The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their eleventh game of the 2023 regular season on Sunday afternoon, and this week it will be a road contest against the Cincinnati Bengals. This week the Steelers will enter their game as slight road favorites and mainly due to Cincinnati’s quarterback situation. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do Sunday afternoon at Paycor Stadium to come away with their seventh win of the 2023 season.
Keep The Right Attitude – Over the course of the last three weeks, the Steelers offense has averaged 6.2 yards per carry on runs to the right of center. Only three other teams have averaged more than they have during that span. That uptick in right side run success coincided with rookie tackle Broderick Jones taking over as the starter on that side so that’s obviously an encouraging sign when it comes to him. On the other side of the ledger, the Bengals defense has allowed an average of 5.4 yards per carry on runs right of center in their last three games.
To wrap a bow around all of this, the Steelers should continue to run to their right on Sunday against the Bengals in Cincinnati and obviously with good reason. While the Bengals figure to get left defensive end Sam Hubbard back on Sunday after he missed the team’s last two games with an ankle injury, he still might not yet be 100 percent. Additionally, it isn’t likely that Hubbard will play 100 percent of the defensive snaps on Sunday. In short, it will be disappointing if the Steelers cant continue their right side run success against the Bengals. They need to help engineer a victory.
Cut To The Chase – The Bengals won’t have one of their starting wide receivers on Sunday as Tee Higgins will miss the Week 12 contest with a hamstring injury. With the Steelers catching a break there, all attention on defense needs to be on the Bengals other playmaking wide receiver, Ja’Marr Chase, who leads the team in receptions (71), receiving yardage (833), and receiving touchdowns (six). Chase, not surprisingly, also leads the Bengals in explosive play receptions with eight in total. Two of those have gone for touchdowns as well.
While Chase is sure to have a few receptions on Sunday against the Steelers, the Pittsburgh defense just can’t let him stack explosive plays down the field. Steelers rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. will likely be asked to follow Chase on Sunday and if that’s the case, he’ll need some help over the top quite a bit throughout the game. The Bengals offense has struggled this season when it comes to creating explosive plays on a regular basis and Chase can’t be allowed to help get that unit back on track Sunday in Cincinnati.
Say A Muthful – The Steelers have been without TE Pat Freiermuth for a good portion of the season due to a hamstring injury and that has resulted in the tight end position being neglected in the passing game. In fact, the Steelers tight ends have combined to catch just 30 passes on the season for 228 yards and two touchdowns. Freiermuth enters Sunday with just nine catches on the season for 60 yards and two touchdowns and those totals need to start being added to more. Last week in his return to action, he registered just one catch for 7 yards on just one target.
The Steelers offense has struggled quite a bit this season on third downs in their passing game. That’s one area where Freiermuth should probably start being utilized more, especially in situations when five or fewer yards are needed. Additionally, Freiermuth has two of the Steelers three red zone touchdown receptions on the season. Using him in key situations on Sunday versus the Bengals could pay huge dividends. He needs to start seeing the football more in the passing game now that he’s back on the field again and especially now that the offense has a new coordinator in Eddie Faulkner and a new play caller in Mike Sullivan.
Department Of The Interior Must Eat – Bengals QB Jake Browning will make his first NFL start on Sunday against the Steelers and you can bet Cincinnati will do everything possible to not allow the Steelers dynamic duo edge duo of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith to ruin it. Even so, the interior of the Steelers defensive front should have a lot of opportunities to impact Browning’s first start and especially when it comes to pass rushing. It goes without saying that those three should be able to limit the Cincinnati ground game as well.
On the surface, the Steelers interior defensive line group of Cameron Heyward, Larry Ogunjobi, and Keeanu Benton matchup well against the Bengals’ interior trio of Ted Karras, Alex Cappa, and Cordell Volson. Heyward, in fact, feasted on Volson twice last season in the two meetings between the two teams. Moving Browning off his spot with an interior rush on Sunday could pay huge dividends in the form of sacks, failed extended play attempts and the like. There’s no reason not to expect us to be talking quite a bit about Heyward, Ogunjobi and Benton after Sunday’s game.
No Big Trey Day – Last week against the Cleveland Browns, DE Myles Garrett went off against the Steelers offense as he had two sacks, two tackles for loss and three quarterback hits as part of his five total pressures in the contest. Let’s just say that it wasn’t a banner Sunday in Week 11 for Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr. This week, Moore has another tall task in the form of Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who enters Week 12 with a team-high 9.5 sacks to go along with 14 quarterback hits, 10 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and two passes defensed. He’s easily the Bengals best defensive player right now and just like Watt is for the Steelers, he can wreck games.
The Steelers offense must make sure that Moore gets as much help as possible on Sunday when such a thing can be facilitated. However, the Steelers won’t be able to provide chipping help for Moore on every play. Staying out of obvious passing situations that requires the football to be held a little longer by QB Kenny Pickett is an absolute must on Sunday. This Sunday matchup obviously favorites Hendrickson. That said, running the football well and staying ahead of the chains on Sunday is one of a few ways the Steelers offense can keep him from having an impactful game like Garrett did last Sunday.
