The Pittsburgh Steelers had control of the AFC North. With both Baltimore and Cincinnati injured and Cleveland being Cleveland, the stage was set for the Steel City to take control of the division again. A matchup against the Bengals would have cemented their status as the best in the AFC North.
Except, well, that's not what happened. Instead, the Steelers' biggest weakness was exposed for every other contender to see. The Bengals defeated the Steelers on Thursday night after an electric performance from Joe Flacco and their offense. Despite the excellent performance from Pittsburgh's offense, Pittsburgh dropped to 4-2 in the season.
Now, that loss has opened the door for the Bengals and the Ravens (when Lamar Jackson gets healthy) to compete for the AFC North crown. Let's look at which Steelers players are responsible for this loss.
Steelers most to blame for Thursday Night Football loss to Bengals
Steelers' CB Room
Going into the game, the Bengals had one clear strength: their passing game. Cincinnati's passing attack saw some life during their loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 6. Given that information, and the Bengals' reluctance to run the ball, the Steelers should have keyed in on their passing attack.
That's of course easier said than done: covering Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins together is no easy feat. The Steelers cornerbacks clearly want life to be hard for these Bengals wide recievers. However, it felt like their wide receivers could do anything they wanted during the game with minimal resistance.
Simply put, the Steelers cornerbacks just couldn't cover Chase, and Higgins to an extent. Jalen Ramsey, Joey Porter Jr, and Darius Slay took turns against the two wide receivers, and all three got burned in varying degrees. They struggled to stay in front of the star wide receiver, his speed and route running proving to be too much for the Steelers CBs. Chase finished with a franchise-high 16 catches for 161 yards and a TD, while Higgins had 6 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown grab as well.
The few times that the corners seemingly made a play, they were called for a penalty. Porter Jr and Ramsey, in particular, were the biggest offenders here, with both corners getting called for DPI multiple times. Porter Jr complained about this after the game, but the replay clearly showed that both Steelers cornerbacks did enough to warrant a penalty.
The Bengals proceeded to run their offense through Chase and Higgins in the second half after that. With the Steelers CBs struggling to stay in front of their assignments, the flats and the slants were open all night for Joe Flacco to exploit. It was these easy slants and the yards they gained from those slants that gave the Bengals the juice to win against the Steelers.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin
While the Steelers' cornerbacks clearly struggled, the coaching staff didn't do them any favors during the game. There were more than a few moments during the game where defensive coordinataor Teryl Austin didn't put the Steelers defense in a good position to succeed.
The biggest problem here, of course, is their decision to continue covering Chase and Higgins one-on-one. Yes, the cornerbacks are not playing well, but it's the coaching staff's job to make sure that they are in a better position to make a play. Sending help towards one of the receivers could have helped cover some of the weaknesses in their coverage.
During the two-minute drill, the Bengals were also able to get huge chunk plays that got them closer to field goal range. You can't really fault the Steelers for pressing up and playing a one-high coverage for that Higgins fade that led to the field goal. It was more an execution error, as the Bengals took a huge risk by taking that shot. You can fault the coaching staff, however, for their insanely soft coverage in the plays prior to that. Chase was wide open on an out route before the two-minute warning, and then a miscommunication on the ensuing play saw Chase get open again to get into Steelers territory.
Overall, the coaching staff should have done a better job of scheming up against the Bengals defense. It got tiresome after a while seeing the Bengals find the open slant over and over again, and the Steelers defense not doing anything about it.
