There’s no sugar-coating it. From us or the team. Rookie CB Beanie Bishop Jr. had an ugly game in Week 5’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Picked on throughout, he committed costly penalties as the Steelers’ defense struggled to get key second-half stops. Despite being a rook who looked in over his head, Mike Tomlin and DC Teryl Austin expressed confidence he’d bounce back.
They were right. Bishop had a solid game in Sunday’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders—the tape and our charting show that.
Per our weekly charting, Bishop was targeted four times yesterday. He allowed just two completions for 5-yards. One of them was the Raiders’ final touchdown, a 9-yard score on a crossing pattern, but it came in garbage time with the game decided.
That blip aside, Bishop played a solid game. He wasn’t the visibly confused rookie he was against Dallas. He played hard and put his face in the fan, ruining this RPO to TE Brock Bowers after the Raiders had early success with it. Bishop ended it with a great open-field stop on a talented rookie twice his size and far above his draft pedigree.
The other two plays we credited him for were good examples of him squeezing throws in zone coverage: one at the end of the half and the other later in the game in the end zone. He did a nice job getting depth and making for a tighter window. It helped that the Raiders’ receiver slipped in the one example, but these were better than what he showed last week.
Even on the Jeremiah Moon punt block, it was Bishop who finished the play with the tackle. If he didn’t, someone else would’ve, but still, Bishop got in there and made the play.
Of the 105 qualifying cornerbacks entering Monday night, PFF ranked Bishop 41st for Week 6. His coverage and tackling grades were even better, cracking the top 30. He was dinged the most for his run defense.
It was a solid game. Beanie Bishop showed some mental toughness after struggling on national television in his first-ever primetime game. Granted, facing QB Aidan O’Connell and the Raiders’ lineup of receivers is far easier than QB Dak Prescott and what Dallas offered, but still, it’s nice to see a rookie get back to baseline level after his worst game of the season. That’s worth a shout.
