The Pittsburgh Steelers just suffered a disheartening 33-31 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7... and nobody should be surprised. The Steelers always had enough talent to pull off the win; it was Mike Tomlin's horrible track record on the road on Thursday Night Football that was on trial. He failed the test.
Heading into Week 7 against the Bengals, Tomlin had a record of 2-8 on road Thursday Night Football games (2-9 if you count playing on Thursday in the season-opener). Even worse is that the Steelers were 0-6 on the road on TNF against AFC North rivals.
But instead of snapping this pitiful streak, these stats continue to grow uglier.
Tomlin's teams are now 2-9 on the road on TNF (0-7 against the AFC North in this setting). Not only that, but with the loss to the Bengals, the Steelers also fell below .500 under Tomlin when facing quarterback Joe Flacco (11-12).
Mike Tomlin must be held accountable for another Pittsburgh Steelers road blunder on TNF
The manner in which the Steelers lost the game is completely inexcusable. Pittsburgh allowed 470 yards of offense to the Bengals, with 328 passing yards for Flacco, per ESPN stats. Tomlin's team was humiliated in the time of possession battle (34:32 to 25:25), and they allowed 6.2 yards per carry to a Cincinnati team that hadn't been able to run the football all year.
However, the most egregious coaching blunder was the utter disregard for the location of superstar wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase on the field.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had no answer for the Bengals' best player, and zero adjustments were made at halftime to slow him down. Teryl Austin's subpar defense allowed Chase to see 23 targets in this contest, which he converted into 16 catches for 161 yards and a touchdown.
Chase put the finishing touches on his performance when he caught a 15-yard pass and an 18-yard pass on consecutive plays to help the Bengals effortlessly move the ball down the field. Two plays later, a 28-yard pass to Tee Higgins would get Cincy into chip-shot field goal range to seal the victory.
It was evident that Tomlin's defense didn't show up to play in this contest. Despite the benefit of not having to face star quarterback Joe Burrow or All-Pro pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like a defeated team.
This game was hard for Steelers fans to stomach. Coach Tomlin had a chance to bury the Bengals and take a commanding lead in the division. Instead, his humiliating road streak on Thursday Night Football lives on. This feels like a bad dream that won't go away.