Turns out Bengals fans were worried about wrong defense at the start of the season

As it turns out, the Cincinnati Bengals haven’t played against their toughest defensive opponent yet. Unfortunately, that changes when they face the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the division on Sunday. 

Many worried about Cincinnati’s offense heading into the first two weeks of the season when going against what many considered one of the better defenses in the NFL, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and perhaps the best, the Houston Texans. 

However, those two defenses have nothing on the Pittsburgh Steelers through the first two weeks of the season. 

Steelers’ defense makes Bucs and Texans look like warmups

The Steelers rank 10th in scoring defense through two weeks. The Buccaneers and Texans are 24th and 23rd in that particular category. 

It is still early, but the Bengals and Steelers have shown to be better defensive units than the Buccaneers and the highly touted Texans.  

The Steelers have given up points on 100% of their opponents’ red zone visits. That sounds awful until you realize that they have only allowed one red zone visit thus far this year. 

And that one opponent didn’t come away with a touchdown, but rather a field goal. 

According to Aaron Schatz’s defensive DVOA, the Steelers have the NFL's best defense, while the Bengals rank seventh. 

Also, in one of our favorite advanced stats, Havoc rates, the Steelers rank seventh with 40.9% of their defensive snaps ending in a pressure, tackle for loss, forced fumble, interception, or pass breakup.

Awesomely, the Bengals rank second at 46.2%.

Furthermore, if you are still a believer in PFF, which is a choice, the top-2 highest-graded edge rushers are Watt and his teammate, Nick Herbig. 

But when it comes to sacks, it isn’t Herbig who is pushing Watt for the Steelers and the league lead. That honor goes to edge rusher Alex Highsmith. 

For the season, Watt has 3.5 sacks, which are the second most in the NFL. Right behind him is Highsmith in third place with three. 

And, according to PFF, Watt and Highsmith rank first and third in sack rates at 10.5% and 6.7%, respectively. 

Furthermore, the pass-rush news doesn’t get better for the Bengals, as PFN estimates that Highsmith and Herbig had the fifth- and eighth-biggest impact among edge rushers in Week 2.

All of this is to say that we should expect Pittsburgh’s defense to give Cincinnati’s offensive line and pass protection concepts an even bigger challenge than what they saw from the Buccaneers and Texans. 

Bengals may have to run out of Pittsburgh

Perhaps the counter is to run the ball more than they did in the first two weeks and rely even more on play action that everyone kept talking about all offseason. 

The Steelers rank 24th in rushing yards allowed this season. According to ESPN Analytics, they rank 12th in run-stop win rate, while the Bengals rank second in run-block win rate, giving Cincinnati a slight analytical advantage on the ground.  

Still, Pittsburgh has proven to be better in that department than the Texans and Buccaneers, who rank 21st and 19th in run-stop win rates. 

With the Steelers’ defense not allowing big plays in the passing game, the Bengals could have success running the ball for explosive plays, as we saw when Pittsburgh played New England last week. 

The Bengals will ideally have early success on the ground, forcing the Steelers to abandon their zone-heavy tendencies and letting Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins go off.  

Bad timing for an O-line that hasn’t gelled yet

For the Bengals to overcome the onslaught that comes from facing Herbig, Highsmith, and Watt, they will need their offensive line to play better. An offensive line that hasn't yet come together. 

Cincinnati’s offense is accustomed to getting off to slow starts. Shockingly, those slow starts are not widely attributed to the offensive line. Every year, once Zac Taylor and the coaches figure out the offensive line issues, the offense looks a lot better than it does early in the season. 

However, with possibly the best defense on the schedule coming up, Taylor and company don’t have the requisite time they usually need to look like a cohesive unit. 

According to ESPN Analytics, the Bengals' offensive front ranks 24th in pass-block win rate.

The defensive pressure that the Steelers bring allows their secondary to play the most cover-4 coverage in the league, keeping everything in front of them. And even when they are in cover 3 and 4, the Bengals must make plays, as we saw in Week 1 when Bijan Robinson took a screen pass for a touchdown. 

Coincidentally, the Bengals use the Cover-4 zone less than any other team in the NFL. 

The Steelers’ unwillingness to give up big plays in the pass game is why they rank third in fewest passing yards allowed. 

Nevertheless, Joe Burrow will need to be efficient in his shot selection when throwing deep downfield on Sunday. 

But ultimately, the game could come down to how well the offensive line protects Joe Burrow from the Steelers’ defensive front. 

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