The Good, Bad and Ugly from Week 6 – Bengals
It was yet another game that the Steelers were not going to win. They were 3 point dogs on the road, and the Bengals were being touted as the favorites to win the division.
Let me say this one more time – how’d that work out? I’ll tell you, the continuing answer to the question “Who dey?” is “We dey!”
The Steelers continue to be the Bengals boogie-man, and the walked into Cincinnati and waltzed out with a 28-21 victory.
It wasn’t easy. The Bengals appear to be a much better team than I gave them credit for early in the season; however, at the end of the day, the “Escaloser” was once again in operation.
Let’s take a quick look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Steelers win in Cincy.
Good
Offense
481 Total yards of offense (369 passing, 112 rushing)
I could have called out individuals, but the truth is that the offense, almost as a whole, was just really good. The Offensive Line was fantastic, opening holes for James Conner and keeping Ben Roethlisberger upright. The tight ends (Vance McDonald, Jesse James and Xavier Grimble) all contributed
Stephon Tuitt
While Tuitt only tallied one sack (his first of the season) he was a disruptive force the entire game. Tuitt created consistent pressure and put together what was probably his best and most consistent game of the season. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, as this looked like the Tuitt who started strong last season right before his injury.
Joe Haden
Joe Haden again spent most of his time covering A.J. Green, and shut the All Pro wide out down for most of the game. Haden is a difference maker in the Steelers secondary and is without question their best defensive back right now. Green eventually finished with 7 receptions for 85 yards, but at least two of those catches were when Haden wasn’t covering him.
Now if we could just clone him.
Jordan Berry
Jordan Berry has gotten a lot of grief for some of his punting this season, and probably rightfully so. However, the 69-yard boomer he launched in this game was a huge field flipping play (especially when you add in the block in the back penalty the Bengals committed). Of his four punts, he pinned the Bengals inside the 20 on 3 of them, and that’s some high-quality punting.
Bad
Kickoff Coverage
The special teams unit has been pretty good this year, but man did the collapse at some inopportune times in this game, specifically the last kickoff of the first half and the first of the second. The first was simply awful. The Steelers had just scored to take a 14-7 lead, and there was only 1:07 seconds remaining in the half. If they kick the ball out of the end zone or cover the kick well the Bengals likely don’t have the opportunity to score.
Instead, they allowed a 47-yard return giving the Bengals the at the Steelers 49 (and add on an additional penalty by Artie Burns who we’ll get to in a moment, and the Bengals now have the ball at the Steelers 44). Of course, they quickly scored and the game was tied at half 14-14.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the second half kickoff was returned 51 yards allowing the Bengals to start the second half at the Steelers 49. The defense stood strong on that one though and the Bengals were forced to punt 5 plays later. Just a bad set of series for the special teams, and one that we really haven’t seen in a while.
James Washington
It’s not really fair to say Washington was “bad”, but he was really a non-factor, and has been over the past few games. Despite the fact that he has seen playing time, he hasn’t had a catch in the last two games, and has only been able to tally 5 catches for 49 yards all season. More concerning is that rather than increasing, his contributions have been decreasing. Hopefully things turn around for the young receiver.
Ugly
Artie Burns
I almost don’t know what to say. Burns has been on a downward spiral all season long. He has the talent, he’s shown it at various times. Joe Kuzma might have put it best on the post-game podcast when he said Burns was on a Cortez Allen-like trajectory.
That’s not a good thing.
I don’t know if Burns is having confidence issues, or if he’s just not getting something. In this game there were several plays where it was just ugly. The Tyler Boyd touchdown were Burns absolutely blew the coverage and then the pass interference penalty in the second half which eventually lead to a Bengals score and their first lead of the game.
The thing about that pass interference penalty is that it was so unnecessary. Burns had good positioning, he had the guy covered, and the ball was going to be over thrown, or so it seemed. There was no reason for it.
At this point, Burns needs to get his head straight and that may need to be done on the bench. The next few games are too important to allow him to play his way through it.
Conclusion
The bye week comes at a good time. The Steelers are not really banged up, but they have enough of the “bumps and bruises associated with playing football” as Mike Tomlin says, to be able to take advantage of some down time.
They have started the second quarter of the season strong, with solid performances on both sides of the ball and beating two teams who have quality offenses. They get an extra week to prepare for Baker Mayfield and the Browns, and the rematch with the Ravens. If they can win their next two games there is a good chance that the world will have righted itself and the Steelers will be once more atop the AFC North. Time will tell.
Oh yeah, and just because I forgot to mention it: The Refs Stink.
