Coming as it did after that Thursday night in Cleveland, this one was going be revealing. The Bengals team they would be facing was in a desperate situation as a result of its 1-4 start to the season, and this game against the Steelers in their stadium figured to be their Alamo. In addition to desperation, the Bengals have sufficiently dynamic offensive talent to outscore any team on their schedule, and it wasn't as though the Steelers arrived in the Queen City with The Greatest Show on Turf as a potential answer.
By the time their charter flight was wheels-up on its way back to Pittsburgh, the Steelers had revealed a lot about themselves. Far from perfect, to the point of being frustrating at times, but there also were a lot of good things, things that are significant as the NFL flips the page on the calendar to December. Things they are going to need as the road gets narrow, as their coach undoubtedly has told them a hundred times.
The Steelers raised their record to 9-3 with a 44-38 TKO of the Bengals that included the most efficient offensive showing in years, with a defense that got "A" football from its "A" players in enough critical situations, and with a plan based in the reality of what they had vs. what they needed to get done. All of that is promising. Hopeful even.
At the center of it all was Russell Wilson, and having your starting quarterback playing to that level is the most important ingredient to winning playoff games in today's NFL. Efficient offense results in the ability to score in the 30s, and the ability to score in the 30s creates a larger margin for error for the other phases of the team.
Against the Bengals, the Steelers had 10 real offensive possessions; they scored on 7 of them and an 8th ended with the block of a makable field goal. They utilized a smart mixture of ball control with chunk plays. Three times in the first half, the Steelers offense answered Bengals touchdowns with touchdowns of their own on the very next possession – 70 yards in 7 plays ending with a 17-yard pass to George Pickens made it 7-7 after a pick-6 by Cam Taylor-Britt; 70 yards in 10 plays ending with a 23-yard pass to Calvin Austin III made it 14-14; and 68 yards in 5 plays ending with a 10-yard run by Najee Harris made it 21-21.
In those three drives, Wilson completed 13-of-14 for 161 yards and two of the touchdowns. Also, he was in command of the offense, seemingly with the freedom to get to plays that would work against the Bengals particular defensive alignment in that down-and-distance situation.
When Logan Wilson, Cincinnati's every-down, all-situations inside linebacker was made inactive after being listed as questionable on the Friday before the game, the Steelers attacked the softer middle with dump-off passes to Najee Harris and Cordarrelle Patterson for easy yardage along the way to finishing the first half with 18 first downs and 310 total yards on 36 offensive plays but only 4 third-down situations.
"It's good to go on the road and get an AFC North victory," said Coach Mike Tomlin. It wasn't easy, particularly when you spot them 7. It was a good sense of urgency for a lot of reasons. To come in here, in this place, with just the type of quality that team has, and in this environment, and to smile in the face of all of it and get out of here with a necessary win — just can't say enough about the effort of the guys in that locker room.
"Splash playmaking over 60 minutes we knew would be required. We even talked about the fourth quarter (comeback) component, because this team we played today always comes storming back in the fourth (quarter). They did it at the L.A. Chargers, just on the front side of their bye. We don't take the end of the game for granted. We're thankful for the victory. We've got some things to clean up, but that's life in this business. It's good to do it with a win."
A significant portion of the required splash playmaking came from the defense. Joe Burrow throwing to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins is a problem for any opponent, and against the Steelers he completed 73.7 percent for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns, with the two receivers combining for 11 catches for 155 yards (14.1 average) and 2 touchdowns. Throw in a 40-yard run and another touchdown by RB Chase Brown, and the Bengals offense was throwing haymakers from the opening bell and landing a fair amount.
But winning defense in today's NFL depends on a series of splash plays to create opportunities for its own offense and if possible put up some points on its own.
The Steelers defense had 4 sacks, one of which was a strip-sack by Nick Herbig followed by a scoop-and-score by Payton Wilson. There was Cam Heyward tipping a pass into an interception by Donte Jackson, Preston Smith recovering a fumble; T.J. Watt adding 2 sacks and another forced fumble that Wilson recovered. Cincinnati may have had Taylor-Britt's pick-6 to thank for their opening 7-0 lead, but after that the Steelers forced 4 turnovers and committed none.
Coming as it did in their next outing following that stinker in Cleveland, this win stopped the bleeding in the standings and plugged any holes in their confidence. Their mandate is to win playoff games, and history tells us the higher percentage path to attaining that is via a first-round home game against a lower seed rather than a game against a higher seed on the road. The way you get a home game is by winning your division, and the way you win your division is by winning the games against those division opponents.
The Steelers started the weekend 1-1 within their division and today they're 2-1 and staring at a rematch with the Browns at Acrisure Stadium. After that, things get tougher over the final month of the regular season.
This was not the time for these Steelers to regress or even stagnate, and they didn't. In fact they followed the exact recipe for winning games in December and January. That would be an offense that mixes ball control and chunk plays to score 30-plus points thanks to dynamic quarterback play, plus a defense that creates a half-dozen splash plays that impact the scoreboard, and a placekicker making 92 percent of his field goal attempts.
That's what they got in Cincinnati. Which is exactly what they're going to need as the road continues to narrow.
