The Pittsburgh Steelers’ matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night did not go quite as expected.
The Steelers entered the matchup on a three-game win streak and had dominated the Cleveland Browns in their most recent showing.
The Bengals had gone 0-4 since Joe Burrow’s injury, hadn’t looked particularly competitive for much of that four-week stretch, and were going into their second game with Joe Flacco as their starting quarterback.
The trade for Flacco seemed like a desperation move for the Bengals as he had struggled during his four weeks as the starter for the Browns.
It turned out he was exactly what they needed to get their offense going against the Steelers.
He lit the Steelers up to the tune of 342 yards and three touchdowns.
The run game saw similar success. After a disappointing first five weeks on the ground, Chase Brown and Same Perine ran for 139 yards on 18 carries.
The awful showing from Pittsburgh’s defense played a big part in the Steelers’ 33-31 loss to their division rival.
After the loss, Steelers legend James Harrison didn’t hold back on the defense.
During the latest episode of his “Deebo and Joe” podcast, the four-time All-Pro linebacker made it clear that he is not impressed with how the defense is playing right now and warned them that they could be in serious trouble in the coming weeks if they don’t step up.
“With the 26th, 28th ranked defense, we’re not gonna go nowhere. These offenses we’re gonna face in the next four, five weeks, they ain’t turning the rock over like that. They’re doing things more effective than anybody that we’ve played yet to date. If we come out there playing like we’ve been playing the last six, seven weeks, we’re gonna get the band struck up on us. We’re gonna get embarrassed. They’re gonna dog walk us. Drop your nuts. Put your foot in the ground. Stand for something. We can’t even bust a grape in a fruit fight right now. Right now, we trash. Flacco went out there and pulled a belt out on our ***. Put belt to ***.”
The Steelers’ defense hasn’t looked particularly convincing all season and is likely fortunate their schedule hasn’t presented them with more challenges.
They opened against a Jets team that has struggled to move the ball all year and allowed 32 points.
They gave up 395 total yards to the Seahawks a week later and surrender 31 points (although seven of those were Kaleb Johnson’s fault).
In Week 3 they surrendered 369 yards to the Patriots, but were saved by the Pats catching a case of fumblitis. They lost four fumbles in that game.
Since then, they’ve surrendered 21 points and 372 total yards to a Carson Wentz-led Vikings offense, taken on the Browns with Dillon Gabriel in his second start, and then been torched by the Bengals.
It’s not a start to the year that inspires a whole lot of confidence in the NFL’s most expensive-defense and the road only gets tougher from here with the Colts, Packers, Bills, Lions, and Ravens (x2) still on the schedule.
Something needs to change if this Steelers team is going to be a contender because they aren’t getting the return out of their defense they’ll need to compete with the AFC’s top teams and they’ve only faced a couple of good offenses this year.
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