Tim Benz: More than just offense in this week's Steelers 'Airing of Grievances'

For our weekly Pittsburgh Steelers “Airing of Grievances” after a 24-10 home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, I could just say “the offense.”

And leave it at that.

I’d be justified. Just 45 yards rushing. Odd play selection. Multiple drops. Four sacks allowed. Two interceptions. Penalties all over the field.

But it wouldn’t be appropriate to leave numerous other Steelers shortcomings unrecognized.

“Let’s not sugarcoat it. We played poorly today. We didn’t deserve to win,” coach Mike Tomlin said after the loss.

Indeed. The Steelers were tragically bad in numerous areas.

“We just aren’t playing well enough or coaching well enough. You can frame it however the hell you want to frame it … We just played poorly and got beat,” Tomlin said.

Agreed. So, I’ll frame it this way. The offense was dreadful in general, but there was bad football beyond that aspect of play.

That frames an extremely ugly picture of a Steelers 1-2 season that quickly is heading in the wrong direction.

Low ‘Wattage’

The Bengals allowed 10 sacks over the first two games. The Steelers should’ve had at least one or two.

They had none, snapping a 75 regular-season game streak of recording at least one sack. The longest in NFL history.

I get it. No T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Stephon Tuitt or Tyson Alualu. The Steelers defensive front is depleted.

Against that offensive line, though? That’s anemic.

Heyward blamed the lack of pass pressure on a failure to stop the run, allowing the Bengals to avoid pure passing situations.

“We didn’t stop the run,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “They were in situations where they could just throw quick. If you just keep them on pace and don’t put the quarterback at harm, that’s going to happen.”

Bengals running back Joe Mixon gained 90 yards on 18 carries.

Fourth-quarter failures

The Steelers ended the game with a comedy show of three consecutive drops. Two by Najee Harris. One by Chase Claypool.

That’s on top of a bizarre fourth-and-10 play call with 3 minutes, 9 seconds left from the Cincinnati 11-yard line. Trailing 24-10, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger swung a short pass out to running back Harris. Bengals safety Jessie Bates III blew it up for a 1-yard loss.

But even if Bates hadn’t made that tackle, it’s unlikely Harris would’ve been able to run for the yards needed or gotten to the goal line to score.

“We had fired all our bullets at that juncture in terms of our play selection,” Tomlin said. “There just wasn’t a good enough play to get in there. … They were going to allow you to throw the ball and catch it in front of them, but you have to do some things after that. They had a bunch of guys running along the goal line.”

What?! Fired all of your bullets? As in you don’t have a good enough play, or at least one better than that?

How about any play that involves the ball being thrown to, or beyond, the goal line? It was only 11 yards away. How about something like that? Got any of those plays?

The drive after the Terrell Edmunds interception

The Steelers defense generated a rare turnover when Minkah Fitzpatrick deflected a pass, and Terrell Edmund picked it off.

Going the other way ????

????: CBS pic.twitter.com/lqRv8issHr

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) September 26, 2021

The Steelers assumed possession at their own 44. The offense followed with a 2-yard run, a short incompletion, a false start and an interception of its own with Roethlisberger under pressure.

HOWDY PARTNER ???? @Sam_Hubbard_ & @ljw21 causing trouble

WATCH on CBS pic.twitter.com/Sjcyl36zZJ

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 26, 2021

That’s the Steelers offense in a nutshell.

The defensive drive after the Pat Freiermuth touchdown

After the Steelers offense somehow was able to grind out a 15-play, 86-yard touchdown drive, the defense took the field with 1:04 left on the first-half clock.

It allowed a 75-yard scoring drive on three plays, including a 34-yard touchdown pass from Joe Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase.

It was a drive Heyward described as “mind-boggling.”

Admittedly, there was a hideous roughing the passer call assessed against Melvin Ingram on the second snap of the drive.

But the defense needed to respond better than that after the offense finally managed to squeeze a little blood from a stone by getting points on the board.

“It was less than two minutes,” Heyward said. “Going into (halftime), we didn’t take the field and get off the field. When you have that, that’s a recipe for disaster. The defense did not play well. Hopefully, that’s the worst one of the year.”

I’d like to think that. Although, I’m tending to believe it’s about to get even worse.

Penalties

The flags were an issue for both teams. They were hit with 10 accepted penalties apiece.

“You get a holding penalty, it’s a drive killer,” Tomlin said. “The penalty aspect of play did not give us a chance to establish any rhythm particularly at the early portions of the game. Every possession we had in the first quarter or so was penalty-laden.”

I’d argue the game was heavily over-officiated. But both teams were sloppy, too.

There were four pre-snap or alignment penalties against the Steelers offense. Which makes me wonder how this Steelers offense is so difficult to figure out for Matt Canada’s own players, yet so easy for everyone else’s defense to defend against.

Tackling on the Bengals’ first touchdown

Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd bounced off a hit from Ingram and kept running for a touchdown in the first half.

He would not be stopped! Solid homecoming for @boutdat_23!

WATCH on CBS pic.twitter.com/HPI3cPc08h

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 26, 2021

As you can see, Devin Bush also over-pursued the former Pitt pass-catcher after the reception and screened out Fitzpatrick from a potential assist.

But Ingram’s missed tackle was the true facepalm moment. He outweighs Boyd by 44 pounds (247 versus 203).

Empty seats

There were only 58,076 fans in attendance on a beautiful day at Heinz Field.

Whether it was rotten traffic patterns around Pittsburgh, a false sense of security about beating the Bengals, frustration with getting through the gates last week or fading faith in the team, that’s roughly 10,000 off capacity in the second home game of the season.

At this rate, that building is going to look extremely empty in December. Maybe the Steelers should try “Sweet Caroline” instead of “Renegade” in the second half.

I hear that works great.