Not making enough plays: The Steelers lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 33-31, on Thursday Night Football. While the Steelers remain in first place in the AFC North at 4-2, a win would have allowed them to widen their lead in a division that brings it every week.
"A tough, hard-fought game, but certainly have got to give credit to those guys, the Bengals," said Coach Mike Tomlin. "They did what was required to win. They made a few more plays than we did."
The Bengals offense, led by quarterback Joe Flacco who was acquired via a trade with the Browns last week, put up 342 yards in the air and 142 on the ground.
"From an analysis perspective, I just thought in the first half, we allowed them to run the ball too much," said Tomlin, as the Bengals had 97 yards rushing in the half. "I think they had about a hundred yards rushing at the half, and then we turned the ball over a couple times, and so that just kind of set a negative trajectory and we were fighting uphill the rest of the way.
"I certainly appreciate the fight, but we've got to be cleaner, we've got to be better, and we weren't.
"That's life in this business. We've certainly got to learn from it and keep pushing. But I would be remiss if I didn't compliment them. They fought their tails off. They won the game, and they're certainly deserving."
The receiver combination of Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins accounted for 257 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
"We play these guys a bunch," said Tomlin. "We double teamed them some, we double teamed No. 5 (Tee Higgins) some, had some mixes when required. They've got depth and talent. Just like the one play No. 80 (Andrei Iosivas) made down the middle, we were doubling them both (Chase and Higgins), and so they were one-on-one in that circumstance.
"There's many ways you can analyze it, but the bottom line is they made more plays than we did."
On the ground, Chase Brown had 11 carries for 108 yards, a 9.8-yard average, for a team that came into the game struggling to get the running game rolling this season.
"They popped a couple. They did," said Tomlin. "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."
Tight ends stepped up: In a game where the offense puts up 31 points, it should be enough to win.
On this night, though, it wasn't.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers completed 23 of 34 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns in the loss to the Bengals. During the game, Rodgers passed former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to move into fifth place on the all-time NFL passing yards list with 64,222 yards.
Running back Jaylen Warren carried the ball 16 times for 127 yards for a ground game that has benefited from the extra blocking provided by offensive lineman Spencer Anderson, who reports eligible, and tight end Darnell Washington.
"I think we've done a good job, when Spence is on the field, or really just Darnell," said Rodgers. "Darnell is such an important part of our offense, and as you've seen, thus has started to take some steps offensively the last three weeks.
"There's no surprise his snap counts go up. So, I'm really proud of Darnell."
And Washington isn't the only tight end Rodgers feels that way about. It was his tight ends that caught all four touchdowns. Pat Freiermuth, who led all receivers with 111 yards, had two touchdown receptions, while Jonnu Smith and Darnell Washington both added one each.
"I'm really proud of the other tight ends as well," said Rodgers. "We had four touchdown catches by tight ends. Pat had two of them and Jonnu had a nice scramble drill.
"I was telling Darnell during the week on the play that he caught for a touchdown, I said, 'I know you are 6'8", but try and get lost on this play.' And he did exactly what I was hoping he would do on that one.
"So, I'm really proud of those guys, especially Pat. Pat's a great player and he hasn't had a lot of looks. His play time has gone down, but his attitude hasn't. And I think there's a lot to be said for the professionalism that he showed, especially over the last couple of weeks."
While Rodgers was disappointed with the loss, there is one thing he won't do. He won't let his attitude change either.
"We want to win every game," said Rodgers. "There needs to be an expectation of winning. But this is a short week, division opponent, anything can happen. Obviously, Joe (Flacco) played really well for them and (Ja'Marr) Chase and Tee (Higgins) got going for them.
"This is the NFL. We had a chance to really open up some space, but we're 4-2, still first in the division. Got a couple home games coming up back-to-back. Another Sunday night opportunity against my former team (Green Bay).
"I'm not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike (Tomlin) isn't, and hopefully guys follow suit."
Not as planned: The Bengals came into Thursday night's game against the Steelers ranked No. 32 in the NFL in run offense.
That number is likely to change after the numbers they put up, rushing for 142 yards, including breaking some big runs, against a tough Steelers defense.
"Just not playing gap-stop football," said linebacker T.J. Watt of what led to their success on the ground. "Obviously, we'll have to look at the tape. It felt like the run scheme we had this game was going to be
effective. I think it's going to come down to, when we look at the film, just guys getting out gap."
The Steelers were coming off two strong defensive performances, against the Vikings in Week 4 and the Browns in Week 6.
No being able to stop the Bengals on the ground, or in the air where quarterback Joe Flacco threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns, was a disappointment.
"It's frustrating," said defensive tackle Cameron Heyward. "I don't look at it game-by-game. I look at it as our offense gave us a ton of points, and as a defense that is more than enough.
"As a defense, we've got to own it. As a D-line, that run game is a big wrench on our group right now."
It wasn't just the defensive line feeling frustrated. It was up and down the defense.
"We just weren't doing our job," said linebacker Patrick Queen. "It's that simple. We just weren't doing our job."
"Right now we've just got to do our job at a high level. Be physical, and when you're supposed to help, we've got to have that. Whatever drop we've got, we've got to drop where we're supposed to. We've
got to get the ball, we've got to make plays, we've got to get the ball back to our offense.
"We get the ball to A-Rod (Aaron Rodgers), he goes down there and scores. We've got to do a better job of getting the ball back to him."
For the second straight game the defense wasn't able to get the ball back to the offense, not creating any turnovers.
"We pride ourselves on getting that splash," said Watt. "I don't think we have last week, and we have not this week. If you're not stopping the run and getting off the field, and then not creating turnovers, you're in a whole world of hurt."
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