Even without QB Joe Burrow, the Cincinnati Bengals are still a dangerous team. The Pittsburgh Steelers have to be smart with the football, like every week, to take advantage of a game that likely won’t be a shootout anymore. In particular, the Steelers have to be careful of the Bengals ILB’s Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt, who were praised highly by head coach Mike Tomlin today on The Mike Tomlin Show on the Steelers YouTube channel.
“I can’t say enough about that linebacker tandem, 55 [Wilson] and 57 [Pratt],” said Tomlin. “Homegrown guys, that have got a lot of experience and on the job training and the video illustrates that. They are significant playmakers for them. They’ve done a really nice job of developing those guys, and those guys themselves have done a nice job of developing their splash playmakers. Both guys got multiple interceptions, multiple force fumbles. Those guys drive the turnover train and that’s one of the reasons why regardless of circumstance, they’re gonna be really competitive.”
The tandem of Wilson and Pratt is great and the duo not only makes it hard to throw in the middle of the field, but also they stop the run. In total, both Wilson and Pratt have combined to force eight turnovers with each linebacker having a pair of interceptions and pair of forced fumbles. In total, the Bengals have forced 18 turnovers, showing how important Wilson and Pratt are to that defense.
They will provide a big challenge for a Steelers offense that trying to both get the passing game going and continue having a strong rushing attack. Pratt already has 71 tackles on the year ,while Wilson has 79 as the two are always near the ballcarrier.
In the passing game, the two also post a pretty good passer rating against for inside linebackers. For Pratt, he allows a passer rating of 81.2 when targeted while Wilson allows a passer rating of 74.3 when targeted this season. While these are not incredible numbers they are still impressive for linebackers.
This will make throwing the football in the middle of the field harder as Pratt and Wilson cover well and intercept passes. It will be interesting to see if with a new offensive coordinator and play caller, in Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan, if Steelers QB Kenny Pickett will attack the middle of the field more. Both Pratt and Wilson will make successfully challenging the middle harder, but if Pickett can take those chances and hit them it could do wonders for his confidence.
Even without Burrow, the Bengals are a dangerous team. Led by their linebackers on defense, it will be another big task for the Steelers to get their offense going, but if they can neutralize Pratt and Wilson and not let them make splash plays the Steelers should have good chance of having a better offensive performance than last week.
