First Call: Injuries, offensive issues for Steelers and Bengals; Ben Roethlisberger's pectoral problem shifts gambling line
Wednesday’s “First Call” has an injury update on an important Cincinnati Bengal before the team visits Pittsburgh to play the Steelers this Sunday.
We also take a deep dive into the Bengals offense, take a look at some shifting betting information and get a better understanding of Shane Baz’s Major League debut.
Join the club
The Steelers aren’t the only team in the AFC North with offensive concerns.
Their opponent this week, the Cincinnati Bengals, is coming off a rough offensive performance in a 20-17 loss in Chicago last weekend. Along the way, they committed four turnovers and totaled just 248 yards in total offense.
When it comes to total yards over the first two weeks, the Bengals (307 yards per game) are 24th in the NFL. That’s just four spots in front of the 28th-ranked Steelers (291 yards per game).
BengalsWire.com dredged up the Pro Football Focus grade for the Bengals performance against the Bears, where only one offensive player graded better than a 66.6. That was former Pitt Panther wide receiver Tyler Boyd at 80.8.
The offensive line was particularly bad. The overall grades for the starters were as follows:
Jonah Williams (LT): 45.2
Quinton Spain (LG): 48.5
Trey Hopkins (C): 64.8
Xavier Su’a-Filo (RG): 41.7
Riley Reiff (RT): 58.4
That’s good news for a Steelers front seven that won’t have Stephon Tuitt or Tyson Alualu and may be without T.J. Watt, Devin Bush, Alex Highsmith and Carlos Davis.
Coaches respond
Speaking of the Bengals offense, their coaches are responding to postgame complaints from some young star skill position players. Both quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase groused about a lack of deep shots taken against the defense last Sunday.
On Monday, the coaching staff had its say.
“I understand the frustration,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said via The Athletic. “The structure of that defense … They stay on top of things and do a pretty good job of that.
“Sometimes it’s not as simple as ‘throw the ball deep more.’ That’s a very blanket statement. There are a lot of things that go into that. At the end of the day, we didn’t make anywhere near enough explosive plays to win a game.”
Head coach Zac Taylor appeared a little less willing to entertain the discussion, saying only, “We had some shots called. Sometimes the coverage takes that away.”
Higgins hurt
One of the Bengals’ potential threats at wide receiver is Tee Higgins. He suffered a shoulder injury during the loss to Chicago and is considered day-to-day.
#Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins missed time in Sunday's game with a shoulder injury, but returned in the 4th quarter. Zac Taylor says Higgins is a little sore today. Taylor: We'll take him day-to-day and get a better feel of how he's feeling on Tuesday.
— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) September 20, 2021
He has 10 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns over the first two games.
Place your bets
News about the pectoral injury to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger seems to have spooked some gamblers.
The Steelers had been 4.5-point favorites over the Bengals at the start of the week at BetRivers.com. That number dropped to 3.5 in the hours after Mike Tomlin’s press conference when the head coach announced Big Ben’s injury and failed to provide much of an upgrade for any of the previously injured Steelers.
By 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, the line inched back up to minus-4.
How did it look?
In Tuesday’s “First Call,” we told you that Shane Baz won his Major League debut for the Tampa Bay Rays.
The ex-Pirates first-round pick allowed two earned runs on two hits over five innings, striking out five while walking none as the Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 Monday.
The analytics of Baz’s start go one step deeper. Via Adam Berry of MLB.com, Baz threw 51 of his 65 pitches for strikes. That’s the highest strike percentage (78.5) by any starter in his MLB debut since pitches were first tracked beginning in 1988.
Baz will next start in Houston on Sept. 28. Hopefully, the Astros don’t have any trash cans left over.
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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