Steelers @ Bengals - Pregame Thoughts - Must Win
To be clear, if you took care of business against the Cleveland Browns last week, then I wouldn’t be talking about this game like a must win, but here we are.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have a game in the great state of Ohio for the second week in a row, this time in Cincinnati against the Bengals. The Steelers remain on top of the AFC North despite their flop on TNF last week, but the Ravens win over the Chargers on MNF puts them firmly on our heels as we ride through week 13. It probably goes without saying that I’d be a lot more comfortable if we could put some space between us and Baltimore in the standings, and we have a good chance of doing exactly that this week as they’re taking on the ultra-red-hot Philadelphia Eagles; but we have to take care of business in Cincinnati.
This game is one of those analytical nightmares (from a numbers standpoint), in my opinion, because of Joe Burrow. On paper, the 4-7 Bengals look like a bad, one-dimensional football team, because that’s what they are. But, the Next Gen Stats aren’t capable of taking into account what Joe Burrow is capable of doing, seemingly by himself at times. The guy threw for 428 yards in a 35-34 LOSS against the Ravens a couple weeks ago. So, while I think the Steelers are a significantly better team, I think this is going to be an extremely close game, and if Joe Burrow ends up with the ball late in the game with a chance to win it, I’m going to be nervous as fuck.
Our DBs are going to have their hands FULL today, having to guard the likes of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Andrei Iosivas who has shown he is more than capable of getting loose. I’m sure this goes without saying, but we can’t let Ja’Marr Chase take the game over. I would expect to see Joey Porter Jr. shadowing him a lot in this game, with Minkah shading more to his side of the field on those single-high safety looks that we run at a pretty high rate. This feels like a game where Minkah Fitzpatrick gets his first INT in quite some time, since Chase demands so many targets a game and I expect Minkah to be near him often.
While I think the Steelers DBs will have the hardest job on the field today, the pass rush probably has the most important job on the field. I spoke, after the Browns game, about how ineffective our pass rush was, and they have an opportunity to bounce back against a bad Cincinnati offensive line. There was some optimism that we might have Alex Highsmith back for this game, but he has officially been ruled out. Preston Smith and Nick Herbig will continue to take a majority of the snaps in his place. Herbig has been playing like a star (when healthy) all year long, so he just needs to keep doing what he’s doing. TJ Watt has been double teamed and chipped into oblivion over the last few weeks, so I certainly hope that DC Teryl Austin is game-planning some different ways of getting him involved. The pass rush cannot do what it did last week, or the Pittsburgh Steelers will lose this game in blowout fashion. We HAVE TO make Joe Burrow uncomfortable, and force Joe Burrow to make a mistake or two. Dare I say…it’s mandatory if we want to win.
As for the offense, we just gotta stay on schedule, man. Every youtuber, blogger, and insider that covers the Steelers has talked about it over the last 9 or so days, and I’m sure even the most casual of fans can see it: we’re awful on early downs on offense. Part of that is inconsistency by the offensive line in the run game, but most of it is OC Arthur Smith’s offense just being too predictable. He needs to figure out some creative ways to move the ball on first down. Also, he needs to be using the right personnel in the right moments, which is NOT something we should be saying about a tenured NFL coach. But, throwing a fade to Cordarrelle Patterson on the two point conversion last week was among the more baffling things I’ve seen by any offensive coordinator this year. You can’t do that when you have guys like George Pickens and Mike Williams on your roster.
The last thing I want to say about the offense is going to be for naught, because I know it won’t change, but it’s still driving me crazy so I’m going to say it: Russell Wilson is holding the ball too damn long. We’ve seen too many damn negative plays, because he’s taking a 4-5 second sack, and he will continue to do it unfortunately. That’s just who he is, and it’s one of those things you have to live with. So, that was pointless to bring up, but it has hurt our offense in recent weeks.
We’ve got this game against the Bengals, before we head back to Pittsburgh for a rematch against the Browns. That’s two very winnable games before we enter the toughest stretch of any schedule in the NFL this season. We can’t afford to lose either of these next two games. How about a month straight of AFC North football? Lol
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