The Steelers’ fifth victory in a row came in a different manner than each of the previous four. The Bengals came into the game hot and took an early lead, something the Steelers had not had to deal with since their loss to the Cowboys.
The biggest factor was that the Steelers never panicked or lost sight of their game plan.
The offense was not able to establish itself on the ground or through the air early, but Ben Roethlisberger never lost his composure or committed a turnover.
The defense was getting run over by the Bengals offensive line with the absence of Stephon Tuitt, but adjustments from Javon Hargrave and L.T. Walton limited the Bengals to just 38 yards in the second half. We’ll get into those adjustments Wednesday. We’ll highlight the aggressive pass defense today:
PLAYMAKERS
There are times within the scheme that the Steelers’ defense can’t draw up the perfect blitz to confuse the offensive line, and it takes a great individual effort to get to the quarterback. That’s what Ryan Shazier did on his sack here:
Notice how he sets up his swim move by stunting outside. It forces Tyler Eiffert to honor his speed, which allows Shazier to make his move to get to the inside and have a clear shot at Andy Dalton.
Shazier is one of the X-factor players whom the Steelers need to make plays. His speed continues to mesh well with his football IQ, and he is developing techniques to be effective in different parts of the field.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Timmons makes his second game-changing interception in three weeks when he sat underneath a comeback route by Tyler Boyd:
Timmons was in an awkward position as the center was engaging him downfield on a passing play, something that is completely illegal and should have drawn a flag for illegal man downfield. But Timmons recognized the position he was in, disengaged and was in the exact right place for the interception.
Probably the most noteworthy portion of the game was how the Steelers’ defense not only turned around their own miscues in the second half, but also completely shut down an offense that was hot coming into this week and during that first half.
BEN ATTACKS MIDDLE
The Bengals’ strength in pass defense is their cornerbacks who can take away the field outside the numbers. That really seems to apply when they play the Steelers, but that’s something that Todd Haley was probably counting on in this game:
The Bengals don’t have much talent beyond their starting cornerbacks, Dre Kirkpatrick and Adam Jones, which left plenty of opportunities for Eli Rogers to get busy. This was the second time he went up against Josh Shaw deep over the middle and was able to use a double move to get free to the inside for Roethlisberger to find him.
Our preview was how the middle of the field needed to be part of the game plan, and that certainly was the case in the fourth quarter.
The Bengals are going to put their best players on the Steelers’ biggest threats to get down the field, and those are often the receivers positioned outside the numbers. This opens up opportunities for players like Rogers and Ladarius Green, who snagged this huge third-down catch:
Green just needed to put a move on to find the weak spot in the Bengals zone, which he did, and then just make sure he catches the ball wherever Roethlisberger throws it. Fortunately the ball was placed perfectly between the numbers, and Green completed the play.
Though the Steelers’ offense has been on quite a journey to figure out how to work without the talents of Martavis Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Darrius Heyward-Bey and an extremely limited Sammie Coates, other players are developing their own rapports with Roethlisberger.
But the best thing about what Roethlisberger did in this game was that he didn’t allow his frustrations to take over and force the pass that could have put his team behind even worse than they were. Instead, he stuck to the game plan and kept picking through his reads in the defense despite only scoring field goals for most of the game.
This kind of effort could get them through more games in this run to the playoffs.
