The Pittsburgh Steelers defense made 40-year-old Joe Flacco look like prime Joe Montana on Thursday night, getting ripped apart by the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback in a 33-31 loss. It was the Steelers defense, not Flacco, who looked old in prime time.
Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh offense put up 31 points, including a late lead, but the defense offered was as sturdy as single-ply toilet paper.
"I look at it as our offense gave us a ton of points, and as a defense, that is more than enough," defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said after the game, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. "As a defense, we got to own it. As a D-line, that run game is a big blemish on our group right now. Your offense gives you 30 points, you should feel good that you can win a game, but as a defense, we got to pride ourselves on stopping the run, and we did not do that. That's unacceptable."
The Steelers allowed a season-high 470 total yards and 33 points to the Bengals. It's the most yards allowed by a Pittsburgh defense since Week 5, 2022, against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills (552). The 31 points are the most allowed in a loss since Week 11, 2021, versus the Los Angeles Chargers.
There wasn't a single aspect of the Steelers defense that played well. An older secondary got eaten alive by Ja'Marr Chase (16/161/1) and Tee Higgins (6/96/1). The front couldn't stuff the run. And the pass rush didn't get home until it was too late -- T.J. Watt, for instance, didn't have a QB pressure until late in the third quarter and notched just two for the game.
"We've prided ourselves on getting that splash, and I don't think we had one last week, don't have one this week," Watt said. "If you're not stopping the run and getting off the field and not creating turnovers, you're in a whole world of hurt."
The run defense was particularly abysmal. Chase Brown entered the NFL ranking in the bottom three in the NFL in yards per carry (2.7), rush yards per game (33.7), first downs per game (2.2) and 10-plus yard rushes (2) among 36 RBs with at least 50 carries. On Thursday night, he rushed for 108 yards, 9.8 yards per carry, four first downs and three totes of over 10 yards, including a long of 37.
"We just weren't doing what we've been doing," Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen said. "We weren't being physical, we weren't maintaining our gap. Everybody just got a job, and they just got to stick to that job. Starting with me, I got to be better. I had two chances to make a play, didn't make the plays, and it turned into a big run, so I just got to get better. It's that simple."
According to Next Gen Stats, the Steelers didn't have a single run stuff on the night. The inability to stop Brown from picking up chunk gains allowed Flacco to stay in unpredictable down-and-distance situations. The short second and third downs opened the ability to slant the Steelers defense to death. Pittsburgh also tackled poorly, missing 14 on the night.
The headline might be that Flacco at 40 -- on the team for 10 days -- diced up the Steelers defense, but in the meeting rooms, they'll be more peeved about the lack of run-stopping ability.
"It's not the secondary; that's a cop-out," Heyward said. "I think the front line, we got to control the line of scrimmage a lot better. I'm pissed off. We didn't take care of our job ... they were last in rushing, and the way we gave it up today that takes the cake. We got to stop the f---ing run. That's as simple as that."
The Steelers allowed 30-plus points in three games this season (Jets, Seahawks, Bengals). They'd only allowed 30-plus points in two games in 2024 (Week 13 at Cincinnati and Week 16 at Baltimore).
