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Airing of Grievances: 'Anemic' offense; late-arriving defense result in Steelers' 4th straight loss | TribLIVE.com
Steelers/NFL

Airing of Grievances: 'Anemic' offense; late-arriving defense result in Steelers' 4th straight loss

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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Chaz Palla | TribLive
The Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson pressures Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson in the second quarter Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 at Acrisure Stadium.

The Steelers’ recent losses to the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs were one thing. Those defeats could be explained by simply saying the club played a trio of the best teams in the NFL — three division winners with a combined 40-9 record.

Saturday night’s defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals was something different.

It was a home loss to a division foe, something that hadn’t happened in their six previous tries. It was a loss to an 8-8 Cincinnati team they had beaten 44-38 on the road earlier in the season. It was an anemic offensive performance against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

It was a primetime, bounceback, stand-alone game on national television. The kind of game the Steelers usually win after they’ve dropped a few in a row.

But they totally duffed it. Cincinnati came in and won 19-17 in front of a frustrated 65,631 fans at Acrisure Stadium.

So, forget putting themselves in a position to claim the top wild card and putting themselves in a position to play a beatable Houston Texans team. That’s up to the Los Angeles Chargers to determine now.

If Los Angeles beats the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, that would mean a return trip to Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs for the Steelers. That’s a much more difficult task.

Forget going into the postseason with any semblance of momentum. That’s not happening now. They’re backing in with a four-game losing streak.

All that gives us plenty of fodder for our first “Airing of Grievances” of 2025.

Forgettable first quarter: The Cincinnati offense dominated the first quarter. The Bengals’ offense held the ball for 11 minutes, 34 seconds. Quarterback Joe Burrow was 12 of 12 for 94 yards and a touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase. He easily beat Cory Trice for his 17th touchdown catch of the year.

The only time the ball hit the ground when the Bengals were on offense was when Burrow was sacked by Patrick Queen, but running back Khalil Herbert recovered the fumble.

“It was a lot of quick passes. We couldn’t really get our pressure home a lot early on,” defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said. “But we got our hands up. I thought coverage was a lot better as the game went on.”

Meanwhile, the Steelers’ first offensive possession resulted in a three-and-out that featured a sack of Russell Wilson when he held the ball for almost five seconds and no one popped open.

Trey Hendrickson got Wilson to the ground. It was his NFL-leading 15th of the season. He added 2 1/2 more after that. Steelers tackle Dan Moore Jr. blanked Hendrickson in the first game. That was far from the case in this game.

Terrible timing: After that hideous start, Heyward was right. The Steelers’ defense actually found its sea legs for a bit against the dangerous Bengals offense.

After a Steelers TD drive closed the gap to 10-7, the Steelers got the ball back on downs thanks to a Heyward batted ball on a fourth-and-1 at their own 37.

After the offense had to punt, the defense forced a punt as well. Cincy’s Ryan Rehkow launched a 57-yarder. Pittsburgh’s Calvin Austin got stripped after a 7-yard return, and the Bengals’ Akeem Davis-Gaither pounced on the fumble at the Steelers’ 33-yard-line.

Fortunately for Austin, Beanie Bishop bailed him out with an interception at the 12-yard line.

What did we just watch?: The end of the first half featured a bizarre confluence of officiating confusion and coaching malfeasance. Please allow me an attempt at recapping it.

• Not long after Bishop’s interception, Pat Freiermuth appeared to pick up a first down at the Steelers’ 27-yard line on a second-down throw with 49 seconds left. But the replay booth buzzed down to say that he was out of bounds just short of the first down marker.

• After some officiating confusion over what to do with the clock and potential timeout usage, Wilson ran a quarterback sneak on third-and-1. He got the first down.

Until he didn’t. Replay buzzed down again to say he was short. That brought up a fourth-and-1, and somehow, in the official scorebook, no time ran off the clock on the sneak.

• Shortly after more back-and-forth from the officials over which team was going to call timeout, if they should go to a TV break and if there should be a 10-second runoff, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, for some reason, decided to go for it from his own 37 with 49 seconds left.

Related:

• Entering postseason on 4-game losing streak, Steelers have 'choice to respond the right way'
• ‘I’m not blinking on George’ — Russell Wilson stands by Steelers’ Pickens after he has 0 yards in loss
• Joe Burrow leads long drives as Bengals beat Steelers in season finale

Jaylen Warren got the yard he needed, though. Until he didn’t.

The booth corrected a call on a third straight snap and said Warren was short of the line to gain, so the Steelers gave the ball back to Cincy in field goal range.

The Bengals ended up kicking one from 27 yards out to go into halftime up 13-7.

“We had timeouts. They had timeouts,” Tomlin said. “We didn’t want to give the ball back to them. I like to be aggressive in those moments. If you can’t get a yard, you don’t deserve to win. Obviously, we didn’t win.”

I still believe that was a completely unnecessary and reactionary decision from Tomlin, clearly born out of frustration and emotion. It was not a risk worth taking at that point in the game. It gave the Bengals three points the Steelers had prevented just a few minutes earlier.

Where did the ‘O’ go?: The Steelers’ offense was positively impotent against a Bengals defense that has been one of the worst units in the NFL all year. It entered the evening 27th in the NFL at 358 yards allowed per game.

When Arthur Smith’s offense took the field for its first possession of the fourth quarter, the team was trailing 19-7. It had just 91 yards after 49 minutes.

In the first meeting between the teams, the Steelers posted 44 points and 520 yards of offense.

The offense was particularly odious on first downs. These numbers, tabulated by Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, were posted through three quarters.

“We’ve got to be effective on first down to give ourselves a chance on third down,” Wilson said. “Whatever that is, we’ve got to be able to do that. That’s a key part to the game, being great on first and second down. And then, when we get our third downs, converting them.”

Unfortunately, Wilson and company weren’t any better on third or fourth downs, ending up 4 for 14 on those opportunities. They only held the ball for 22 minutes and posted only 193 yards of total offense. Wilson was just 17 of 31 for 148 yards, taking four sacks along the way. That’s 4.8 yards per attempt and a 78.4 passer rating. The running game averaged just 3.2 yards per carry.

Again, these numbers are against the 2024-25 Cincinnati Bengals, not the 1985 Chicago Bears.

George Pickens made matters worse with three drops. His final stat line was one catch on six targets for no yards.

Eh, that was probably the media’s fault. At least, that’s what some fans on Instagram and X would have you believe.

Well, not these fans behind the Steelers bench.

Freiermuth had a crucial drop, too. That happened on the Steelers’ last fourth-down attempt.

Final failure: The Steelers managed to pull within 19-17 via a 54-yard field goal from Chris Boswell. The defense then forced a three-and-out thanks largely to a big sack from Keeanu Benton.

The offense got the ball back with one timeout and 1:51 remaining at their own 24, needing a field goal to win.

The drive started with a pass to Najee Harris, who lost 2 yards, and another to Freiermuth, who only gained 3 yards. That ineptitude cost the squad 38 seconds.

Fortunately, Wilson hit Friermuth for a 17-yard gain that advanced the chains. But the Steelers only had 46 seconds left at their 42.

From there, Wilson had to scramble to pick up 3 yards on first down. That got the clock down to 24 seconds. Tomlin had to burn the final timeout when Wilson was sacked on second down with 20 seconds left.

Wilson then misfired on a deep bomb to Pickens, who couldn’t adjust to a ball thrown well over his head on third down. Freiermuth ended the attempt at a rally on the next snap by dropping a potential fourth-down pass.

That ended the game and hopes of the Steelers going into the playoffs with any momentum to speak of.

Happy New Year!

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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