The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense was finally figuring out how to stop the run over the last couple weeks, and the unit had an opportunity to continue that momentum against the league’s worst rushing offense. Inexplicably, the Bengals exploded for 142 rushing yards, including a 108-yard performance by Chase Brown.
Cam Heyward knows it’s completely unacceptable what happened in front of a national audience on Thursday Night football in the Steelers’ 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It’s not the secondary, that’s a cop out. I think [the] front line, we got to control the line of scrimmage a lot better. I’m pissed off,” Heyward said via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor on X. “We didn’t take care of our job…They were last in rushing and the way we gave it up today, that takes the cake.
“We got to stop the fucking run. That’s as simple as that.”
Here’s a clip of Heyward’s media availability from 93.7 The Fan on X.
A major factor in the defense’s struggles over the first three weeks of the season was the inability to stop the run. The Steelers allowed 139.3 rushing yards per game over the first three weeks and could have easily gone 0-3 during that stretch if not for a career-long field goal by Chris Boswell in one game and a barrage of turnovers in the other. They seemed to have solved those issues by allowing just 67.5 per game over the last two. However, they reversed the trend against the league’s worst rushing offense.
The Bengals were struggling to get over 50 rushing yards through their first six games, averaging 56.7 yards per game on the ground. They almost tripled that against the most expensive defense in the NFL.
Mike Tomlin admitted that the Bengals’ rushing attack created an “unsteady environment” for the rest of the defense. How are you supposed to stop Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins when you have to dedicate an extra defender to the tackle box to stuff the run?
Even Joe Flacco rushed for a 12-yard gain to bail out 2nd and 10. I mean, come on…
Thoughts and prayers to our very own Josh Carney, who will be charting all the missed tackles from this game. He might not be finished until this time next week.
Heyward and the defensive line should be pissed off. They were just embarrassed in primetime.
