It wasn't exactly pretty, but the Cincinnati Bengals got revenge over the Pittsburgh Steelers for their Week 1 upset to kick off the 2022 season. Despite the Steelers best efforts, the Bengals controlled the proceedings in this one, and cruised to a 37-30 victory over their division rival. With the win, the Bengals rejoined the AFC playoff picture as the number seven seed for the time being.

Despite being without Ja'Marr Chase and eventually Joe Mixon after he suffered a concussion and was forced out of the game early, the Bengals offense didn't face the same problems they did when they opened the season against Pittsburgh. Cincinnati moved the ball up and down the field on offense, and while their defense didn't have a great day, it ultimately didn't matter too much.

The Bengals now sit at 6-4 on the season, and are still within striking distance of the Baltimore Ravens at the top of the NFC North. While they will have to figure out how to improve their play over the next few weeks, this was a solid win for Cincinnati that they will be happy to put in the books. With the game behind us now, let's take a look back at the action and hand out some grades for Cincy's Week 11 report card.

Cincinnati Bengals offensive grade: A-

As previously mentioned, the Bengals offense has been pretty beat up in recent weeks, and things only managed to get worse in this game. For the most part, though, Joe Burrow and company didn't miss a beat. Burrow picked up 355 yards and four touchdowns on the day to bail out the defense on a day where they were not at their best.

Burrow did make a couple of mistakes along the way, as he fired a pair of interceptions in this one, although it wasn't nearly as bad as the four picks he threw in these two teams first meeting of the season. Burrow linked up with Tee Higgins quite a lot (9 REC, 148 YDS) and the two helped keep the Bengals offense moving all day long.

The ground game struggled in Mixon's absence, as Samaje Perine only managed to pick up 30 total yards on 11 carries. Still, considering how competitive this game was, it wasn't a huge issue, as the Bengals were throwing the ball for long stretches of the action. They have some things to fix up, but getting stars in Chase and Mixon back will certainly help, and Cincy will be keeping an eye on their statuses over the next few days.

Standout Performer: Samaje Perine

Perine didn't have a huge day on the ground, but he had quite the outing as a receiver. Perine had four catches for 52 yards, while also hauling in three of Burrow's four touchdown passes. Perine did his job filling in for Mixon, and while he obviously isn't the player Mixon is, it's good to know that if Mixon is forced to miss the Bengals Week 12 action, Perine will ensure Cincinnati is in good hands.

Cincinnati Bengals defensive grade: C-

While the Bengals offense had a great day, the defense didn't. The Steelers offense has been among the worst in the league this season, and the Bengals allowed them to score 30 points in this contest. That's not exactly a great look for a team that is attempting to reestablish themselves as Super Bowl contenders after an uneven start to the season.

The Bengals run defense allowed Najee Harris, who had been having an awful sophomore campaign, to have his best game of the season, as he picked up 90 yards on the ground and two touchdowns as well. Kenny Pickett also had a solid outing, passing for 265 yards and a score, but more importantly, he didn't commit a single turnover in this one.

Cincinnati allowed the Steelers to stay in this game for far longer than they should have, and the fact that Pittsburgh put 30 points on the board against them isn't very encouraging. This unit has a lot of work to do after this subpar outing if they want to continue their playoff push throughout the second half of the season.

Standout Performer: Trey Hendrickson

There weren't many great defensive performances in this one for the Bengals, which makes it easy to single out Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson was a one-man wrecking crew, as he picked up five tackles, two sacks, two tackles for a loss, a pass deflected, and four quarterback hits throughout this one. Hendrickson came up big throughout this game, and was easily the defense's most valuable player throughout this contest against the Steelers.