The Steelers dropped a 37-30 decision against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday evening at Acrisure Stadium. Here are five questions for them and the rest of the NFL to ponder as we look toward Week 12, when the Steelers will travel to face the Colts in Indianapolis.
How can Matt Canada’s offense continue to screw up the basics so badly? The Steelers’ 30 points Sunday were their most in any game this season. And yet, the offense was still plagued by some humiliating mistakes that can only be rooted in poor coaching. The most glaring example against the Bengals was an illegal procedure penalty in the fourth quarter. With the Steelers already in a 1st-and-20 hole after a holding penalty while trailing 27-23, Kenny Pickett held on to the ball on a run-pass option (RPO) call that the rest of the offense executed like a straight run. Pickett was able to find George Pickens down the field for a nice gain. But because the linemen were blocking the play like a run instead of a pass, they were flagged for an illegal man downfield and pushed back 5 more yards still. That’s what happens when they’re far downfield blocking a run while the quarterback still has the ball. No one was on the same page. It was a mess, the worst in a series of similar penalties that we’ve seen nearly weekly this season — penalties that can’t happen to an offense of professionals in Week 11 of a coordinator’s second season if they’re getting anything resembling adequate direction. This is Day 1 stuff they’re screwing up. Not Day 1 in the NFL, either. Day 1 in college. The RPO isn’t so foreign for many of these players that this should be happening so often. The fact that it is points to some horrible organizational issues that lay directly at Canada’s feet. Whatever his vision is, it’s fair to question whether he’s able to coach it into existence because the results on the field, at this point, suggest the answer is a resounding no.
How many teams does this secondary match up well against? Six Bengals caught a pass of at least 20 yards or longer. Six — even some guy with flowing blonde hair named Trenton Irwin. The pattern we’re beginning to see develop here is pretty simple. The Steelers’ defensive backs look pretty good in coverage against teams that have average to below average receiving corps. Teams that have true difference makers, though? The Steelers just get toasted by them — whether it’s Stefon Diggs in Buffalo, A.J. Brown in Philadelphia, or Tee Higgins of Cincinnati, who went off for nine catches and 148 yards. All of them are just better than the guys covering them, and these are the results the Steelers get. Yes, the pass rush needs to be better. The entire defense is built on a healthy T.J. Watt and company pressuring quarterbacks enough that the defensive backfield can’t get exposed on throw after throw. But decent secondaries are capable of coping when that pressure doesn’t happen. This secondary isn’t right now, and it’s an issue, even if it looks better in the coming weeks against some of the NFL’s weaker pass units.
Is Baltimore going to run away with the AFC North? It’s not so much that the Ravens looked dominant Sunday against Carolina. They gained just 308 yards offensively as the running game struggled to get going and Lamar Jackson lacked effectiveness downfield. Rather, three Panthers turnovers proved to be their undoing in a 13-3 Baltimore victory that pushed its record to a solid 7-3. The bigger issue for the rest of the division is the Ravens’ remaining schedule. Cincinnati is the only opponent currently at .500 or better. Jacksonville, Denver, Cleveland, Atlanta and the Steelers all have losing records, giving them a reasonably easy road to a division title. Sure, the Steelers have been looking better and Cleveland will get star quarterback Deshaun Watson back from his suspension soon. So it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that Baltimore could falter. But right now, the Ravens have definitely created some separation that puts the pressure on everyone else.
Could the entire AFC East make the playoffs? Seems like a crazy question, but before the start of the 4:30 games on Sunday, all four teams found themselves in the field. That’s because New England picked up an impressive 10-3 victory over New York on Sunday, holding quarterback Zach Wilson and his growing young offense to just 103 total yards. Throw in an unremarkable beating of Cleveland by Buffalo, and you now have the entire division at 6-4 or better. Games against each other in the remaining two months of this season will make the status quo difficult to preserve. Someone has to lose those games, after all. Still, it seems like at least three of these teams have a chance to be among the conference’s seven slots in the postseason, which would have been a major surprise at the start of the season.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: November 21, 2022, 10:30 a.m.
