3 winners (and 4 losers) for Bengals from Week 3's garbage loss to Steelers

The Cincinnati Bengals and their defense looked untouchable entering Sunday's Week 3 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alas, a seemingly inevitable letdown ensued, as Aaron Rodgers turned back the clock and dog walked the Bengals' defense down the field for much of the afternoon.

Good thing Cincinnati still employs Joe Burrow as Rodgers' counterpart. Burrow executed a masterclass in taking what the Steelers defense gave him, overcame myriad procedural penalties, and almost did enough to push the Bengals to 3-0 with an AFC North-opening win in Pittsburgh. Alas, a lost fumble from Burrow in the final minute gave the Steelers a 30-27 home win.

Division games are always tough, but the Bengals were road favorites for a reason. They were not terribly sharp on defense. In this edition of winners and losers, there's a fair amount of blame to go around.

Guess the Steelers don't need Mike Tomlin on the sidelines to still be a stubbornly feisty home underdog.

Winner: Joe Burrow

Games like this one were too reminiscent of years past, when Joe Burrow had to carry the team to competitive relevance. That's why Burrow gets paid the big bucks, though, and Week 3 proved once again why there's still full belief in Joe Shiesty despite his lengthy injury history.

Burrow was absolute nails in big spots. A 4th and 2 downfield back-shoulder throw to Ja'Marr Chase that led to a field goal. A 4th and 2 touchdown strike to Mike Gesicki to put Cincinnati up in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, the magic ran out when Burrow got strip sacked on the final drive.

Zero margin for error when the defense plays so poorly, and here we are again. One blunder. In a game where Burrow completed over 75% of his passes, had three TDs, and a 123.9 passer rating. That's all it took.

Elite quarterbacks are the great eraser for major mistakes and poor play from other areas of a team. Joe Brrr proved that truth to a T on Sunday in the Steel City...until the last possession.

Loser: The team's ability to stay consistent and locked in for 60 minutes

Twelve penalties for 78 yards in Week 2. Still won 20-6 in Houston. On Sunday, the Bengals shot themselves in the foot so often with penalties and miscues it was maddening. There was a phantom alignment penalty on Amarius Mims that shouldn't have been, but other errors that were very blatant.

The worst offender was defensive end Cedric Johnson, who got a 15-yard roughing the kicker penalty on punt coverage. That led to a go-ahead Steelers touchdown in the third quarter.

I say Johnson was the worst offender, because he was, until Ke'Shawn Williams muffed a punt with just under 11 minutes left to gift the Steelers the ball right in the red zone. They went ahead and tied it up.

Just maddening. This game should've been a blowout. The Bengals were on the brink of pulling away multiple times. Oh well.

Winner: Dohnte Meyers

Other than one drop, Dohnte Meyers proved he could handle the Bengals' WR3 role. In fact, he has so much more wiggle after the catch than Andrei Iosivas, that after Yoshi comes back from injury, no offense dawg, but Dohnte should be The Guy behind Chase and Tee Higgins.

Unfortunately, myriad injuries to the Bengals' pass-catcher corps took Meyers off punt return duties in favor of Williams, who had the aforementioned horrid muffed punt.

Gee I don't know but maybe my brush-shoulder-off highly original suggestion of trading for Marvin Harrison Jr. from earlier this week isn't as ridiculous as some seemed to believe!

Loser: Bengals defensive ends

Dexter Lawrence was drawing double teams darn near every snap. The Steelers started raw rookie Max Iheanachor at right tackle for the first time. Myles Murphy could not capitalize whatsoever; his lone sack on the day was wiped out by rookie corner Tacario Davis' holding penalty.

Boye Mafe also didn't impress when predominantly lined up against Pittsburgh left tackle Troy Fautanu. Mafe was outstanding the first two weeks. He was pretty invisible on Sunday.

This should've been a gettable Steelers offensive line. I thought if anything, the Bengals would have perhaps their best game up front yet. Instead, Pittsburgh's outside runs and Rodgers' quick release completely neutralized the impact of Cincinnati's edge defenders.

Loser: Bengals secondary

It's not like the defensive backfield did the d-line any favors, either. Steelers wideout Michael Pittman Jr. was questionable coming into the game. That receiving corps isn't full or world beaters.

While DJ Turner did his job for the most part, he also smashed into Dax Hill in his own end zone to gift DK Metcalf a wide-open touchdown to put the Steelers up 24-20 after the PAT in the third quarter.

Thank goodness Roman Wilson had some Butterfingers before he entered the game, and let a laser Rodgers pass slip right through his hands for a Jordan Battle interception. Otherwise, things would've gotten really ugly for the Bengals on the back end of their defense.

Just a dreadful day. Nobody played well. Tacario dropped an interception in the final quarter that could've totally flipped the game. Oh, and prized free-agent safety Bryan Cook had to exit early with an ankle injury.

Couldn't have said it better, Paul.

Winner: The Chase-Higgins narrative

Paying to keep Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins for the duration of Burrow's prime, at Joe's behest, was a great call. It's just been unfortunate that Burrow and Higgins have often struggled to stay healthy enough in the ensuing years to show how lethal this offense can be at full strength.

But we saw it on full display in Week 3. Both had trips to the end zone, including an absolutely outstanding TD snag by Higgins that more or less landed in his lap as he went to the ground.

There was plenty of money left over for Cincinnati to shell out big dollars to upgrade the defense. They waited until this offseason to do it. Those fellas simply didn't step up to the plate in Week 3.

Loser: Bengals' overall team health

Andrei Iosivas is already on IR. Colbie Young suffered a left knee injury early and didn't return. Bryan Cook had a right ankle injury he was trying to play through but ultimately couldn't, as Kyle Dugger had to replace him. Linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. was sidelined for a spell, too.

Cincinnati had a pretty clean team bill of health heading into Week 3. All of a sudden, there are question marks all over the place. Dugger played quite well in Cook's stead at least.

I was feeling mighty good about this team, thinking a 5-0 start was very realistic entering the Week 6 bye. That's no longer the case, duh. Next Sunday against the Jaguars will be a major test. I'd hate to see what the Bengals' sieve of a secondary would've looked like today against Jacksonville's stacked receiving group of Parker Washington, Jakobi Meyers and Brian Thomas Jr.

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