Something is missing
Steelers struggle to find winning formula as second-half collapse drops team to 3-7 Burrow, Bengals pull away as Pittsburgh offense stalls
Well, it looked good for a while. For more than two quarters, the Steelers looked as though they had a real-life NFL offense. They ran and threw the ball with equal proficiency, scored touchdowns from outside the gimme range and produced the most points they had all season.
In the end, however, they reverted to what they have been doing best — losing a game that looked as one they might win.
That’s all the Steelers have to hang on to after a 37-30 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium, a game they likely had to win if they wanted to build any kind of momentum for the second half of the season. Instead, they dropped to 3-7, tied for the secondworst record in the AFC behind the Houston Texans.
“We’re not where we want to be, clearly, right now,” outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “But sitting here and sulking about it isn’t going to do anything. We have to be real with what we put on tape.”
At this point, they might want to focus on what they put on tape in the first half, when they threw for 141 yards, rushed for 71 yards, converted five of seven third-down chances and held a 20-17 halftime lead. In a season in which they hadn’t scored more than 20 points in their past eight games — their longest streak since at least the 1970 merger — that constituted a volcano-like explosion for the Steelers.
But they might want to ignore the part where they reverted to their dysfunctional ways in the second half. Granted, the Steelers had 139 yards of offense after halftime, but 72 came on the final touchdown drive with 45 seconds remaining that made the score look more respectable.
“There’s a lot of good stuff we put on film,” said running back Najee Harris, who rushed for 90 yards on 20 carries and scored two touchdowns. “We scored 30 points for the first time all season, at one point we were 5 of 7 (on third down). There’s good, but it’s not good enough. In the NFL. You have to be good enough to win games.”
Kenny Pickett threw for 265 yards, including the longest touchdown of the season, and did not throw an interception for the second game in a row. But in a game in which Joe Burrow threw for 355 yards and four touchdowns and engineered two 90-yard-plus scoring drives for the Bengals, the Steelers can only hope their No. 1 draft choice can evolve into the player Burrow has become in his third season.
“He’s a talented guy,” said safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who returned eight days after having an appendectomy. “There’s not much he can’t do, no throws he
can’t make. He’s good up top in the mind game, too. You can’t really confuse him too much.”
For proof, consider the 92and 93- yard touchdown drives Burrow orchestrated, the latter to give the Bengals a 34-23 lead with 4:30 remaining.
On the first, he was 7 of 7 for 80 yards, capping the drive with an 11-yard scoring pass to running back Samaje Perine. On the other, he was 4 for 4 for 80 yards, starting the drive with a 27yard pass to Tyler Boyd and ending it with another touchdown catch-and-run to Perine, this one for 6 yards.
“We shouldn’t be giving up 90-yard drives,” defensive end Cam Heyward said. “That was a back-breaker.”
The latter drive proved to be a critical turning point because it came after the Steelers started a drive at the Bengals 47 and moved to the 34 one play later on a 13-yard run by Harris. But a holding penalty against tight end Pat Freiermuth and an illegal man downfield call against center J.C. Hassenauer on back-to-back play shoved the Steelers back to the Bengals 49. After two Pickett incompletions, the Steelers had to punt and Burrow did the rest.
“I thought that was a significant sequence that defined the second half and ultimately the outcome of the game,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We got the ball at midfield, we don’t produce points. Pinned them back and they go the length of the field. That’s a significant swing.”
It looked as though it might all be so different. After failing to score a touchdown longer than 8 yards in the first nine games, the Steelers scored two from such long-distance outposts as 19 and 24 yards. The 30 points were the most they scored in a year, since they put up 37 in loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 21, 2021. And it was the second game in a row in which they failed to commit a turnover.
But when it mattered most, the Steelers couldn’t find a way to win, which is what 3-7 teams tend to do.
“No one is happy, man,” Pickett said. “Obviously, no one wants to be in this situation. We’re going to stick together and get back on track.”