In a 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday at Paycor Stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers under head coach Mike Tomlin checked another key box on the year: winning a shootout.
Throughout the season, questions have been raised about the Steelers’ ability to blow out bad teams, win close games, low-scoring games, and win a shootout. All those boxes are checked now, which has many analysts starting to really come around on the Steelers as a legitimate contender.
That includes The Athletic’s Robert Mays.
In the Sunday reaction show to Week 13 action in the NFL, Mays credited the Steelers for putting up 44 points against the Bengals and winning a thrilling shootout, answering a key question about the offense under coordinator Arthur Smith and quarterback Russell Wilson.
“It was a very consistent and impressive performance from the Steelers’ offense,” Mays said, according to video via The Athletic on YouTube. “And again, just the type of gear they can reach with this version of things that they have not been able to reach over the last few years. And you combine that with the defense’s ability to still do what they can do…you combine that defensive prowess with what they were able to now do offensively in the right moments. And I still feel like this is just a different sort of Mike Tomlin Steelers team to the ones that we have seen over the last three, four or five years.
“And that’s why, and I think that’s just important to take into account when we’re thinking about what this team can do, come the postseason.”
The performance against the Bengals was quite consistent offensively. The Steelers had a 56% success rate on plays throughout the game and generated an impressive 7.9 yards per play while racking up 520 yards of total offense. Wilson threw for 414 yards and three scores while the Steelers rushed for 110 yards on 26 carries (the Steelers lost four yards of offense on two sacks of Wilson).
It wasn’t just deep balls from Wilson, either. He was very efficient, checking the ball down, working the middle of the field and really carved up the Bengals. While Cincinnati’s defense is arguably the worst in the league, it was comforting seeing the Steelers move the ball and create plays consistently, leading to an offensive explosion.
Defensively, there are some concerns coming out of the win over the Bengals due to the Steelers allowing 31 points on that side of the football. The secondary really struggled to keep a lid on things. However, the Steelers forced three turnovers and scored a touchdown, so it wasn’t all negative.
That’s why Mays is so high on the Steelers coming out of the win over the Bengals. The offense showed it could win a shootout on day in which the defense couldn’t carry the load, and the defense showed it can shake off some bad plays and still take the football away against a great offense.
That makes the Steelers a “more potent” team in Mays’ eyes than they have been in the Mike Tomlin era in quite a few years. We’ll see if that remains true come playoff time.
