Steelers defense fails to hold up in loss to Bengals

On a day when the Pittsburgh Steelers had their most productive game on offense, the defense didn’t reciprocate.

Such inconsistency has come to define this season and is a reason the Steelers are off to their worst 10-game start in 19 years.

Failing to duplicate its dominating performance from a week earlier, the Steelers defense was hurt by three long touchdown drives and twice as many big pass plays that resulted in a 37-30 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.

The defeat dropped the Steelers’ record to 3-7 — matching their loss total from last season — and represents their worst start since 2003.

A week after the defense held the New Orleans Saints to 10 points and 186 yards, it allowed the second-most points of the season while the Bengals piled up 408 yards, the fourth time the Steelers have allowed an opponent to surpass 400.

“It’s unacceptable,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said.

Perhaps more confounding was that the Steelers forced the only two turnovers of the game and held the Bengals to 62 yards rushing. All the while having all 11 defensive starters healthy and on the field for the first time since the season opener.

Joe Burrow threw four touchdown passes, including three to running back Samaje Perine, to help the Bengals improve to 6-4 and remain in the thick of the AFC North race. Burrow had 355 yards passing, with wide receiver Tee Higgins catching nine balls for 148 yards.

“That should never happen, when someone puts close to 40 points on the board and passes for almost 400 yards,” said free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who returned from an appendectomy eight days earlier. “We have to get our chemistry, our continuity back. … We have the talent, so there is no excuse.”

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Higgins was one of six Bengals players with a reception longer than 20 yards, and Cincinnati totaled seven in the game. A week earlier against New Orleans, the Steelers didn’t give up a gain longer than 18 yards.

“It’s like singing the same song,” strong safety Terrell Edmunds said. “We’ve been speaking about what it takes for us to win, and when we do limit those plays, you see we come out with the win. Now, we have to keep working, keep staying together and find a way.”

The Steelers haven’t found it this year as their lack of back-to-back wins illustrates.

“No one is happy,” said quarterback Kenny Pickett, who passed for 265 yards and a touchdown. “Obviously, no one wants to be in this situation, but we’re going to stick together and get back on track.”

The Steelers’ 30 points represented the first time the offense scored more than 20 this season. And they actually scored some lengthy touchdowns — Najee Harris had a 19-yard run and George Pickens a 24-yard reception — after entering the game with a season-long score of 8 yards.

Harris rushed for 90 yards on 20 carries and also scored on a 1-yard run with 45 seconds left to establish the final score.

The offense, though, totaled 24 yards in the third quarter after taking a 20-17 halftime lead, and the Steelers had just two first downs in the second half until the drive that produced Harris’ late score.

A pivotal moment came with 11:37 left. Trailing by four points, the Steelers took over at the Bengals 47. Harris broke off a 13-yard run, but back-to-back penalties resulted in a first-and-25. The Steelers ended up punting, with Pressley Harvin pinning the Bengals at their 7.

“When you’re in a battle and have got a short field, you have to produce points,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “I thought that was significant.”

So was what happened next.

The Steelers may have thought they had the upper hand with the Bengals backed up near the goal line. It turned out that the Bengals had the Steelers right where they wanted them. Burrow had completions of 27 and 32 yards on the first two plays to ignite an eight-play, 93-yard touchdown drive. It followed touchdown drives spanning 79 and 92 yards earlier in the game.

“It’s mesmerizing,” Highsmith said. “Can’t let that happen. We didn’t get off the field when we needed to, and they kept scoring touchdowns.”

Burrow finished off the drive with a 6-yard toss to Perine, the Bengals’ third-down back who had to assume a larger role after Joe Mixon exited with a concussion. The touchdown increased the Bengals’ lead to 34-23 with 4 minutes, 30 seconds remaining.

That Perine also took swing passes for 29 and 11 into the end zone was more than defensive captain Cameron Heyward could stomach.

“We have to be a defense that adjusts,” he said. “If they do one thing, they can’t keep going back to the well.”

The Bengals did, and unlike the previous week, the Steelers were powerless to do anything about it.

As Fitzpatrick said about the Bengals’ offensive performance, “It was too easy.”