5 best moments from the Steelers Week 10 win vs. Bengals

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a very poor showing in their win against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 9.

In their Week 10 Matchup vs the Bengals, the Steelers looked as though they were in control of the game from the start. It was a tough day for the Steelers trying to run the ball. Yet, Ben was able to put forth a great game throwing it. He threw for a season-high in passing yards at 333. He also threw 4 touchdowns while Chris Boswell knocked a couple of field goals through the uprights.

I was more than surprised by how dominant the Steelers defense was against the best quarterback they have played this season. I understand that Lamar Jackson won MVP in 2019, however, Burrow looks like he can be the future of the league. In this matchup, the Bengals didn’t have the offensive line to come close to dealing with the best pass rush in football and that made all the difference for the Steelers in this one.

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not look very good on offense their first possession.

The Steelers only accumulated one first down before sending their punting unit on the field. However, a terrific special teams play would give Pittsburgh a second chance on the first drive of the game to make something happen.

On the punt return, Alex Erickson of the Bengals looked to have gained a few extra yards for his team before losing the ball in the middle of a gang tackle. Ola Adenyi would strip it from behind and Benny Snell Jr. would make a great heads up play to get to it first on the bottom of a pile.

This was a very very important moment in the game. The Steelers needed to get some kind of points on the first possession of the game. Joe Burrow is really really good. This is a Bengals team that had scored at least 25 points in 6 of their last 8 games. Furthermore, in 8 games they had scored at least 30 points 5 times. If Pittsburgh wasn’t able to get some kind of lead before Cincinnati got the ball, it could have turned into another rough start for our Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers got on offense near the end of the first quarter with a 6 point lead.

After multiple possessions starting on the Bengals side of the field, they had been unable to capitalize, with anything other than field goals. They would get the chance after moving down the field offensively and they would make it work.

Diontae Johnson would make the kind of catch I have seen him drop multiple times throughout 2020. Ben threw it a little low and Johnson was able to hold onto it as it hit his legs first. This was huge. It can’t be stressed enough how explosive the Bengals offense is and the fact that Pittsburgh was able to extend their lead to over 10 points in the first quarter would be huge.

This was a great way for Pittsburgh to respond. They had been winning but had only managed 2 first downs between their first couple of possessions. The 6 point lead was a result of tremendous defense and special teams play that would give Pittsburgh the ball in field goal range.

The Steelers made another heads up play.

Cam Sutton continues to impress me so much in 2020. Mike Hilton being injured has hurt the run defense a bit, yet I trust Sutton to bring more splash and better coverage skills in virtually every passing situation. He forced yet another turnover against the Bengals in the second quarter.

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Steven Nelson did well to get the ball and finish the play. Yet, this was all Sutton. It was a great play on Sutton’s part, He had him stopped and raked the ball out on his way down. It was a great play. The Bengals had been gaining some momentum on offense and this had put a stop to that.

More importantly, it would give the Steelers good field position on offense yet again. If Pittsburgh would’ve been able to capitalize on this turnover to make it a 3 possession lead at just the start of the 3rd quarter then it would’ve gone a long way to putting the Bengals away in this one.

The Bengals would score a touchdown to cut the lead down to 5. Pittsburgh would respond in a strong fashion.

The Bengals mixed in a couple of runs into their playcalling and that resulted in Cincinnati scoring their first touchdown of the game. The Steelers got back on offense and then they got into a rhythm themselves. They would march down the field and would get the ball to their #1 receiver in the endzone.

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It was 3rd and goal and had they not scored the touchdown a hot Cincinnati offense would have had the opportunity to tie it up on their next possession. It was a great play, that saw Ben under pressure to find his most reliable target in the back of the endzone.

JuJu has delivered again and again whenever his number has been called, and it was a good thing to see that Pittsburgh was trying to get the ball to him early and often. I have been saying in recent weeks that Pittsburgh should be making a more concerted effort to get him the ball. Coincidentally they did and it had been working out for them very well in this game.

Pittsburgh was able to extend their lead again.

The Steelers were able to extend their lead to 22 points with around 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Pittsburgh had been throwing all game. It was scar considering that they were unable to get the run game going to protect the lead. They went back to spreading the defense out and using short passing concepts to keep the chains moving.

Ben made a good threw and Claypool made a very tough catch in traffic. It was a fantastic play and looked like it could seal the deal for the Steelers. Pittsburgh’s secondary played very well throughout the majority game and in all but two drives leading up to Claypool’s touchdown,  they were winning the game for Pittsburgh. It had been a great performance for them so far.

Claypool’s touchdown made it a 3 possession game. It would be very very difficult for Cincinnati to be able to come back to this point. It is really hard to seal the deal in the 3rd quarter of an NFL football game but it looked as though Pittsburgh had just done that. They would score with Claypool again to seal the deal, but by that point, the damage had been done.

It was as one-sided a game as the Steelers have had this year. It isn’t that the Bengals are completely terrible. They dealt with a lot of injuries coming into this one. Yet, they didn’t make any adjustments to slow down Pittsburgh’s passing attack, and that spelled disaster for Cincy. The Steelers dominated winning 36-10.