When the Pittsburgh Steelers acquired Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay this past offseason, they had teams like the Cincinnati Bengals in mind. It’s something the youngest of their cornerback trio, Joey Porter Jr. commented on earlier this week. Yet, they did anything but stop the Bengals Thursday night, whether it was Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins or any other receiver.
Chase specifically had a terrific game. He caught a whopping 16 passes for 161 yards and hauled in a touchdown as well in the Bengals’ 33-31 win. It was one of the better games of his career, and The 33rd Team’s Sam Monson thinks the Steelers had a lot to do with it.
“There’s a degree of suicidal coverage the Steelers employed in this game with Ja’Marr Chase, given this was obviously going to be the game plan,” Monson said Thursday on his TNF Instant Reaction show. “Ja’Marr Chase not being, basically double or bracket covered for the entirety of this game is kind of insane to me. The drop coverage play is ridiculous. The idea that after 16 catches, you are still allowing Ja’Marr Chase to be the beneficiary of a coverage bust. You can’t just allow them to do whatever they want.”
Monson has a point. Everyone knew the Steelers acquired their cornerback trio in hopes of playing man coverage against teams like the Bengals. However, that clearly wasn’t working. Whether it was Porter, Ramsey or Slay on him, Chase had his way with all of them. None of the three could hold their ground in man coverage.
The real problem is the lack of adjustments though. After Ja’Marr Chase torched them in the first half, you would have expected Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin to at least do something different. But they didn’t. The Steelers didn’t double team or play any consistent zone against Chase, and the Bengals continued to feast.
Even worse, a strong portion of Chase’s yards came on slant routes. And even when he had 13 or 14 catches, defenders still weren’t protecting their inside shade. Instead of trying to force him outside, the Steelers played him straight up and allowed everything up the middle to be completed.
Now, a road Thursday night divisional game is never going to be easy. But this loss continues trend for Tomlin. He’s now lost his last seven road Thursday night games against AFC North teams. Lack of adjustments like these have been a common theme. For a team that built its defense with Ja’Marr Chase and the Bengals in mind, it was an incredibly frustrating showing.
