Former Bengals OT Andrew Whitworth played against some of the best Steelers defenses this millennium. He didn’t see that defense last night against his former team. Analyzing the game on the Amazon Prime broadcast in the aftermath, he provided a firm slap of reality.
“You look at these last three games that they’ve won and who they’ve really played and the situations of the games. You’re sitting there going, ‘Man, there’s some questions of how good they really are'”, Whitworth said on the broadcast. “Is this the Steelers defense I played years ago in this division? It’s not. The physicality really, that is not this team. They’re much different”.
Whitworth explained that the Steelers are a less physical defense than they were in the past. He talked about Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith in that context, noting teams running away from T.J. Watt. Although he didn’t mention it, one can also point to the reduction in two-gapping from the defensive line.
“You don’t ever see that happen to a Pittsburgh Steelers defense where a team comes in and just runs the football all over them because of the physicality they play the game with”, Whitworth said. “There’s more questions to me than answers really of who they are going forward after this. They even pitched themselves as, that’s exactly why they’re here, to stop this football team, and this football team, with the third quarterback they’ve played with this season, scored all over them tonight”.
Indeed, heading into last night’s game, the Steelers made very clear, as we already knew, that they rebuilt the secondary this offseason specifically with the Bengals in mind. When you have a top divisional opponent with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, that’s what you do. If you can’t beat the Bengals, you’re not going to be hosting a playoff game, most likely.
The problem is, of course, not the plan the Steelers put in place against the Bengals. It’s the fact that they didn’t execute it as planned, and after last night, one has to question why. While there are legitimate gripes about schemes used, one can also raise questions about the talent level. Is this secondary as good as they want to believe it is?
Highsmith said after the game that the Steelers had a plan to counter Joe Flacco’s quick passing. Clearly, whatever that plan was, they didn’t execute it nearly well enough. Flacco is still introducing himself to the Bengals and learning people’s names, yet he made his home in the end zone. And this was against the highest-paid defense in the NFL, particularly in the secondary.
The Steelers seemed to be on the right trajectory, especially on defense, before last night’s loss. They played about seven strong quarters out of their last eight against the Vikings and Browns, but then the Bengals scored on seven of their 10 drives. Just when we saw visions of the Steelers defense of old, they simply looked old. Ironic, given how young they made the 40-year-old Joe Flacco look.
