The Steelers dropped a home contest against the Cincinnati Bengals in an uninspiring fashion
To say that the Steelers lost at home to the Cincinnati Bengals in an uninspiring fashion would be an understatement. Forget the final score, the game really wasn’t close. Despite leading at halftime, once the second half started, it was all downhill.
We were outscored by ten points in the second half and managed to gain a paltry thirty-nine yards of offense until the final offensive drive when the Bengals were playing soft coverage. The last Steelers TD made the game look closer than it was.
Let’s see what we learned on the offensive side of the ball.
The Steelers offense completely sputtered in the second half
In the first half, the offense outplayed the defense. According to ESPN, the offense gained the vast majority of the total yards in the first half and scored twenty points, seventeen of which came in the second quarter.
Frankly, things were looking pretty good until the second half rolled around then the wheels fell off the wagon, as it were. We managed ten points in the second half, seven of which came late in the fourth quarter when the Bengals were playing so soft that it would have been a surprise had we not scored.
Coming off an impressive win against the Saints, we had some questions to answer against the Bengals. I’m not sure we got the answers we were looking for. While we did make a concerted effort to get the run game going, I think the passing game suffered as a result.
Once we were down multiple scores, we became one-dimensional. It is unfair to Kenny Pickett to be put in a situation where we simply don’t have the luxury of running the ball and are almost forced to pass it on every play. That is not a recipe for success, and it came to fruition against the Bengals.
Let’s see what we learned on defense.
The Steelers secondary played ‘below the line’ against the Bengals
The defense collectively gave up over three hundred yards through the air, but I think a lot of that had to do with the inability to cover one player. One wideout had nearly one hundred and fifty yards receiving. How does that happen?
You would think that Teryl Austin would have been able to adjust the coverage to take away one wide receiver but instead of doing that, we allowed one player to essentially ruin our chances of going on a winning streak to perhaps save the season. Now it looks like the season may be over.
You would think that after the dominant performance we had against the Saints, the Steelers defense simply could not stop the Bengals passing game. Despite getting two interceptions and two sacks, the Bengals offense was just too much for us.
Let’s see what else we learned.
The Steelers need to evaluate everything we do from here on out
Look, I still have faith in Mike Tomlin, but it is getting increasingly more difficult to understand why he has not moved on from Matt Canada and Austin. Coming off a win at home against the Saints, I fully expected us to play better than we did.
Both sides of the ball regressed against the Bengals. I suppose it was too good to be true that we would start ‘stacking wins’ and get back into the playoff conversation, a conversation in which we have been since Tomlin took over as the head coach in 2007.
It’s been a long time since we have been faced with the reality that we are going to have a losing season, but that reality is staring us in the face as we speak. I think it’s fair to say that the Steelers have to evaluate everything we are doing if we have any hope of preventing the aforementioned losing season.
Tomlin is the one who has to initiate that evaluation. He needs to evaluate both players and coaches. He needs to make difficult decisions now, not after the season. I know that’s easier said than done, but things are falling apart before our eyes, and it is tough to watch.