The Steelers need some production from their tight ends this week, at least more than they've gotten in recent weeks.
Jesse James had 10 receptions in the Steelers’ first two games. In the four games since, the team has gotten just nine catches from their tight ends as a group.
That won’t get things done.
Cincinnati will play its typical Cover-2 defense against the Steelers to try to limit the damage of the receivers, Antonio Brown in particular. Brown has four 100-yard games in six outings this season. He’s been playing at a ridiculous level thus far and is on pace to catch 128 passes for well over 1,800 yards. But no team defended Brown better than the Bengals last season, limiting him in the two meetings to seven catches for 97 yards and no scores on 16 targets.
The Steelers will need somebody else to step up in their passing game to pick up the slack. And that's been the tight ends in recent meetings.
Remember, Heath Miller had 10 catches in each of the two regular season meetings in 2015 working the middle of the field, and Ladarius Green had one of his best days against the Bengals last season, hauling in five passes for 72 yards late in the season.
Keep an eye on Vance McDonald in this game. He’s gaining the trust of Ben Roethlisberger more each week and is a much bigger down-the-seam target than James. James could wind up with more catches than McDonald this week. But McDonald could make the more impactful catches.
• The Steelers continue to work their way through the NFL's 2017 rookie running back class.
So far, they've faced Dalvin Cook, Tarik Cohen, Leonard Fournette and Kareem Hunt, four rookie backs selected in the first four rounds of this year’s draft. And it’s been a mixed bag of success thus far. Cook had 12 carries for 64 yards for the Vikings; Cohen 12 for 78; Fournette 28 for 181 and a touchdown; and Hunt 9 for 21. But Hunt also had 89 yards on five receptions.
Many felt Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon was the most talented running back in this year’s draft. But he fell to the Bengals -- who else? -- in the second round after video surfaced of him punching a woman in the face several years ago. Mixon was suspended at Oklahoma following that incident, but once the video surfaced, he became toxic to many teams.
Thus far, Mixon hasn’t had a lot of success. On 67 carries, he has just 187 yards, an average of 2.8 per carry. But Cincinnati’s offensive line is as much to blame as anything for that.
The line is, well, not very good. After all, the Bengals are rotating their top three tackles throughout the game. And when you are rotating all three, it means you probably don’t have one good tackle, let alone two.
But the Steelers can’t afford to let Mixon get going in this game as they have done in three of their previous four games against rookie runners.
• Was there a more bizarre ending to a game than Thursday night’s at Oakland?
The Raiders scored late on a pass to Michael Crabtree, who was called for pass interference. Then, after the ball was moved back from the 1 because of the penalty, the Chiefs were called for defensive holding in the end zone after an incompletion that took the clock to 0:00. That gave the Raiders an untimed down but, while the pass fell incomplete, another holding penalty was called.
On the fourth shot, Derek Carr connected with Crabtree for the game-tying touchdown. The extra point turned it into what could be a season-saving win for Oakland, now 3-4.
And in the matter of four days, the Chiefs went from being the league’s lone unbeaten team to giving the Steelers, if they win Sunday, a chance to move into the top spot in the AFC.
But don’t underestimate the desperation factor in the NFL. The Raiders had lost four games in a row and could not have afforded to lose to the Chiefs if they wanted to keep within striking distance.
The Bengals, at 2-3, are in a similar spot this week against the Steelers, who would improve to 5-2 with a win.
• Don’t look for Marcus Gilbert to be back out there at his right tackle spot until after the Steelers play in Detroit in two weeks. With the bye following, that would give Gilbert a full three weeks to rest his sore hamstring and get it ready for the remainder of the season.
The Steelers are 2-4 without Gilbert in the lineup the past two seasons, which obviously isn’t good. And they’ll certainly miss him against Cincinnati, which brings a lot of pressure off the edge with rookie Carl Lawson, Michael Johnson and Carlos Dunlap. But the Steelers need Gilbert for the long haul.
The hamstring injury isn’t as bad this time around, but the Steelers would rather be safe than sorry.
• The Steelers' return game continues to be an issue this season, but it hasn’t cost them yet.
They're averaging 5.1 yards per punt return and 14.9 yards on kickoff returns, both of which are easily in the bottom 10 in the league. In fact, they're dead last in kickoff returns, averaging just half of the league-leading Ravens' 31.9 yards.
Management tried to address the kick return issues with Knile Davis in the offseason, but he was beaten out for a roster spot by Terrell Watson. Watson has actually averaged an OK 21.3 yards on four returns, but look for more opponents to try to kick the ball short to the Steelers and force them to return kickoffs.
• Vince Williams leads the Steelers with four sacks. Anthony Chickillo is tied for second with Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt with three each.
That’s especially impressive for Williams and Chickillo. Williams isn’t on the field a lot on obvious passing downs. And Chickillo has played just 50 percent of the team’s snaps this season.
One reason Williams is having success is all those rookie running backs the Steelers have faced. If you saw him running over Hunt twice on the same series last weekend in Kansas City, you see the issue many coaches have in putting rookie running backs on the field. They just don’t hold up well in pass protection because they typically weren’t asked to do it in college.
In the past, the Bengals haven’t trusted diminutive running back Giovanni Bernard to play a lot against the Steelers, either, for just that reason.
Mixon isn’t terrible in pass protection, but he’s still a rookie. Look for the Steelers to test him up the middle, as well, to see how he holds up.
• Martavis Bryant looked very good in practice this week, including laying out for a deep pass from Landry Jones on Wednesday.
It's not always the best idea to completely sell out for a pass like that in practice, but it got a lot of immediate praise from his teammates.
"Yeah, I remember the diving catch," Todd Haley said Thursday. "He usually makes about one of those a day, but we need it to show up on Sunday."
Some have suggested Bryant has lost playing time to rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster because he isn't working as hard in practice. But, quite simply, it is because Smith-Schuster is a better blocker.
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