided by two fumble recoveries that led to early points. By the end of the first quarter, the Steelers held a 12-0 lead.
An early second-quarter touchdown brought the Bengals within 5 points and made us think that this could be a close contest, but Tomlin’s team ultimately ran away with it. By the end of the first half, the Steelers held a comfortable 22-7 lead. The second half was all Pittsburgh as they racked up the score and eventually rested their starters. The Steelers went on to win 36-10 (the final three points from the Bengals were scored after a fake punt with nothing left to lose).
What the Steelers did right
After Roethlisberger was able to find a rhythm, there wasn’t anyone in the secondary who was going to be able to match up with the Steelers talented group of receivers. Diontae Johnson impressed in the first half and ultimately finished with 116 yards and a touchdown. JuJu Smith-Schuster pitched in 9 catches on 13 targets for 77 yards and a touchdown, while rookie Chase Claypool caught a pair of touchdowns of his own on 10 targets.
After heavily favoring Johnson early on, Roethlisberger did a great job of spreading the ball around to the open man in the second half. The Steelers quarterback played arguably his best game of the season – registering 333 passing yards while throwing 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions on 7.2 yards per attempt. His game would have been even better had he been able to connect on a couple of deep balls that were just off the mark.
Defensively, T.J. Watt led the charge against a less than stellar Bengals offensive line. Quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked 4 times for minus 28 yards in this contest and couldn’t get into a rhythm – completing just 21 of 40 passes for 5.3 yards per attempt and a 76.4 passer rating. The run game was much more successful for Cincinnati as they averaged 6.6 yards per carry. However, they were forced to abandon this early in the second half after trailing by multiple scores.
Though the Steelers weakness against the run didn’t come back to haunt them in this contest, it’s something they will have to clean up, as the Ravens, Cowboys, and Bengals have all had their way with Pittsburgh on the ground. Offensively, Pittsburgh’s rushing attack was more than a little concerning, as James Conner and company put up another lackluster performance with just 44 yards on the ground. It was the second straight game that the Steelers managed under 50 rushing yards and under 2.7 yards per carry.
Overall, Pittsburgh played a very good game as their passing offense exploded against a weak Bengals secondary and their defense thrived. However, they will need to be more well-balanced when they play top-level opponents. Still, it’s hard to be disappointed when your team wins by 26 points. It was one of their best games of the season.