In a matchup against the best offense in the NFL over the last two months, the Pittsburgh Steelers need to get things figured out in a hurry defensively entering Saturday night’s Week 18 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Steelers’ defense certainly did that, holding the Bengals to just 19 points on a night in which Cincinnati had nearly 40 minutes time of possession. Though the Steelers lost the game, 19-17, to enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak, the defense wasn’t to fault.
Against the Bengals, the defense stood tall and played rather well, and they were led by star pass rusher T.J. Watt, who had a huge game for the Steelers despite having just one tackle on the night. Watt was the Steelers’ highest-graded player from Pro Football Focus in the loss (minimum 25 snaps), grading out at an 88.8 overall.
Watt generated six pressures, and had a strip-sack of Burrow wiped out due to a holding call in the secondary. He played the run rather well, too. On the night, Watt had an 89.3 pass rush grade, consistently winning his matchup against Bengals’ right tackle Cody Ford, who started in place of the injured Amarius Mims.
The Steelers’ star finishes the season with a PFF grade of 92.2 overall, including a 90.1 pass rush grade. Watt generated 53 pressures on the season and finished with 11.5 sacks.
Along with Watt, veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts had the second-highest grade for the Steelers in the loss to the Bengals. Roberts played 28 snaps and graded out at an 82.2 overall. Roberts had one pressure and one run stop. He should have drawn a holding call on his one pressure, but officials didn’t throw a flag on the obvious penalty.
Roberts closed his second season with the Steelers in strong fashion, recording his third-highest single-game grade of the season. Roberts played 478 snaps defensively in the regular season, grading out at a 77.2 from PFF. That includes a 90.4 run defense grade. He had 24 run stops and generated 12 pressures on the season sharing time with rookie linebacker Payton Wilson.
Outside linebacker Alex Highsmith also cracked the top five grades for the Steelers in the loss to the Bengals, checking in with a 77.1 from PFF on the night. Highsmith generated a team-high seven pressures for the Steelers. He also had six run stops on the night, turning in another complete performance for the Black and Gold.
Despite missing a handful of games this season due to various injuries, Highsmith was consistent when on the field. He finished the season with a PFF grade of 89.5 overall, playing 525 snaps for the Steelers. In those 525 snaps, Highsmith generated 48 pressures and finished with 26 run stops.
Defensive end Cameron Heyward, playing through the flu, landed in the top five highest-graded Steelers on the night with a grade of 74.6 from PFF. Heyward had one pressure and batted three passes at the line of scrimmage. He wasn’t credited with half a sack with Nick Herbig for their takedown on Joe Burrow in the game, but it was an impressive pass rush from Heyward, who dumped Bengals’ LG Cordell Volson on his butt to get the pressure on Burrow.
Heyward had a monster season for the Steelers, finishing with a PFF grade of 90.3 overall, good for the highest-graded DL in football. Heyward added 56 pressures and 44 run stops, per PFF, and should be a lock for first-team All-Pro this season.
Offensively, tight end Pat Freiermuth was the Steelers’ highest-graded player with a 74.4 from PFF on the night. Freiermuth finished with eight receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Bengals, numbers which are rather solid. But he had a critical drop on the final fourth-down play of the game for the Steelers, a play in which if he catches the football and picks up some yardage, could have set up a final Chris Boswell field goal attempt to try and win the game.
Freiermuth finished the season with a grade of 68.4 from PFF, recording 65 receptions on 74 targets on the season for 653 yards while finding the end zone seven times. He had just four drops on the season, but three of the four came from Week 13 on, while two of his three fumbles occurred from Week 15 on as well.
