Cheat Sheet: Steelers at Bengals

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN

• TV coverage: Broadcast nationally on CBS (KDKA-TV locally in Pittsburgh).
• Steelers Radio Network - Game coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET; Pregame programming begins at 9:00 a.m.; Postgame coverage starts immediately following the game.
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INJURY UPDATE

The Steelers travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
Check out the most updated Injury Report: Click here >>>

SERIES HISTORY

This series began in 1970 and Pittsburgh leads the it, 68-39. Two of those games occurred in the postseason, in 2006 and 2016, with the Steelers winning both of those contests. Cincinnati has won four of the last five meetings, including the most recent game in Week 11 of last year. Before that, Pittsburgh was on an 11-game winning streak. Cincinnati has won just 13 of the 48 games between these divisional rivals that have been played in the 2000s. Mike Tomlin is 24-11 vs. Cincinnati, including a playoff win in 2016. Dating back to 2014, the Steelers are 8-2 in Cincinnati, but those two losses have come in the last three games. Over the past 10 seasons, Cincinnati is 3-2 with Joe Burrow as their starting quarterback against the Steelers and 2-12 without Burrow.

MATCHUP OVERVIEW

• The Bengals are on a two-game losing streak after falling in Baltimore last Thursday. They are 3-2 at home. All five of the Bengals' losses have been against AFC opponents and they are 0-3 in the division. The Steelers dropped to 2-1 in the AFC North. Kenny Pickett has won four of his last five starts against a divisional opponent.
• Cincinnati has been outscored by 24 points this season and the Steelers have been outscored by 29.
• Pittsburgh's plus-11 turnover differential in the best in the NFL, but the Bengals are right behind at plus-10. Only the 49ers have more interceptions than Cincinnati's 12, but the Steelers are right behind with 11. The Steelers have recovered eight fumbles compared to six for Cincinnati. In terms of giveaways, both teams have a league-low eight with six interceptions thrown and two fumbles lost apiece. The Steelers have turned the ball over a league-low 6.1% of their possessions. Cincinnati is second in this category at 7.3%.
• Cincinnati is giving up 402 total yards per game but producing just 318.6. Pittsburgh is giving up 384.3 and producing 297.9.
• The Bengals are possessing the football for 30:14 per game while Pittsburgh is at 27:37. Over the past three games, both teams are over their season average however with the Bengals at 31:30 and Pittsburgh at 29:19. In the two meetings last year, one of which went into overtime, the Bengals won time of possession 75:18 to 54:42. The Steelers' opponents have now run 91 more offensive plays than Pittsburgh in 2023 and have generated 44 more first downs. Pittsburgh's opponents run 68.3 plays per game, the second highest in the league.
• The Steelers have led on the scoreboard for 21.6% of their offensive snaps, 27^th in the league.
• The Bengals' opponents have run the ball 65 more times than Cincinnati this season for 574 more yards (57.4 per game) and average 5.0 yards per attempt compared to 3.9 by the Bengals. Opponents also have 11 rushing touchdowns compared to four for Cincinnati.
• When the Steelers pass for 200-plus yards this season, they are 4-0.
• Per EPA, the Steelers' first-down defense is better than every team but the Jets. Meanwhile, the Bengals first-down defense is worse than every team but the Panthers and Chargers.
• The Bengals (9.92) and the Steelers (8.87) defenses have the highest average depth of target against them in the NFL.
• The last quarterback to defeat the Steelers in his first career start was Brett Favre in Week 4 of the 1992 season.
• The Bengals are 4-19 under Zac Taylor in games started by quarterbacks other than Burrow.
• Every team remaining on the Bengals' schedule currently has a record of .500 or better. Seattle and Baltimore, in Weeks 17 and 18, are the only two teams on the Steelers remaining schedule that current have a winning record.

WHEN PITTSBURGH HAS THE BALL

• The Steelers average 4.7 yards per play. Cincinnati allows 6.1, better than only the Broncos. The Bengals defense gave up 6.8 yards per play last week. Cincinnati is dead last in the league at 6.1 allowed over the past three games. Over the past three games, the Steelers jump to 5.1.
• Over the past three games, only Chicago is running the ball a higher percentage of the time than the Steelers. In these three games, Pittsburgh is running the ball on 52 percent of its snaps.
• Pittsburgh has employed 11 Personnel (1 RB/1 TE) for 79% of its offensive snaps. Only four teams use any personnel grouping more. League average usage of 11 Personnel is 62.3%
• Cincinnati's defense is 31^st in success rate, which measures down to down efficiency, ahead of only Denver.
• Pickett has only faced Cincinnati once in his career, Week 11 last year. In that game, Pickett attempted 42 passes, completing 25 for 265 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. That is Pickett's second-highest passing yards total of his career.
• Pickett has just one touchdown pass in his last five games. The Steelers are 3-2 in those games.
• Of all the quarterbacks this season who have attempted 200-plus passes, Pickett has the fewest attempts (50) and completions (27) to the middle of the field. He has thrown 24.5% of his passes past the line of scrimmage between the numbers this season. League average is 38.8%. Pickett has thrown 5.7% of his attempts between the hash marks. League average is 10.1%.
• Over his past eight games, Pickett has only thrown one interception. During that stretch, he has attempted 205 passes. He also has 175 consecutive passes without an interception.
• Pickett's average depth of target is 7.0 yards downfield.
• George Pickens has been targeted 20 times over the past four games. He has 10 catches for 106 yards, averaging 26.5 receiving yards per game over that stretch. Pickens averaged 89 yards in the four games Diontae Johnson was out of the lineup compared to 41 in the six games with Johnson.
• Johnson has been targeted 12 times over the last two games but had just three catches for 33 yards against the Browns and Packers. However, last week was the third time in the past four games in which Johnson garnered a target share of 30% or more.
• Calvin Austin has just five targets over his past five games and just 22 receiving yards.
• The Bengals are allowing the fourth-most yards per route run (2.33) to receivers aligned on the perimeter. They are also giving up 8.1 yards per pass attempt (31^st) and a league-high 12.9 yards per pass completion.
• Last year in two meetings, Pat Freiermuth caught 13 passes for 154 yards and was targeted 22 times. Last week he caught one pass for seven yards. For the five games played during the 2023 season, Freiermuth has been targeted 13 times and averages 10.6 receiving yards per game. He hasn't received more than a 14.3% target share all season and ran just 13 routes last week. Cincinnati is allowing the sixth-most receptions (5.8) and third-most receiving yards (63.5) to tight ends. The Steelers have just 213 receiving yards (21.3 per game) from the tight end position this season.
• The Bengals are last in the league in yards per passing attempt allowed. Quarterbacks facing Cincinnati have an average time to throw of 2.78 seconds, the second-highest in the league.
• Jaylen Warren averages 1.9 yards per route run. That is second in the NFL among all running backs with at least 100 routes run. Najee Harris comes in at .9, which is 27^th.
• Pittsburgh utilizes play action on 14% of its drop backs, which is 30^th in the league.
• Trey Hendrickson leads the Bengals with 9.5 sacks. No one else on the roster has more than four, although Sam Hubbard's four sacks have come with him missing two games thus far. Steelers quarterbacks have been deemed "pressured" on 39.3% of their drop backs this season, fifth-highest rate in the league while the Bengals defense is fourth-best in this metric at 40.2%.
• The Steelers now 7^th in the NFL in EPA per rush. Only three defenses are worse in EPA per rush than Cincinnati. The Bengals defense is last in explosive run rate allowed at 15.4%.
• Over his past three games, Warren has 35 carries for 318 yards and two touchdowns, good for 106 rushing yards per game and 9.1 yards per carry. Warren has produced 368 total yards over the past three games on just 43 touches, which is 8.6 yards per touch. Warren accounted for 58% of the Steelers' offensive yards last week. In terms of total EPA, Warren was the No. 1 running back in the NFL in Week 11. For context, Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are tied for second in explosive run rate at 11.2%. Lamar Jackson and James Cook are tied for third at 10.2%. Warren is first by a wide margin at 16.2%. Among the 50 running backs with at least 50 carries, Warren ranks first in yards per carry, avoided tackles per rush attempt and rate of runs that gain 10-plus yards as well as coming in third in success rate and rate of runs to gain a first down or touchdown.
• Harris saw the field in Cleveland for 33 of a possible 58 snaps and Warren played 26 snaps. On early downs, Harris out-snapped Warren 26 to 13. On third downs, it favored Warren 7 to 4.
• Against the Browns last week, Harris was stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage on 58.3% of his carries.
• Pickett's scramble rate on designed pass plays is on the rise and is up to 3.3%. There are still eight qualified quarterbacks scrambling at a lower rate.
• Pittsburgh has rushed for 172 yards or more in three straight games and the 172 allowed by Cleveland in Week 11 was the most the Browns have allowed all season. The Ravens rushed for 157 yards against Cincinnati last week. The Bengals defense is giving up the second-most average yards before first contact (1.99) in the NFL and only the Broncos are better than Cincinnati in yards per carry allowed (5.0).
• The combination of Logan Wilson and Dax Hill not only lead the Bengals defenders in snap counts, but they have been on the field this year for every play expect five.
• The average Steelers offensive drive has started on the 26.2-yard line. Only the Cardinals and Rams are starting drives in worse field position.
• In terms of EPA, the Steelers offense has faced-far and away-the most difficult slate of opposing defenses thus far in 2023.

WHEN CINCINNATI HAS THE BALL

• The Bengals average 4.8 yards per play, better than only six offenses. The Steelers give up 5.4 per play. But Pittsburgh is at 4.8 over the past three games.
• Only Washington throws the ball a higher percentage of the time than the Bengals, who drop back on 66% of their offensive snaps.
• Cincinnati has employed 11 Personnel (1 RB/1 TE) for 81.8% of their offensive snaps. Only two teams use any personnel grouping more. League average usage of 11 Personnel is 62.3%. Therefore, the Bengals usage of 12 Personnel (1 RB/2 TE) of 7.7% is well below league average of 19.6%. They also align in the shotgun for 88.3% of their snaps, the highest rate in the NFL.
• The Steelers are in their nickel package with five defensive backs on the field for just 37.5% of their snaps. Only one defense uses nickel less.
• Burrow played 27 snaps last Thursday in Baltimore before leaving the game and will miss the remainder of the 2023 season. He was replaced by Jake Browning who completed 8 of 14 passes for 68 yards and a touchdown. The 27-year-old Browning has just one other passing attempt in his NFL career.
• As a team, the Bengals average depth of target of 6.64 is the lowest in the league and their average time to throw (2.34 seconds) is third lowest.
• The Browns, Cowboys and Ravens are the only defenses allowing a lower completion percentage than Pittsburgh.
• Ja'Marr Chase leads the Bengals in receiving with 833 yards and averages 83.3 receiving yards per game. Tyler Boyd is second with 439, averaging 43.9 and Tee Higgins is third at 328 and averages 46.9 per game.
• In the past two games, Joey Porter Jr. covered DeAndre Hopkins and Amari Cooper on a combined 50 of 77 of their routes, including 53 of 58 on the perimeter and seven of 19 from the slot. Hopkins produced a stat line of 1 catch for 17 yards on his five targets when covered by Porter. Cooper was four for 34 on his four targets against Porter.
• Last year, in these teams' first meeting Chase caught 10 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. In the second meeting without Chase available, Higgins caught nine balls for 148 yards. Higgins averages 87 receiving yards per game in his career against Pittsburgh. Higgins has run just six career routes without Burrow on the field.
• With Tee Higgins inactive last week, Trenton Irwin played 58 of a possible 61 snaps against the Ravens.
• The Bengals don't have a tight end on the roster with more than 175 receiving yards this season. Four Bengals tight ends have played between 115 and 266 snaps.
• Of the Bengals 2,377 total receiving yards, just 555 has come from running backs and tight ends.
• Cincinnati's quarterbacks were sacked five times last week. Alex Highsmith had 3.5 sacks against the Bengals last season, including three in one game. TJ Watt has an 11-game streak against AFC North foes in which he recorded at least .5 sacks. Watt is second in the NFL in quarterback hits with 23.
• The Buccaneers and Raiders are the only two teams averaging fewer rushing yards per game than Cincinnati's 80.9.
• Joe Mixon leads the Bengals with 605 rushing yards. Burrow is Cincinnati's second-leading rusher with 88 yards on the ground. The next highest running back on that list is Trayveon Williams at 59. Over the past four games, Mixon has handled 72 of the possible 80 backfield touches. Only Josh Jacobs has a higher percentage of his team's rushing yards than Mixon this season. Mixon has found the end zone in four straight games after scoring a touchdown just once in the first six. He has 370 scrimmage yards in his last three meetings against Pittsburgh.
• The Bengals did rush for 136 yards last week, 40 of those on scrambles by Browning.
• Pittsburgh had allowed 100-plus rushing yards in six-straight games but held the Browns to 96 last week.
• Cincinnati's starting offensive linemen, Orlando Brown, Jonah Williams, Alex Cappa, Cordell Volson, and Ted Karras have missed a total of 17 of a possible 640 snaps this year. All were missed by Brown.
• The Steelers are giving up just 7.4 points on average in the second half of games. Only the 49ers and Bills are better. That number is down to 4.0 over the past three games.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Cincinnati's Evan McPherson is 6 of 10 on his field goal attempts this season with all his misses coming on attempts over 50 yards.
• Steelers kicker Chris Boswell is 18 of 19 on his field goal attempts this season with his only miss coming on an attempt over 60 yards.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Most Memorable Moment: Dec. 31, 2006: Steelers 23, Bengals 17 (OT)

Coming into this final game of the 2006 regular season, the Bengals needed to win this game to get into the postseason, while the Steelers were out of the playoff race. This was Bill Cowher's final game as the Steelers head coach and he produced a great quote, "Let me just say this. Misery loves company. And we're looking for company." Cowher got his wish as his Steelers took Cincinnati to the wire and kept the divisional rival out of the playoffs. Two great quarterbacks, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer, battled it out and got 134 rushing yards from Willie Parker on 34 carries. In overtime, Roethlisberger hit Santonio Holmes on a quick slant that Holmes took to the house to crush Cincinnati's post season dreams.

KEY MATCHUPS

Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase vs. Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. - It is unclear if Higgins will play in this game. It is also unclear how Porter will be employed. But whoever covers Chase will be greatly challenged. He is a rare athlete with outstanding body control, strength, burst and route running. However, Chase caught just two passes last week for 12 yards. With Browning in the game, Chase caught one of three passes, but that catch went for a touchdown late in a 34-20 loss.

Steelers LT Dan Moore vs. Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson - Moore had a rough outing last week and needs to rebound against another high-quality foe in Hendrickson. Hendrickson had a sack last week, bringing his total for the season to 9.5. Since joining the Bengals from New Orleans before the 2021 season, Hendrickson has 31.5 sacks in a Bengals uniform in 41 games. He had two sacks in the most recent meeting between these teams and three sacks against the Steelers in his four career games.