Cincinnati Bengals: Big takeaways from loss in Week 6 vs. Steelers

Let’s look back at the Cincinnati Bengals loss in Week 6 to the Pittsburgh Steelers and observe some notable takeaways from the game.

The more things change, the more they stay depressingly the same. The Cincinnati Bengals have, at times this year, appeared poised to return to the sort of level which elevated them into the playoffs every year from 2011-15, led by perhaps the best team the franchise has been able to field since the draft which brought them franchise cornerstones A.J. Green and Andy Dalton.

Unfortunately, as has tended to happen throughout their history, no matter how good the Bengals seem to be they just couldn’t manage to climb over the mountain standing in their way — their hated division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Though they had plenty of opportunities in this Week 6 matchup and may have left it feeling they were in fact the better team, the final score proved otherwise for at least this meeting, with Pittsburgh winning on the road with a final tally of 28-21.

Here’s what you should take away from this outcome.

The Defense Is Too Reliant On Turnovers

Let’s get the worst part out of the way now: despite at least one of the players who is a part of it believing the unit is great, Cincinnati’s defense just isn’t close to being on the level their talent would seem to suggest they can reach.

Only seven defenses have given up more yardage per game this year. They give up an average of 26 points per game (tied for 20th in the NFL). Football Outsiders has them ranked No. 20 in Defensive DVOA (including 20th in pass defense DVOA and 23rd in run defense DVOA). They are 20th or worse in DVOA when defending No. 1 receivers, No. 2 receivers and running backs. They don’t defend short passes well (24th in DVOA), and only Detroit and San Francisco have been worse at defending passes to the left side of the field.

The one thing the team has been able to do well on this side of the ball — the factor which has saved them numerous times this year already — is force turnovers. After forcing a meager 14 last season (better than just Cleveland), they already have eight through six games in 2018.

These have come in bunches (2+ in three games; 3+ two separate times), and often at the most opportune times for Cincinnati (Indianapolis and Baltimore comebacks held off by late fumble recoveries; fumbles and interceptions against Miami brought Cincinnati the lead and ended any hopes of a comeback by the Dolphins).

Those turnovers are great when they come, but this is an area which tends to be quite fickle, and if a defense is built on needing turnovers to stop their opposition (rather than it being one important piece of the defensive puzzle), it can and often will prove to be more of a hindrance than a strength for a team.

We’ve seen how a turnover-free game by this defense turns out for Cincinnati three times this season already, and it hasn’t really been good in any of those cases.

Against Carolina, it helped leave the Bengals playing from behind for the vast majority of the contest — something which played a major role in Dalton eventually throwing four interceptions in the contest while trying to make the comeback. Against Atlanta, it took the offense going on a game-winning drive to save what easily could’ve been a second-straight loss.

This Pittsburgh game fell right in that same vein. Cincinnati couldn’t stop James Conner from running all over them (19 carries, 111 yards, two touchdowns). Ben Roethlisberger had no touchdowns until the very end, but ended with 369 yards through the air (on eight yards per attempt) and an 85.5 QBR.

Two Pittsburgh receivers each went over 100 yards, and Pittsburgh’s tight ends combined for 14 catches and 129 yards. That talented Cincinnati defensive line left the game with zero sacks and just one single quarterback hit. This defense needed a turnover somewhere to give them that one little push in this close game, and it never came.