'We gotta stop the (expletive) run': Steelers' defense reels after shredding by Bengals

CINCINNATI — Of all the uniformed and non-uniformed members of Pittsburgh Steelers organization, few are as gregarious and mild-mannered as Teryl Austin and Cameron Heyward.

Rarely do you see the team’s defensive coordinator and defensive co-captain, respectively, veer into — how shall we say this? — a lack of family-friendly content.

It was eyebrow-raising, then, when Austin used a potty mouth in response to being asked about the Steelers defense’s communication issues 48 hours after the team’s first loss of the season.

The Steelers played some of their best defensive football over the ensuing three games — each, a win.

But when the defense had its worst statistical effort of the season this past Thursday, it was Heyward whose annoyance came out in his language choice.

“We’ve gotta stop the (expletive) run,” Heyward said from the visitors’ locker room at Paycor Stadium after a 33-31 loss to the Bengals. “It’s as simple as that.”

Easier said than done? Maybe. But the Steelers sure were making it look simple over the aforementioned three-game winning streak in which they were allowing just 84.7 yards per game.

But against the Bengals — a team that came into Thursday with by far the fewest rushing yards per game in the NFL — the Steelers allowed a season-worst 6.5 yards per carry. And the 142 rushing yards Cincinnati amassed were more than the previous two Steelers opponents had totaled combined.

“As a defense, we pride ourselves on stopping the run,” Heyward said. “And we did not do that. It’s unacceptable.”

Heyward pointed to “chunk” plays as the primary culprit. Indeed, the Bengals’ Chase Brown had 37- and 27-yard runs just a few minutes apart during Thursday’s second quarter that in aggregate accounted for more yards than his team had averaged over full games this season before Thursday.

Those two runs are the longest against the Steelers this season. Brown added a 12-yard gain in the fourth quarter, marking for a regression by the Steelers’ run defense in limiting “explosive” runs. Over the first two games of the season, the Steelers allowed nine 10-plus yard rushing gains from running backs. But during their three consecutive wins, opposing running backs totaled just three such plays.

Against the Steelers, Brown had three of his four longest carries of the season. He averaged a putrid 2.7 yards per carry over his first six games but Thursday registered a robust 9.8 yards on rushes.

“(The Bengals) popped a couple (big runs),” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “They did. We didn’t do a good enough job of gap control. They popped a couple big ones, and it kind of created an unsteady environment.”

In regards to complementary football, there’s little doubt the Bengals’ relative ease in the running game helped to some degree contribute to the massive game produced by their star wide receivers. Ja’Marr Chase had 16 catches for 161 yards and Tee Higgins six for 96. Each had a touchdown.

That meltdown in pass coverage was the initial headliner on an overall rotten day defensively for the Steelers. Cincinnati had 470 yards of offense, the most the Steelers had allowed in a game in more than three years.

But if the pass defense (deservedly) drew the most negative attention, don’t forget the unit’s failure in stopping the run either.

“You look at this game,” Heyward said afterward, “you get up 10-0 and then give up two big runs, and it kind of opened up their offense.

“It comes down to execution. And when we don’t do that, we are a bad defense. When we do do that, when we are responsible and in our right gaps and accountable, everything opens up as a defense. But we put our DBs in harm by surrendering a lot in the run.”

The Steelers’ run defense will be tested over the next three weeks during games against teams that entered Sunday each in first place: The Green Bay Packers were No. 1 the NFL in rushing attempts per game, the Indianapolis Colts had the league’s leading rusher (Jonathan Taylor) and the Los Angeles Chargers have the NFL’s highest-rated rushing attack in Pro Football Focus’ subjective grades.

Heyward knows his unit can’t enter that three-game gauntlet playing the same way it did in Cincinnati.

“We’ve got to control the line of scrimmage a lot better,” Heyward said. “I’m (ticked) off we didn’t take care of our job. (The Bengals) were last in rushing, and the way we gave it up today, that takes the cake.”