By and large, this game went just as well for the Bengals as the title would lead you to think.
With about 50 seconds to play in the first half, the offense ended an otherwise stellar 2-minute drive with an interception to Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Joe Burrow, with pressure in his face, tried to find Tee Higgins down the right seam and lobbed the ball about five yards too deep. Fitzpatrick’s pick gave his team possession with enough time in the half to score and a semblance of momentum despite being down 3-24.
Seven seconds later, Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton was in the end zone with a touchdown gifted to him by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. With their first defensive touchdown in their last 43 games, the Bengals reestablished the dominance that they’d asserted for the whole game prior. They maintained that dominance, albeit in less eventful fashion, for the remainder of the game.
For perspective – in Week 3, the Bengals held the Steelers to 10 points en route to a win in Pittsburgh. In Week 7, they scored 41 points on the Ravens en route to a win in Baltimore. Both were standalone season-high marks for the Bengals until they matched both in this game.
This is a good football team. We’ll see how consistently they play like it and how far they go in a turbulent AFC playoff race.
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Notes
Offense
- Enough can’t be said about the performance of Joe Mixon in this game. Over a full game, 117 rushing yards and a touchdown on 20 carries would be considered an outstanding performance. That was what he racked up by the end of the first half. By the end of the whole thing, Mixon added another 48 yards and a second touchdown on eight more carries. We’ve seen gaudier single-game numbers from other backs this season, but Mixon was the Bengals’ biggest player in their biggest win of the season thus far.
- Aside from Mixon, the Bengals’ receivers (primarily Higgins) did an excellent job exploiting the absence of Steelers cornerback Joe Haden. Higgins pulled down 6 catches for 114 yards on 8 targets, including a 32-yard touchdown over cornerback James Pierre – who was playing in lieu of Haden.
- Ja’Marr Chase contributed 3 catches for 39 yards to the offense – numbers that, alone, are reminiscent of his rough games against the Jets and Browns. The critical difference is that those three catches constituted all of Chase’s targets in this one. The Bengals didn’t win in spite of Chase playing poorly – they just won on their other strengths.
Defense
- Before Hilton’s pick-six, Eli Apple also ended a Steelers drive with an interception. While Apple didn’t personally convert his catch into points, he *did* record his early in the drive near the Steelers’ own end zone and the Bengals were able to convert it into a field goal.
- In addition to the pair of interceptions, Trey Hendrickson contributed a strip-sack – recovered by Sam Hubbard – that brought the Bengals’ defense to their total count of 3 turnovers on the day. Alongside B.J. Hill, Hendrickson and Hubbard also sacked Roethlisberger once each. With his sack in this game, Hendrickson has cracked double-digit (10.5) sacks through eleven games. He’s maintaining a fast pace in a crowded race to lead the league in sacks.
- A bit of trivia mentioned by the broadcast booth – Hilton’s pick-six was the Bengals’ first defensive touchdown in their last 43 games. That was the longest active streak of such games in the NFL.
– Andy Hammel is the Managing Editor for the Bengals at Full Press Coverage. Follow @Andy_Hammel