The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their twelfth game of the 2024 regular season on Sunday afternoon on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals. They’ll enter that contest as slight road underdogs as well. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do to come away with their ninth win of the season on Sunday in Cincinnati.
Be A Middle-ing Running Team – The Bengals defense will be without DT Sheldon Rankins on Sunday against the Steelers as he will miss the Week 13 contest due to an illness. While the Bengals will have DT B.J. Hill on Sunday, a few rookies will be asked to step up in play of Rankins. Those two rookies will likely be Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson, both of whom haven’t been all that great against the run so far this season. Additionally, Bengals’ veteran LB Logan Wilson, while he is expected to play on Sunday, has been dealing with a knee injury this past week that prevented him from practicing any.
The Steelers offense should look to run the football up the middle against the Bengals and especially between the guards. The unit’s onus should be on Issac Seumalo and rookies Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick to be the difference makers on Sunday and provide plenty of running lanes for Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. The Bengals’ defense has allowed an average of 5.07 yards per carry on 54 runs scored as going up the middle against them so far this season. That’s more than enough reason to try to run up the gut against the Bengals defense on Sunday and even with Wilson expected to play at linebacker.
If the Steelers offense can run the football on Sunday and control the time of possession, they will have a great shot at winning in Cincinnati.
Don’t Get Chased Out Of Cincinnati – The Bengals have a great duo at wide receiver in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. However, Chase does currently lead the NFL in receiving yards (1,056) and receiving touchdowns (12) on his 73 total catches. Chase is so good after the catch as well and he leads the NFL entering Week 13 with 481 of his receiving yards coming after reception. He is a chore to cover and especially in extended play situations.
While the Steelers defense won’t be able to completely shut down Chase on Sunday in Cincinnati, they will need to limit the damage he does on the catches he does make during the contest. He leads the NFL in receptions that have gained 40 yards or longer with six and simply can’t be allowed to register any of those on Sunday. For his career against the Steelers, Chase has registered 21 receptions for 314 yards and three touchdowns in four total games.
Tackling Chase quickly after the catch will help keep his yardage down and not allowing him to catch footballs inside the red zone should also be a primary focus for the Steelers’ defense. Keeping him under 75 receiving yards and without a touchdown should further help the Steelers leave Cincinnati with a win on Sunday.
Extra Wattage Versus Rookie – Steelers OLB T.J. Watt certainly didn’t have a great game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 12. In fact, Browns T Jack Conklin held Watt to just one pressure across 24 matchups in Week 12 (4.2% pressure rate). That was just the second game of the season where Watt was held to just one pressure (Week 7 against the New York Jets). Watt has now recorded just an 8.9% pressure rate on the season, which is his lowest in a season since at least 2018, and that certainly can’t happen on Sunday against the Bengals.
The Bengals will have rookie T Amarius Mims starting on the right side and that means he’ll see a lot of Watt on Sunday. Mims has allowed 25 total pressures so far this season and three total sacks in just 367 total pass block snaps. While Mims will obviously receive chipping help from tight ends and running backs on Sunday to help with Watt, there will be several other plays where he won’t receive any aid.
Watt has had some strong games in the past against the Bengals and he needs another one on Sunday as part of him and the rest of the defense harassing QB Joe Burrow most of the afternoon. Watt needs to have the sort of game on Sunday that Browns DE Myles Garrett had against the Steelers in Week 12. If that happens, such a performance is likely to include a strop sack, which could help put extra points on the board for the Steelers.
Bring Better Quality Chips To Cincinnati – One of the five keys I listed last week was help for Steelers T Dan Moore Jr. against Garrett. Well, the Steelers didn’t execute that key well at all as the help that provided for Moore against Garrett just wasn’t acceptable. Steelers OC Arthur Smith even confirmed that to be the case this past week during his weekly press conference with the local media.
“There was a couple plays where we obviously didn’t execute the plan,” Smith said on Thursday. “We didn’t leave him [Moore] by himself. I think there was two quick gains where we did. Everything else, we had help. All three of those plays, you got chip help over there… Was it clean? No. It’s not on Dan Moore. There was two of them where we’ve got to help him. We’ve got to be where we’re supposed to be.”
On Sunday in Cincinnati, the Steelers will face another top edge rusher in Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson, who currently leads the NFL in sacks with 11.5. Hendrickson also enters Sunday with a league-high 24 quarterback hits. In short, the Steelers need to do a better job this week with their help for Moore than they did a week ago Thursday. If they don’t, Trey might have “tre” sacks like Garrett had in the last game.
Don’t Forget Your Tights – The Bengals defense is sure to give Steelers WR George Pickens quite a bit of attention on Sunday in an effort to limit his big playmaking efforts. While Pickens is sure to still get some targets down the field, Steelers QB Russell Wilson might be wise to use his tight ends in the passing game early and often.
So far this season, the Bengals have allowed opposing tight ends to catch 63 passes for 684 yards and seven touchdowns. The Steelers tight ends so far this season have combined to catch 58 passes for 584 yards and five touchdowns. TE Pat Freiermuth has 35 receptions for 354 yards and three touchdowns on the season and in only one game has he caught more than four passes. Sunday sets up for him to have his best game of the 2024 season, but only if Wilson makes an effort to include him as a target regularly.
Since entering the NFL, some of Freiermuth’s best games have come against the Bengals. In fact, he has 29 career receptions for 336 yards and two touchdowns against them to date. In the last two games that Freiermuth faced the Bengals, he totaled 17 receptions for 199 yards.
