The Pittsburgh Steelers are lucky they won 10 games early. They might be stuck on 10 wins going into the offseason.
The Steelers have fallen apart, and they had another horrendous performance, in which the offense was mostly inept. The Steelers lost 19-17 Saturday to the Cincinnati Bengals, who kept their playoff hopes alive. For the Steelers, it was the fourth straight game in which they never even held a lead. The Steelers had a shot at the end to win the game on a field goal, but their drive stalled before they hit midfield and the Bengals held on when Pat Freiermuth dropped a fourth-down pass. That sums up the past month for the Steelers.
The Bengals (9-8) needed to win, then wait until Sunday for help. They also needed the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos and New York Jets to beat the Miami Dolphins (or a tie game) to get the wild-card spot.
The Steelers (10-7) are in the playoffs. But they’re going to go face the Baltimore Ravens next week if the Los Angeles Chargers win on Sunday. The Steelers will face the Houston Texans if the Chargers lose to the Las Vegas Raiders.
It might not matter who the Steelers play. They don’t look like they can beat any playoff-level opponent lately.
Steelers have a rough 1st half
The Steelers had lost three in a row and they started slow. Bengals QB Joe Burrow had an easy drive downfield to start the game. The Steelers put cornerback Cory Trice Jr., replacing inactive Donte Jackson and making his first career start in his sixth NFL game, on Ja’Marr Chase with no help. Chase beat him easily for a 12-yard touchdown. It was Chase’s 17th touchdown of the season. Burrow completed all six of his passes on the drive. He had 12 straight completions to start the game, a streak that was snapped on a dropped pass.
After Chase’s touchdown, the Steelers had a quick three-and-out that continued a rough stretch for the offense. Pittsburgh hadn’t even led a game since a Week 14 win over the Cleveland Browns. That was on Dec. 8. For a team that started the season 10-3, and was eliminated from the AFC North championship hunt when the Baltimore Ravens clinched it by winning the first game Saturday, it was a bad December. And the start to January didn’t look much better.
Pittsburgh got something going on offense and cut the deficit to 10-7 on a Najee Harris touchdown, but the Steelers had some mistakes late in the half. They fumbled away a punt return, though a a fine catch off a deflection for an interception by Beanie Bishop Jr. bailed them out. But then the Steelers went for it on fourth-and-1 at their own 37 instead of punting and were stopped, which handed Cincinnati a shot at points before the half ended. The Steelers held Cincinnati to a field goal attempt, and the Bengals hit it for a 13-7 lead. The Steelers had just 75 yards at the half. Russell Wilson had just four completions for 45 yards at that point. Pittsburgh didn’t get over the 100-yard mark for the game until the fourth quarter.
It probably should have been a 10-7 deficit at worst by halftime, but the Steelers couldn’t get out of their own way. That’s been their story for a month.
Bengals stay alive for postseason
The Bengals’ story has been the opposite. They have won five straight to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Cincinnati had to hang on. The Bengals should have put the game away and appeared to when they took a 19-7 lead. They were in great shape when they forced a Steelers punt, leading 19-14 with a little less than six minutes to go. But then a fluky turnover gave the Steelers renewed hope. A Steelers punt hit off the foot of Bengals cornerback D.J. Ivey, who was blocking, and Pittsburgh recovered. But a big sack by Trey Hendrickson, who leads the NFL in sacks going into Sunday’s games, was a key reason the Steelers’ drive stalled, and they settled for a field goal.
The Steelers got yet another shot at the win. They got a sack right at the two-minute warning on third down to force a punt. The Steelers had struggled for weeks, hadn’t led a game since early December but had a shot to get a big win with one drive. Pittsburgh moved it downfield on a third-down catch by Freiermuth. But Wilson got stopped on a run, took a sack by Hendrickson again, failed to hit an open George Pickens, and on fourth down, Freiermuth had a pass bounce off his hands. And that was the game.
Burrow has played well all season, and he and others, like Chase and Tee Higgins, have overcome a lot of issues around them to salvage a winning record. The Bengals still need either the Chiefs, who will be sitting starters, and the 4-12 Jets to win on Sunday to make it to the playoffs. If Cincinnati doesn’t make it, there should be much less focus on the five-game winning streak that included fortunate wins against the Cowboys and Broncos and other wins against bad teams, like the Titans and Browns, and more curiosity over how a team with an MVP-level quarterback could miss the postseason.
But going into the final day of the regular season, the Bengals are still alive. They’ll be big Jets and Chiefs fans on Sunday.
