Although the first two games were bad, there seemed to be a sense of growth around the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense over the last few weeks. In their last three wins the unit was much better, particularly against the run.
Unfortunately, that progress came to a screeching halt when they were walked up and down the field by the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense. Patrick Queen thinks his unit got complacent with their progress, and that they didn’t expect the Bengals to run the ball as often as they did.
“I don’t think we were physical enough,” Queen said Monday via Steelers.com. “I don’t think we was expecting them to run. ‘Cause the whole ranking and all this and that, like hey they’ll run the ball this amount of times, whatever. So I think we got pretty complacent with thinking they wasn’t gonna run a lot… Definitely can’t have that, definitely gotta get better at that.”
For a team leading for most of the game, the Bengals didn’t really run the ball a ton. Chase Brown got 11 carries, which he was extremely successful with. He picked up a whopping 108 yards with them, good for 9.8 yards per carry. Samaje Perine had seven carries, and even Joe Flacco had five.
Flacco threw the ball 47 times, so the Bengals weren’t afraid to let it fly despite having a lead. But with how efficient they were through the air, it makes sense. However, the run game was extremely successful when the Bengals did use it. Despite being one of the worst rushing teams in NFL history through six games, the Bengals easily ran the ball on Thursday.
This play is a microcosm of how the entire effort against the run was. There was no intensity from the front seven. Each defender near the line of scrimmage is politely moved out of the running back’s way, and it’s as easy of a handful of yards as a back could ask for.
The problems weren’t just against the run, though. The Steelers are getting plenty of criticism for their lack of adjustments during the game. Queen thinks they had some opportunities to stop Flacco, but just couldn’t get there in time.
“It’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes into that,” Queen said. “I think sometimes he [Flacco] was staring down the route. You just couldn’t get there. Like he just knew… We could be better.”
They’re gonna have to be better. Flacco didn’t have any issues starting receivers down because the Steelers didn’t bother covering anybody. The Steelers’ defense didn’t have any answers in any area of the game on Thursday.
It was a weird game, and one the Steelers don’t typically win. Thursday night games, especially on the road, are usually like that. However, it’s still quite a disappointing performance for the defense to sit on. After a few weeks of solid progress, it was all undone by a 40-year old quarterback and a rushing attack having it’s first good game of the season. The Steelers have to rebound quickly before they face the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.
