Following each game in the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season, I will highlight the event, or string of events, in the game that was the turning point. Not all turning points will be earth-shattering but are meant to give a unique look at how we arrived at the outcome of the game, one that may be hard to see during the live watch.
If you are anything like me, you spent much of the first half of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals locked in on OT Orlando “Zeus” Brown Jr. It was maddening as the refs let him get an early jump on almost every pass set against Nick Herbig.
Brown is 6-8, 350 pounds with very long 35-inch arms. He is going to shut down a lot of pass rushers if he can get in position and land his punch. His Achilles’ heel is a speed rusher beating him off the line and getting too far past him before he can land a punch. Herbig is perfectly suited for that with a ridiculously fast first step and plenty of speed around the edge. Unfortunately, the referees were giving Brown an unfair edge in that equation for a good chunk of the game.
Sometimes it was subtle.
Sometimes it was obvious.
I counted at least nine snaps where this occurred. Football is a game of inches and split seconds. There were a couple plays where Herbig was a half-step away from a sack or a forced fumble. A couple of those even ended up being touchdowns for the Bengals.
Officials called Brown for a false start during the Bengals’ first drive of the game, but that didn’t stop him from rolling backwards out of his stance after timing Joe Burrow’s cadence a split-second early the rest of the way.
They called him on it again toward the end of the third quarter. Two false start penalties in one game will make a player think twice about rolling out of their stance, especially in key down-and-distance scenarios.
Queue Nick Herbig’s timely win. Brown didn’t try the rolling false start on this snap and Herbig bolted past him for a clean win. He punched the ball out and Payton Wilson returned the fumble for a touchdown.
The Steelers were only up by 10 points at the time. The Bengals ended up scoring two more touchdowns after this while the Steelers only managed one field goal. This was a huge turning point and a big reason why the Steelers were able to hold on for a victory.
