The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their 10th game of the 2025 season facing the Cincinnati Bengals for the second time. It’s the third divisional game for each team. The Bengals are 3-6 on the season but 2-0 in the division.
Below are five key things I believe the Steelers will need to do to come away with their sixth win of the year.
Cover Chase – During their first meeting in Week 7, the Steelers had an embarrassing display on defense. The Bengals have an exceptionally good pass catching duo. Everyone knew that coming in, and their lack of coverage on them was detestable.
The Steelers “pass defense” allowed Ja’Marr Chase to be targeted 23 times. Not an NFL record. That goes to Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos with 28 in 2009. It tied for the third most in NFL history. Chase caught 16 of those passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. The major problem was the majority of those catches were wide open opportunities.
The other part of that tandem Tee Higgins was targeted 10 times with six catches for 96 yards and a touchdown. They had as many targets as the entire Pittsburgh offense. And this was all with Joe Flacco in his first game with the team.
Since that time, Pittsburgh has shuffled its defensive backfield. Juan Thornhill is gone. Kyle Dugger has come in. Jalen Ramsey has been playing safety and James Pierre has been playing well in limited duty.
What does that mean for this game? I don’t know, but they can’t do much worse than they did in the first meeting.
More jams at the line of scrimmage. More double coverage. Take away the quick passes and hope they can limit Chase and company.
Convert, Convert and Convert Again – The Steelers are averaging only 55 offensive plays per game. Last week, the Chargers ran 19 more plays than Pittsburgh. This team consistently loses the time of possession battle. There are many reasons that go into these issues.
Recently, converting on third down has been a big issue for this team. Last week, the Steelers started 0 of 9 on third down. The week before that, in a victory against the Colts, they converted just 4 of 12 chances. In Week 8 against Green Bay, they were successful once in 10 opportunities. Altogether, that is 7 for 33 the last three games. That is a 21 percent clip.
Not good.
Oddly enough, their best game was a 7-for-10 performance against the Bengals.
Aaron Rodgers talked this week about DK Metcalf being double covered on third down. There was also mention of getting tight end Pat Freiermuth more involved in the offense. In his career, Freiermuth has 129 first downs on 242 receptions.
It doesn’t matter how they get it done. Running the ball. Throwing the ball. Drawing the defense offsides. Whatever it takes. Keep the drives moving. Keep the Cincinnati offense off the field.
Cut Out the Quick Stuff – In the first meeting, Flacco used the quick passing game to not only eat up the Steelers defense, but it essentially eliminated the pass rush.
The main culprit was simple: the slant route. A simple three step push up the field by the receiver with a quick angled cut to the middle of the field. Chase and friends ran it a frustratingly high number of times and had a great deal of success.
We saw firsthand that it could be defended last week. Rodgers saw matchups he liked and wanted to get the ball out quickly. On multiple occasions, the Chargers edge rushers dropped back into those throwing lanes.
If Cincinnati is going to get the ball out quickly, there is no reason to rush a passer who can’t get to the quarterback in that abbreviated period of time. Obviously, they aren’t going to do it on every play, but dropping T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and the other outside linebackers occasionally into that slant window could help.
Pittsburgh is particularly good at deflecting balls at the line of scrimmage as well. They are going to need to get a few of those to help slow the passing game.
These are just a couple of options, and after the first meeting, this defense better be well prepared.
More of the Old and New – Since he became a Pittsburgh Steeler, Freiermuth has been a thorn in the Bengals’ paw. In nine games, he has 48 receptions, 600 yards and six touchdowns. During the first matchup this year, he had five for 111 and two touchdowns.
In his first four seasons, he was on the field for no less than 62 percent of the snaps. This season, it is down to 49 percent. Just twice this season, he has played more than 50 percent of the plays.
In nearly 60 fewer snaps, he has more yards and touchdowns than Jonnu Smith while averaging 5.5 more yards per reception.
Starting in the game against the Bengals in Week 7, Roman Wilson was getting the chance to be on the field more. He played in at least 46 percent of the offensive plays for three weeks before getting just 18 snaps last week. Five of those snaps came on the final drive.
In limited action, he has shown the ability to make a play. He has caught 11 of his 15 targets for 149 yards and two touchdowns.
Wilson is far better option as the No. 3 wide receiver than others that have been, given playing time.
This offense needs to get the better playmakers more involved to compete with teams that have the advantage when it comes to skill positions.
Win the Turnover Battle – In their five wins this season, the Steelers have had fewer giveaways than takeaways in four of those games. The other game had zero turnovers. In their four losses, they have lost the battle three times. The other game was 2-2 tie with Seattle.
In the last four games, the team has committed six turnovers and created six turnovers. The six they created, however, were all in the same game. I bet you can guess which games they won and which ones were lost.
Flacco has thrown just two interceptions in his four games with Cincinnati. Both were during the Bengals’ last game versus Chicago. He has one fumble, also coming in the last game. Turnovers can come in waves. Hopefully, Pittsburgh is catching him in one of those waves.
Winning the turnover category has been a long-time team philosophy. And frankly, it is for most teams. It seems to be extremely important to this team so far this season.