Defense Clamps, Bungles Bungle, Steelers Win 34-12
Bias aside, the AFC North features the toughest rivalries in football, bar none.
I don’t care how loyal you are to the Pittsburgh Steelers (I’m surely right there with you), there’s no way anyone saw that defensive performance coming. The Bengals came to Pittsburgh (some more respectfully than others), and got their ass beat both literally and figuratively. My favorite stat from the game: time of possession - CIN 29:55, PIT 30:05. It’s the little things, ya know?
Seriously though, what a game from this defense. Our offense was doing everything in their power to keep this game close. - That’s not fair. The QB play in the first half is why this thing remained close for as long as it did. I haven’t gone back and watched the game again, but the spark on offense was evident as soon as Mason Rudolph stepped onto the field in the third quarter, so I assume the film will back that up. Between Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph, the offense was able to put together two touchdown drives and two FG drives. In the Bengals previous game against the Bears (our next opponent), the Bears put up 47 points. So, yeah, the offense needs to be better, once again.
Anyways, this was a 10-6 ballgame going into halftime; not quite the shootout that a lot of people anticipated it would be. We knew, at that point, that Aaron Rodgers had hurt his wrist, and it felt like as soon as it was being confirmed on my phone that Mason Rudolph was going to be the QB to start the second half, Chase Brown broke a 35-yard run up the middle, and put the Bengals in Steeler territory in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, years of abuse with this team have taught me to panic in moments such as this, especially in the post Big-Ben era, but the defense was able to clamp down from there and force a FG, thankfully. That didn’t do a ton for my mental health at that moment, but it was huge for us to stop their momentum, and that was the last point that this game felt dangerously close, at least from my couch.
How ‘bout the addition of Kyle Dugger? His 74-yard pick 6 in the third quarter was the first for the Steelers since Alex Highsmith got the Browns back in 2023. It’s amazing what a change of scenery can do for a player. I’m not ready to make any grandiose statements about his play as a whole, not without watching the tape, but it feels like the Steelers have a special thing happening with Ramsey and Dugger at safety. It has been several years since ballhawk Minkah Fitzpatrick was creating splash in the deeper parts of the field, but it feels like we could be getting back to that with this tandem, assuming we continue to deploy them this way when we’re healthy.
Later on, with the game pretty much out of reach, Noah Fant put the ball on the ground, and James Pierre scooped and scored it, capping off the best game of his career. Where do I begin with Mr. Pierre? - An UDFA in 2020, he has always found his way back to our roster, despite the fact that I’ve watched him become burnt toast before my very eyes on lord knows how many occasions. I’ll take it a step further…I’ll tell on myself: I was mildly irritated to see his name on the depth chart at the beginning of this season. But, ultimately, I thought to myself: “You know what? It’s alright. Hopefully he only has to play in spots and he’ll be a fine depth piece with fresh legs when you need him.” - NO! False. Incorrect. I’m an idiot, and I don’t know ball. In fact, if Coach Mike Tomlin names Darius Slay the starter over James Pierre when Slay is healthy, I’ll join yinz in LOUDLY calling for Tomlin’s job, especially if the results fall back off a cliff. To #42, thank God you didn’t listen to the idiots like me, and you just kept your head down, and kept working. We love you, buddy.
I love a good UDFA story.
Anyways, the scoop and score was cool, but if you’ve been on this James Pierre roller coaster with me, then I shouldn’t have to elaborate too much on how impressive his performance yesterday was. I’m sure every single Steelers blogger and youtuber is going to do a film room on him this week, so maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But, I’ll certainly include some of my favorite plays from him when I pass out some flowers in my next post.
The last thing I want to talk about is Ja’Marr Chase. In case you somehow missed it, Jalen Ramsey was ejected from the game following an altercation with Ja’Marr Chase in which video evidence clearly shows Chase spit on Ramsey. Ramsey would throw punches, rightfully so, and plead his case, but the refs didn’t see the spit, so he was tossed. It’s worth noting that Ramsey already had a warning in this game from the play before this, so even if they saw the spit, he was probably getting tossed either way. Anyways, Ramsey doubled down in his post-game interview, as he should “(spitting)…it’s what pussies do”, and Ja’Marr Chase denied the whole thing: “I ain’t spit on nobody.”
That’s what happened. If you asked me how many professional cameras are in the stadium for any given NFL game, I would say I have no idea, but I would imagine it would be well over 100 wouldn’t you think? I mean…we’re doing laser measurements for first downs, and we’ve got cameras at ground-level, eye-level, and sky-level all tasked with pointing at the game’s biggest stars and capturing every moment and every blade of grass. What the fuck was Ja’Marr Chase thinking answering that question like that? He told a bold-faced lie. Shit’s crazy. He had an opportunity to take accountability, and instead he doubled down and acted like Jalen Ramsey was out of pocket. I’m sure a suspension is coming for Chase, and rightfully so. I saw a lot of yinz talking pretty crazy about Ramsey following this incident before you had the facts, so allow me to say: I hope that guy never changes. As for Chase, what a bum. There’s no place for that in football or in life, to be honest. It’s shocking to me that it was him that did it…I had a world’s load of respect for this guy coming into this game. Now it’s fuck him and it’s always been fuck the Bungles!
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