The Pittsburgh Steelers entered their game against the Cincinnati Bengals with a chance to grab firm hold of the AFC North, looking to notch their fourth win in a row against a division rival who had just days earlier made a desperation trade for 40-year-old Joe Flacco to come in and start at quarterback. Surely, this would finally be the week for Mike Tomlin to break his Thursday night curse, right?
So, so wrong. Instead, the Steelers fell flat: The defense got torched by Flacco and Co., while two back-breaking turnovers from Aaron Rodgers allowed a 33-31 loss to slip through Pittsburgh's fingers. Just like that, the "same old Steelers" narrative is back with a vengeance.
When you bellyflop that spectacularly, there's plenty of blame to go around. But these three players in particular stood out for their poor play on Thursday, and it should start costing them playing time moving forward.
CB Darius Slay
Slay's been a good player for a long time, but he looked every bit his 34 years of age on Thursday night. Granted, nearly entire Steelers secondary (and especially their corners) struggled in a game in which Joe Flacco, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins went bananas; Joey Porter Jr. and Jalen Ramsey hardly covered themselves in glory either. But the difference is that Porter and Ramsey have shown signs of elite play this season, while this was just another in a string of lackluster performances from Slay as CB3.
He got cooked badly by Andre Iosivas on a crucial deep ball in the second half, and he even had a would-be interception bounce right off his face. He just looks slow right now, which got exposd in a big way against a division opponent in a game Pittsburgh should've won. Slay can still use his moxie and experience to contribute to this defense, but it might be time to give Brandin Nichols a bit more run to see how he does.
OLB Alex Highsmith
Okay, so "bench" might be a bit misleading in this context; obviously Highsmith has been and will remain a key part of Pittsburgh's defense. But it felt like the Steelers had unlocked something in recent weeks by having Highsmith, T.J. Watt and Nate Herbig share snaps almost evenly, only to inexplicably walk that back on Thursday night.
Instead, it was Highsmith who got the bulk of the playing time at Herbig's expense — and curious choice, to say the least, given how great Herbig has been of late (and how good he was against the Bengals when he actually saw the field). At this point, you could make the case that he's simply the more dynamic pass-rusher, and Thursday night's effort showed that the Steelers don't have the juice to stick that kind of talent on the bench. Flacco had far, far too much time to throw, even allowing for the fact that Cincy's game plan prioritized getting the ball out of his hands quickly. Putting Herbig on the field more often could have helped there.
NT Keeanu Benton
Allowing the Bengals to cook in the passing game is one thing; Flacco, if nothing else, still has a very live arm, and he still has the most electric 1-2 punch in the league to throw to in Chase and Higgins. But allowing Cincinnati to run the ball the way they did is downright inexcusable.
Chase Brown had struggled so much since Joe Burrow's injury that he'd started to cede playing time to Samaje Perine. And yet, on Thursday night, he looked like a back reborn, picking up chunk gain after chunk gain en route to 108 yards on just 11 carries. There's plenty of blame to go around up front, but the play of Benton really stuck out: He was clearly the weak link alongside Cam Heyward and Derrick Harmon, getting pushed around repeatedly on the interior.
The problem here is that this isn't an area in which Pittsburgh has a bunch of depth to work with right now. But Benton's play was unacceptable, and if he continues to be a liability teams can exploit in the run game, the Steelers need to find another option.