The Cincinnati Bengals suffered their first loss of the season in Week 3. Cincinnati could not best Pittsburgh in a 30-27 game at Acrisure Stadium. Now the Bengals fall to 2-1 on the season and finally have to answer some big questions about themselves. But first, they need to figure out what went wrong against the Steelers.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor spread the blame around during his postgame press conference. He declared that all three phases contributed to losing this AFC North showdown.
“You know, all three phases had a chance to win that game in the fourth quarter,” Taylor told reporters after the game, per Yanni Tragellis. “Had a chance to score on offense, had a chance to get a stop on defense. Had a chance to make some plays on special teams that we didn't make. So all three phases share that.”
He did not make any excuses. At the end of the day, the Steelers simply played a more complete game than the Bengals.
“These are tough games and they made more plays than we did, they earned the win and we did not,” Taylor added. “So it'll be an opportunity next week to see what we're really made of.”
But zooming out a bit: what can Cincinnati learn from this heartbreaking loss? And where do they need to improve moving forward?
Here are the Bengals most to blame for their disastrous Week 3 loss to the Steelers.
Joe Burrow, offense sputtered at the worst moment possible
Realistically, the offense deserves the least amount of blame for Sunday's loss. But they did play a critical role in the meltdown.
Joe Burrow was sacked and fumbled the ball with less than a minute left in regulation. That one mistake took away Cincinnati's last chance to author a game-winning drive of their own.
Once again, the offense was not the main issue on balance throughout this game. However, the fact that the Bengals lost while trying to come back from behind felt very similar to recent seasons.
Perhaps things could have been different if the Bengals got a few more chances on offense. But we'll get to that later.
Either way, there's no reason to panic about Cincinnati's offense moving forward.
Bengals defense finally looks mortal against… Aaron Rodgers?
Cincinnati's defense looked pretty solid during the first two weeks of the season. But right when fans thought that maybe they'd turned a new leaf, they have a performance like this.
The Steelers racked up 411 total yards of offense in this game. Those yards all came from Aaron Rodgers dicing up the secondary and Jaylen Warren knifing through the front seven.
Rodgers finished the game 19-of-34 for 292 passing yards with three touchdowns and an interception. He was not incredible, but carved up the Bengals for a complete 60 minutes. Rodgers is still an all-time great, but getting shredded by this version of the legendary quarterback is a bit concerning. At least for a defense that is supposed to be a lot better.
Meanwhile, Warren had a career day on the ground. He had 17 carries for 127 rushing yards along with three receptions for 49 receiving yards. According to Next Gen Stats, he forced a whopping 10 missed tackles on those 20 touches. Credit where it is due to Warren, but that's also a tackling issue by Cincinnati.
Ultimately, this game may have exposed Cincinnati's greatest defense weakness — their linebackers. This isn't exactly a state secret as the Bengals do not look good on paper. But Rodgers showed how much damage can be done by the likes of Darnell Washington, Pat Freiermuth, and Warren in the short and intermediate passing game.
Special teams, penalties also contributed to Cincinnati's first loss of the season
Not even the special teams unit put together a complete performance in this one.
Ke'Shawn Williams muffed a punt early in the fourth quarter with Cincinnati up 27-24. That gave Pittsburgh the ball deep in Cincinnati territory and resulted in a game-tying field goal.
There's also Cincinnati's propensity to commit penalties, which is beginning to really hurt them. Headed into Week 3, Cincinnati committed a total of 19 penalties for 125 yards. The Bengals added to that by committing another six penalties for 40 yards. That is a whopping 25 penalties through three games, an average of just over eight per game.
Beyond the yardage, some of those penalties were absolute backbreakers.
Cedric Johnson's roughing the punter penalty may have been the worst of the bunch.
The Bengals forced a punt halfway through the third quarter while up 20-17. But on the punt, Johnson ran into Pittsburgh's punter and drew the costly penalty. Just a handful of plays later, Rodgers connected with DK Metcalf for a touchdown to gain the lead.
That is not a situation where Cincinnati needs to be aggressive about blocking a punt. Just getting the ball back is the most important thing. But Johnson messed it up and gave Pittsburgh momentum at a pivotal point in the game. Remember, a touchdown by Cincinnati at that time would have given them a 10-point advantage. It's easy to imagine the Bengals winning the game in that scenario.
Overall, the Bengals played a sloppy game against the Steelers. It will be gut check time for Cincinnati in Week 4 as they look to get their groove back.