Mike Tomlin is facing heavy criticism for his defense’s performance in the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t able to stop Joe Flacco, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins, even though Zac Taylor’s intentions were very clear with 23 targets for Chase.
This was Tomlin’s explanation after the game. “We play these guys a bunch. We double teamed them some. We double team No. 5 some (Tee Higgins). It’s a mix. A mix is required. They’ve got depth and talent. Just like the one play 80 made down the middle (Andre Iosivas). We were doubling them both and they were one on one in that circumstance. So, there’s many ways you can analyze it, but the bottom line is they made more plays than we did.”
Even though Aaron Rodgers and the offense put 31 points on the board with a furious comeback in the second half, the defense couldn’t make the final stop. On top of that, they didn’t generate a single turnover throughout the game and allowed Chase Brown to rush for over 100 yards. For that reason, what happened in Cincinnati is yet another proof that the Steelers are far from being Super Bowl contenders.
Did Steelers lose against Bengals?
Yes. The Steelers lost 33-31 to the Bengals and now have only a one-and-a-half-game lead over Cincinnati in the AFC North. In addition, the Ravens, despite a 1-5 record, will have their bye week and then get Lamar Jackson back, facing a very manageable schedule for the rest of the season.
As happened in last season’s playoffs against Baltimore, the run defense was terrible. The Bengals were averaging less than 60 yards per game, but against Tomlin’s team they racked up 142 yards.
“They popped a couple. They did. We didn’t do a good enough job of gap control and they popped a couple of big ones. It kind of created an unsteady environment. They got rid of the ball quickly and they were running the ball effectively. So, it minimized some of those one dimensional passing circumstances.”