Cincy Jungle
The Cincinnati Bengals face a crossroads game for their season this Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers (have we heard that before?). Lose and more talks of a lost season and upcoming fire sale of star players rev up; win and they can keep a little pace in a down year in the AFC conference—especially with what would be two divisional wins.
Joe Flacco showed the ability to be competent and keep the Bengals in games last week, but the team still fell short. Somehow, the visiting Steelers sit at 4-1 coming to Cincinnati this week, and to get the lay of the land of Pittsburgh football, we tapped the knowledge of Ryan Parish over at SB Nation’s Behind the Steel Curtain ahead of the big primetime clash this week.
1.) AC: How are the Steelers 4-1? Even after the addition of Aaron Rodgers, people still thought they’d be their usual competitive selves, but probably not have guessed this good of a start…
RP: If I’m being fully honest, I think it’s a mixture of a relatively soft early schedule, a still decent collection of veteran talent, and some classic Mike Tomlin one-score game voodoo. The Steelers don’t strike me as an elite team, but they have a lot of experience, especially on defense, and they haven’t been turning the ball over much.
The Steelers’ pass rush is still one of the best units in the league, and adding a talent like Jalen Ramsey to the secondary has helped keep opposing offenses off balance. Pittsburgh’s offense has been consistently explosive, but the DK Metcalf-Aaron Rodgers connection has been blossoming, and the offensive line is slowly starting to gel enough to produce enough of a run game to keep teams from teeing off on their 41-year-old quarterback.
We’ll see how well the Steelers can hang once they start to play some stiffer competition, but it’s a classic Mike Tomlin team that is finding ways to do just enough to secure more wins than losses.
2.) AC: What are the weaknesses this tattered Bengals team could possibly exploit against the Steelers this Thursday night?
The Steelers’ defense has generated turnovers this season, but has given up explosive plays to every opponent except the Browns. The Bengals have one of the best receiver duos in the league and an athletic tight end room that could exploit the coverage provided by the Steelers’ linebackers… if they can keep Joe Flacco upright long enough to do so.
Defensively, the Bengals should be prepared for the Steelers to trot out their new jumbo package that features six offensive linemen and tight end Darnell Washington. Stop the Steelers’ run game, and you can stop the passing attack. The Steelers have been running a rather basic and one-note passing game. If a team can stop the running game and force the Steelers to become one-dimensional, they’ll struggle to keep up offensively.
**3.) AC: What has Aaron Rodgers shown everyone these first few weeks? He’s got a great 105.4...
