After a highly productive first half of football, the Pittsburgh offense went into a shell after halftime, punting five times on its first six second-half drives on the way to a 37-30 loss to Cincinnati Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow threw three touchdown passes to running back Samaje Perine and another to second-year wideout Trenton Irwin, good for a career-high four TD tosses to go with 355 yards through the air, as the Steelers fell to 3-7 on the season.
Cincinnati (6-4) also got a big day out of Tee Higgins, who hauled in 9 receptions for a game-high 148 yards on the evening, while running back Joe Mixon added 62 total yards before leaving with a head injury.
The Steelers put up 212 yards of offense in the first half, taking their first — and only — lead of the game, 20-17, on a Matthew Wright field goal as the second-quarter clock expired. But as good as the Pittsburgh offense looked across the opening 30 minutes, it was a different story coming out of the locker room.
The Steelers went away from what was working early on, much more resembling the team that suffered through a stretch of six losses in seven games. Pittsburgh, which shot itself in the foot with penalties, picked up a total of 13 yards on its first three possessions of the third quarter. All three resulted in three-and-outs.
After Burrow’s TD toss to Irwin put the visitors ahead to stay, 24-20, with 7:02 left in the third, the Steelers got a spark defensively, as T.J. Watt came away with an interception deep in Bengals territory, but Pittsburgh managed just 6 yards and had to settle for a Wright 34-yarder to cut it to 24-23 with 4:28 to go in the third.
Evan McPherson answered with a 54-yarder late in the third to push the Cincinnati lead back to four to start the fourth, and then Kenny Pickett was sacked on third down on the Steelers’ ensuing possession, and Pittsburgh had to punt again, this time pinning the Bengals inside the 10.
The Steelers defense did its job, quickly forcing a Bengals punt, and Steven Sims called for a fair catch at the Cinci 47-yard line with 11:35 remaining, still well within striking distance. Back-to-back Pittsburgh penalties moved the ball further and further away, however, and after a handoff to Harris for a minimal gain on third-and-25 and another punt, boos rained down from every corner of the stadium.
“I thought the significant component of the game was the field positioning in the second half and the third quarter,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin. “We had the short field on offense and weren’t able to get points… Just, when you’re in a battle like that and you’ve got the short field, you’ve gotta produce points. We didn’t.”
The Bengals wasted little time putting the finishing touches on the win, as Burrow engineered a 93-yard scoring drive in just eight plays, and Perine’s third trip to the end zone stretched the lead to 11 with 4:30 to play.
“It was lack of execution,” Watt said of the defense allowing the Bengals to produce multiple chunk plays. “They had a good gameplan for us, clearly. They were able to move the ball down the field, we weren’t able to hold them to field goals and help our offense out. We just need to finish plays. Myself personally, I only get so many one-on-ones in a game. When I get them, I need to execute and I need to finish on the quarterback, and I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”
Pittsburgh tacked on a 1-yard Harris touchdown run with 45 seconds left, but Tyler Boyd secured the ensuing onside kick to seal the victory.
It was the second touchdown of the day for Harris, who leapt over the pile to tie the game at 10-10 early in the second quarter. Harris finished with a season-high 116 total yards (90 rushing, 26 receiving) to lead the ground attack.
Rookie receiver George Pickens reeled in a 24-yard pass from Pickett to knot the score at 17-apiece with 1:47 left in the first half, and then a diving interception by Levi Wallace set up the go-ahead kick on the final play of the half.
Tight end Pat Freiermuth added 79 yards on 8 catches in the losing effort, while rookie running back Jaylen Warren suffered a hamstring injury, left early and didn’t return.
“We just weren’t able to get the type of rhythm that we needed in an effort to control the game in the manner of which we did in the first half,” Tomlin said of the second-half struggles.
The Steelers wound up with 351 yards of total offense, with 72 of those coming on the late scoring drive. Pittsburgh will try to bounce back on the road next Monday night at Indianapolis (4-6-1). Prior to that, the team had amassed just 67 yards in the second half.
“Our defense did a great job of giving us a chance to win the game and we didn’t come through in that second half,” said Pickett, who was 25-for-42 for 265 yards, the TD pass to Pickens and no interceptions for a second-straight week. “So that’s on us and we’ve got to get it fixed and have two strong halves in order to beat a team like that.”
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