4 Bengals most to blame for ruining Christmas with embarrassing loss to Steelers

Despite not having Joe Burrow, despite playing in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL, and despite a number of other hardships, the Cincinnati Bengals would've been in the playoffs if the season ended in Week 15. And facing off against the Mason Rudolph-led rival Steelers on Saturday night in Week 16, they seemed like a team capable of further solidifying their postseason lives.

Zac Taylor's team did nothing of the sort on Christmas weekend in Pittsburgh, though. In fact, they didn't even put up a fight.

The Bengals were flat-out run off the field by a third-string quarterback in Rudolph as they took a certified butt-whoopin' on the field at Acrisure Stadium in a 34-11 loss to arguably their biggest rivals, a loss that drops Cincinnati to 8-7 on the year, gives the Steelers the same record, and puts the vibes in absolute shambles.

So where should Bengals fans be pointing the finger as to which players to blame for getting Christmas weekend off to a Grinchian start? We've got the names for you.

4. Chidobe Awuzie and the Bengals secondary got burned all night

Considering that the only three passes that Rudolph had thrown in the 2023 season came at the end of last week's blowout Pittsburgh loss to the Colts and amounted less than 10 yards, Bengals fans had to be hopeful that the defense would show up and make some plays. That, however, was not remotely the case and Chidobe Awuzie had an unfortunate hand in that.

The Cincinnati cornerback's one saving grace on the night was that he wasn't covering George Pickens on the Steelers wide receiver's 86-yard touchdown catch-and-run on Pittsburgh's second play from scrimmage, but that's about all of the good you can say about Awuzie on the night.

Pickens had two more big catches on the night that went for more than 40 yards, both of which featured the mercurial wideout toasting the veteran defense back. And even though Pickens carried the vast bulk of the yardage load for the Steelers passing attack, Awuzie was quite simply picked on throughout the night as he couldn't stay with his assignments.

To be clear, it was anything but a banner night for essentially the entirety of the Bengals secondary. Young safety Dax Hill got caught out of position and was subsequently burned deep a couple of times in coverage. DJ Turner and Mike Hilton, as well as safety Jordan Battle, were also far from perfect. However, Awuzie gets the unfortunate spotlight for the complete inadequacy he showed when the game was still in reach in trying to cover Pickens, among others.