Steelers vs. Bengals winners and losers

Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ crazy 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon.

WINNER

QB Russell Wilson

As obvious as they come. Wilson was excellent today. Wilson recovered from a pick-six on the first drive and set up the Bengals’ defense for the rest of the game. He threw three touchdown passes, led a solid effort at the end of the half and scored three more points (despite some questionable timing from Mike Tomlin), showed accuracy and made big plays at every level. Easily the best performance by a Steelers quarterback in a long time. He finished the game with 414 yards and three touchdowns. I can’t say enough good things about his trip.

DL Cam Heyward

Heyward remains one of the best central defenders in football. He’s proven that all year long, but he was able to show it again against the Bengals, who he’s always had success against. He pushed and folded the bag to pick up a sack and tipped a pass from Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter that CB Donte Jackson intercepted. He also had a goal line lick early in the half.

Despite his age, the 35-year-old Heyward is still at the peak of his career. There weren’t many defensive plays today, but Heyward came up with big ones.

EDGE TJ Watt

Watt had one of the other big defensive moments. A sack/forced fumble against Joe Burrow late in the first half that helped keep the score down temporarily. Preston Smith recovered. It gave him 8.5 sacks and a league-best five forced fumbles, easing concerns after a poor game against the Cleveland Browns.

Watt later added a half-sack to Burrow, a key third-down stop that forced Cincinnati to settle for a field goal. A reminder that #90 remains at the top of the DPOY conversation.

EDGE Nick Herbig

And it was Nick Herbig’s sack/forced fumble that helped move up the scoreboard. A big advantage that LB Payton Wilson scored in the fourth quarter to make it 41:24. Herbig beat high-priced Bengals LT Orlando Brown Jr. cleanly around the edge and knocked the ball away. He continues to make impactful, high-level plays virtually every chance he gets.

Najee Harris/Running Backs receiving

The Bengals, as defenses are starting to do, played a lot of loose coverage with two-highs to take away Russell Wilson’s moonball. This softened the situation underneath and allowed the running backs to do damage there. Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren and Cordarrelle Patterson all took advantage and got YAC.

Harris finished the day with well over 100 yards of offense and a balanced performance despite missing some time in the first half.

TE Pat Freiermuth

Freiermuth comes alive against the Bengals. His last two 60-yard performances came against Cincinnati, his 120-yard performance in the first game after Matt Canada last year and in today’s game. Wilson found a long play from Freiermuth in the second half that took him past the 60-yard mark. Like the running backs, he helped out down low.

TE Darnell Washington/WR Ben Skowronek

These two may not be as obvious as the others above, but they did a lot of the dirty work. Both had key blocks on Harris’ touchdown run, a walk-in due to the lane created by Washington (and Dan Moore Jr. and Zach Frazier). Skowronek had a pancake in the end zone on that play, one snap after Mike Hilton was warned for a post-snap penalty. Skowronek even got involved offensively and caught a 23-yard pass from long range.

It will be exciting to see both players’ All-22 tournament and their hidden contributions.

LOSER

CB Joey Porter Jr.

When it rains, it pours. Porter’s flags come in bunches, and he might have set a record today for most penalties against a defender. It’s hard to even keep track of how many. About six of them were thrown, at least one was rejected. He was called upon to hold and DPI on the same play and helped set up a Bengals touchdown in the fourth quarter to make things 41-31. Towards the end of the game, he even allowed a sure save through his hands that would have brought things to a halt. Cincinnati scored on the next play.

porter may Walk routes without penalty. But today was hard. An initial view suggests the Steelers had Porter on WR Tee Higgins and not Ja’Marr Chase, which was reportedly the case before the game. Maybe they tried to take a page from Belichick’s playbook and put their best corner on the opponent’s No. 2 while doubling down on the No. 1.

Scheme aside, it’s one of the worst games to watch from a corner.

LB Patrick Queen

For Queen today it is a difficult task in every respect. His run defense looked shaky and helped Bengals RB Chase Brown score big runs in the first half. He’s not the only one, but he struggled to maintain his position and slow Brown before he could reach his elite speed.

Queen also had issues in coverage, giving TE Mike Gesicki a pass over the middle while also having trouble tackling from underneath. He’s had better performances of late with the Steelers, but this wasn’t one of them.

WR George Pickens

Typically, a box score like this will put you on the winners list and way off the losers list. Pickens made several plays, including the Steelers’ first touchdown of a high-scoring day. But there were too many problems from Pickens that overshadowed his plays. A taunt that cost the team 15 yards. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty minimized a beautiful moonball that could have put the Steelers on the Bengals’ 13th line. The drive went backwards and ended with Chris Boswell deflecting his kick.

I gave Pickens more grace than most for some of the off-field actions/comments. But today there are no excuses. Stupid, costly stuff that hurt his team and negated the positive plays he made.