Intro

What went wrong defending the passing game?

By now, you’re well aware the Steelers got embarrassed in coverage Thursday night. Most of the television, podcasts, articles, and discussions with Steelers fans over the past six days have drilled that home for you, as if your eyes didn’t already do that for you during the broadcast.

The numbers speak for themselves. Joe Flacco, a Bengal for less than a fortnight, completed 66% of his passes for 342, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. Jama’rr Chase drew 23 targets, converting 16 of them into receptions for 161 yards and a score. Tee Higgins ate as well, scoring one touchdown and catching six of 10 targets for 96 yards, including the victory-clinching catch that let the Bengals drain most of the clock before Evan McPherson’s go-ahead field goal. Even backup tight end Noah Fant and WR3 Andrei Iosivas chipped in 44 and 49 yards, respectively, and Fant also added a touchdown.

So what the heck happened?

We’ve heard the usual list of complaints in the days since the game:

• Grumbles about the expensive defense not living up to expectations.
• Nearly every Steeler corner and safety being referred to as either overrated or even worse, cooked.
• There were plenty of complaints about a T.J. Watt “no show” — even though he combined with Cam Heyward for a sack.
• Even more complaints were levied about how often, or rather how sparsely, Nick Herbig was deployed.
• Communication/assignment busts
• And perhaps the most maddening one of all for Steelers fans — allegations that the Steelers’ defense is just too predictable.

I wanted to get to the bottom of which, or to what degree, each of these complaints played into Thursday’s dismantling of the Steelers’ pass defense. So, naturally, I charted each of Flacco’s 47 passing attempts from this game.

For starters, the Steelers did struggle to create pressure on Flacco for most of the night. A significant reason for this, however, was because the Bengals have so far asked their 40-something-year-old quarterback to run a similar offense grift to what the Steelers are running with Rodgers: use your years of experience to diagnose coverages pre-snap, be decisive, and get the ball out quickly.

On Thursday, Flacco’s average time to throw was 2.27 seconds. To put into further context how dangerous that can be, consider this: Chase’s reported 20-yard split in the 40-yard dash at his Pro Day was 2.51 seconds.

Consider further still that it’s hard to get to the quarterback down in less than 2.5 seconds. Nick Bosa averaged 2.93 seconds from snap to sack on his two sacks this year before being injured. Bengals All-Pro Trey Hendrickson is averaging 3.37 seconds on four sacks this year. Micah Parsons is averaging 4.83 seconds on his five-and-a-half sacks. You get the idea.

So while yes, I do think playing Herbig (4.77-second average time to sack) on just 38% of the snaps is ill-advised — especially during the Bengals’ final series...