Cincinnati Bengals Observations From a Humiliating Night in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — And just like that, the Cincinnati Bengals’ playoff hopes are back on life support after a historically bad first half extinguished their hopes early Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium.

Jake Browning threw two interceptions in the first half and an incompletion on fourth-and-inches from the Pittsburgh 5-yard line as the Bengals went into the locker room down 24-0 on the way to a 34-11 thrashing.

Browning threw another interception in the fourth quarter, giving him three for the game after throwing just three combined in his first four starts.

Bad Mistakes on Offense, Poor Tackling on Defense Doom Bengals

The loss drops the Bengals to 8-7 and knocks them out of the current playoff picture. Cincinnati was in the No. 6 spot when the game began, and the team fell all the way to 10th. And the Bengals could drop farther, depending on what happens Sunday.

They are 3-7 in conference games and 0-5 in division games and have no chance of winning a head-to-head tiebreaker against the Steelers, Browns, or Texans, all of whom are in the mix for the three Wild Card spots.

Worst-Case Scenario

The Cincinnati Bengals gave a near-dead Pittsburgh offense a jolt of life early and fell in a 14-0 hold less than 16 minutes into the game.

The Steelers needed just two plays to get a lead when Mason Rudolph hit embattled wide receiver George Pickens on a quick slant that turned into an 86-yard touchdown. Bengals safety Dax Hill took such a poor angle on the play that he not only missed the tackle on Pickens, but he also picked off cornerback DJ Turner II, who was chasing from behind.

As expected, George Pickens up to four catches for 195 yards and two TDs as the Mason Rudolph-led #Steelers keep putting it on the #Bengals. pic.twitter.com/1CQUmq0G1e

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 23, 2023

It was the longest play the Bengals have allowed in nearly a decade since the Steelers scored a 94-yard touchdown on a pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Martavis Bryant on Dec. 7, 2014. Pittsburgh won that game 42-21.

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But if anyone thought the Pickens’ play was a fluke, Pittsburgh answered with a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to go up 14-0 on Calvin Austin’s seven-yard touchdown run on the way to a 24-0 halftime lead.

Old Issues Return

Everyone knew the Steelers were going to attack the middle of the Cincinnati defense, with DJ Reader lost for the year due to a quad injury suffered last week against Minnesota.

The surprise came with the way the Bengals reverted to their early season tackling woes. The team had been much better of late, helping spark the three-game winning streak along with Browning’s heroics.

But the missed tackles were prevalent early and often against the Steelers, and the yearlong problem with allowing explosives provided the dagger as Pickens added a 66-yard touchdown in the third quarter to go along with a 43-yard catch late in the second quarter that set up a field goal.

The 66- and 43-yarders were bombs in which Pickens ran past cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.

And when the Bengals weren’t missing tackles, they were getting taken for rides as the Pittsburgh offensive line moved the Cincinnati defense backward in rugby-like scrums over and over again.

The Steelers have topped 400 yards of total offense twice in the last 63 games. Both were against the Bengals in a five-game span.

Trey Hendrickson’s Streak Continues

Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson shared a sack with Sam Hubbard in the third quarter to extend his streak of consecutive games with at least half a sack to seven.

Hendrickson also increased his career-high and Bengals-record total to 15.5.

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In 2021, Hendrickson had an 11-game streak with at least half a sack, falling one short of Jevon Kearse’s NFL record.

Hendrickson’s current seven-game streak is the second longest active one in the league behind Baltimore’s Justin Madubuike’s 11.

Ja’Marr Chase’s Replacement

Trenton Irwin got the start ahead of rookie Andrei Iosivas with Ja’Marr Chase out, but Browning got the sixth-round pick involved early for the most productive game of his season.

It’s a good indication of how much development the Bengals coaches have seen from the sixth-round pick out of Princeton. Irwin is the receiver the Bengals turned to last year during Chase’s four-game absence — and again in the Dec. 24 win at New England when Tyler Boyd suffered a finger injury — but Irwin didn’t record a catch last week against Minnesota even as Browning spread the ball around to 11 different receivers.

Iosivas had four receptions for 36 yards on a team-high eight targets.

His most impressive grab was one that was overturned, an acrobatic snag along the sideline late in the third quarter on which Iosivas’ left hand hit out of bounds milliseconds before he got his second foot down, wiping out a 22-yard gain.

Irwin caught all four of his targets for 37 yards.

Irv Smith Sits

Bengals tight end Irv Smith Jr. was a healthy scratch for the first time this season, continuing a disappointing first season in Cincinnati.

The Bengals have been dressing four tight ends, with Smith joining Drew Sample, Tanner Hudson, and Mitch Wilcox. But the Bengals went into the game expecting the Steelers to run right at the middle of the Cincinnati defense after DJ Reader went down with a season-ending quad injury last week.

The Bengals signed preseason standout Domenique Davis off the practice squad on Friday and threw him into the mix with Zach Carter, Josh Tupou, and Jay Tufele in the spot vacated by Reader.

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