I F***** Hate TNF - Steelers @ Bengals Recap
Screenshot via NFL+
I’m going to try to keep it together, but profanity is probably incoming…
The Steelers bungled to the Bungles on Thursday Night Football, the final score being 33-31. Joe Flacco won the battle of the 40-somethings and finished the game with 342 passing yards and 3 TDs. The Bengals were also able to get the run game going despite being the worst rushing attack in the league coming into the game. Chase Brown ran for 108 yards on 9.8 yards per carry. He was averaging 2-point-something yards per carry coming into this game…it’s really just disgusting that this happened.
Before I get into everything I hate…allow me to say that the offense held up their end of the bargain, despite being without CAIII, and therefore any viable WR2. The Bengals defense is in the basement of the league in just about every statistic, where they belong, so I’m not about to throw the Steelers a parade, but Jaylen Warren ran for 127 yards, and Rodgers had 247 passing yards and 4 TDs. Also, if there were any questions about his arm strength, his hail mary attempt at the end of the game was the longest pass attempt (in terms of air yards - 69.8 yards) by any QB since 2017. It seemed like that man actually sent that ball to the moon. The offense continues to trend in the right direction, but this defense…
Watch this play (above). For context, at this point the score is 10-7 Steelers, and Aaron Rodgers just threw that “fuck it” arm punt early in the second quarter (he was really great beyond that). Usually when I post clips, I’m highlighting one, maybe two players that did something good or bad, and I will circle or highlight whatever player(s) I want yinz to look at. I just hated the effort from so many players in this one clip, that I’m not going to do that for this one. Keeanu Benton (#95) gets moved out the way with ease. Chuck Clark (#21) fails to shoot the gap, and then misses the tackle in that gap anyways, so I guess who cares (why is he in the game anyways?). DeShon Elliot (#25) missed his tackle. Joey Porter Jr. (#24) doesn’t have a good angle and can’t put his body on Chase Brown and missed his tackle. That’s one of the worst RBs in football coming into this game, and he looks like Saquon Barkley against us on a Thursday. I understand the Mike Tomlin discourse, for sure, but he can’t wrap up and tackle himself….that’s on the players.
I trust that if you’ve found your way to this platform, then you’re a big enough fan of the Steelers that you’ve seen the clip of Darius Slay (#23) getting beat over the top man-to-man by Andrei Iosivas for 37 yards. Two plays later, he gave up 10 yards to Ja’Marr Chase in man, then this (above) happens just a few plays after that. The touchdown goes to the Bengals’ TE, who is WIDE open, because DeShon Elliot (#25) rightly abandons him to take Tee Higgins, who is supposed to be man-to-man with Slay. The touchdown happens, because #23 gets knocked off his feet. This Bengals drive was BRUTAL for him. I’m a big fan of Big Play Slay, but I fear he is currently unplayable in man coverage, or at least that’s how it looks right now. It’s no accident that we started seeing a lot more Ramsey/JPJ/Echols in the fourth quarter, but more on that later.
Last week, former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher described Patrick Queen as a man playing “almost possessed” against the Browns, and that comment stuck with me, largely because I agreed with him so wholeheartedly. PQ was all over the damn place last week - knockin the hell out of guys…bangin on his helmet. I loved it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the same guy on Thursday. Again, I don’t wanna absolve the coaching staff, because the players were clearly unprepared, but Mike Tomlin can’t go out there and make the tackles himself. Also, if you look critically at the play above, you’ll see the Steelers are in a man look pre-snap, but it ends up being zone coverage all around. You can tell because all the DBs are facing/looking at the QB. That’s why JPJ (#24) gives Ja’Marr Chase so much space…but PQ should make that tackle. I only point that out to say…Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin weren’t just hanging these guys out to dry with unseasoned “beat me” coverages. They were trying. The players were failing. I think we’re going to see a different PQ6 on Sunday Night Football against the Packers, but Thursday’s performance was forgettable. Also, while I’m showing this play, I might as well point out that there’s a bit of a coverage bust that Flacco missed. Iosivas is wide open over the middle, and it would’ve been 6 if Flacco saw it.
Just to kinda wrap up everything I want to say about the players: Brandin Echols didn’t play a single defensive snap until the third quarter, which is pretty crazy to me given how the game was going, but at least that halftime adjustment was made. I don’t care what the payroll says…you can’t keep trotting Darius Slay out there to get burnt up. Jalen Ramsey and Joey Porter Jr. both had some god awful moments in this game too, but I know those two can still man up at a high level - Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase is just a really tough task. Echols, on the other hand, only got three shots man-to-man with Chase, including the play above, allowing 0 catches on one target. I’m not saying he would’ve locked up Chase all game, because he wouldn’t have, but damn it I guess we’ll never know, because we waited until the fourth quarter to give Echols a reasonable amount of fuckin snaps.
In a way, I’m glad this game ended in a loss rather than us squeaking out a shitty win at the end, because maybe this coaching staff will actually take a good look in the mirror and think about what we’re asking certain guys to do on defense. The use of Cole Holcomb and Payton Wilson is irritating and teams are picking it apart, Darius Slay is getting killed in man coverage, and what are we even doing with Chuck Clark at this point? He went from healthy scratch to starter in a matter of days? What happened to Juan Thornhill? He played very well against the Browns…so we soft bench him (43 defensive snaps for Clark, 19 for Thornhill - NFL Pro)? Those kinds of things are why I refuse to absolve the coaching staff…there’s just some real head scratching shit that happens sometimes, and this shouldn’t have been a close ball game at all. But Ja’Marr Chase told our business. We’re predictable, and at least on Thursday, we didn’t have the personnel to execute Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin’s gameplan, or the adjustments that, to their credit, they did try to make. So, I guess we press on, but damn…that performance is enough to halt any confidence I had that we can compete with the top offenses in the league. With ALL OF THAT being said, Pat McAfee talked before this game about coaches just being bad in certain spots, and maybe that’s just the case with Mike Tomlin. We are coming off a few very good games in a row where the defense really looked the part, at times, and it’s unusual for it to completely fall apart the way that it did, but we all see Mike Tomlin’s record on Thursdays, and maybe he’s just not the coach for TNF. I hope we never, fucking EVER get scheduled for Thursday Night Football again.
Follow me on twitter/x: @jay_newm
