Baltimore Beatdown
The Bengals are returning from their bye week on the heels of back-to-back catastrophic losses, in which they scored 80 combined points but blew two late leads. Cincinnati’s defensive woes have been the team’s downfall for most of the season. They did receive very positive news earlier this week that star quarterback Joe Burrow is set to make an unexpected early return from injury, possibly later this month.
In the meantime, Joe Flacco will look to continue doing his best Burrow impression under center as the Bengals seek a bounce back win against the Steelers. The Bengals earned a two-point upset victory over the Steelers on Thursday night a month ago, which started their streak of scoring 30+ points in three consecutive weeks. They will likely need to do again in order to win this Sunday.
The Bengals have done just about everything possible offensively to win the past two weeks, but running the ball effectively will once again be key. In their win over the Steelers, Chase Brown rushed for by far a season-high 108 yards on just 11 carries, and Semaje Perine added 31 yards as well on 4.4 yards per carry.
The hope is that the Bengals used the bye week to clean up things defensively in a major way and will play better on that side of the ball in this game. At the very least, if they can find a way to force a turnover or two and give their offense an extra possession, that could go a long way towards their chances of victory.
On the other end of Sunday’s first divisional contest is the aforementioned Steelers, who will return to Pittsburgh for their third home game in the past four weeks. The Steelers failed to build off a huge victory over the Colts two weeks ago last Sunday — falling flat in primetime to the Chargers and losing 25-10. It was their worst offensive performance of the season, as they gained just 211 total yards and went 2-for-11 on third down.
The Steelers have been inconsistent during the middle stretch of the year and are now losers of three of their past four games, which has dropped their division lead to just one game. Losing to the Bengals again would be damaging to their tiebreaker advantages and divisional record. So, this is a big spot for the Steelers to show up.
Defensively, the Steelers have shown improvements over the last two games. Even in their loss in Week 10, the Steelers limited Los Angeles to just 4.6 yards per play and 18 first downs. They forced no turnovers, though, after recording six takeaways against the Colts in the prior week’s contest. The Steelers should in theory be able to corral a turnover against Flacco and the Bengals’ pass-happy offense that isn’t afraid to take risks.
Pittsburgh’s rushing attack on offense also remains up-and-down. They’ve only had one 100-yard rusher all season back in Week 7...
