And just like that, the Steelers aren’t bad again. Following a listless performance on offense in Week 2, Pittsburgh won a shootout over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 .
As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had.
1. Steelers show resiliency
Following last week’s ugly defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots, I wrote that I wanted to see how the Steelers would respond to a loss under the team’s new coaching staff.
It’s safe to say the team made the right adjustments under head coach Mike McCarthy.
After a horribly
incompetent Week 2 on offense, the Steelers dropped 30 points on a Bengals defense that has been surprisingly solid to open the season. That’s not to say it was a perfect showing, but it was a far cry from the unit’s multi-level failures last week.
“Resiliency is critical to any type of success, whether it’s playing one division game or overcoming a loss last week.” McCarthy said postgame. “Momentum is a huge part of our game. It’s a hard-working football team. … Once you get through the first of everything as a team, there’s usually bumps that you go through, so, they’ve stayed the course.”
While the Patriots loss was an abnormally bad game, it’s fair to say that there was always going to be some turbulence early in the McCarthy era as Pittsburgh adjusted to its first new head coach since 2007. The ride has indeed been bumpy through three games, but the team showed the poise to not let a disaster last week spiral out of control.
It’s still difficult to get a read on the 2026 Steelers. But given the improvement this week from the last, that’s a good problem to have at the moment.
2. The offensive line shows up
One of the through lines of last week’s loss was how thoroughly Pittsburgh’s offensive front was dominated by the Patriots’ defensive line. Not one player in Pittsburgh’s starting five had a good game.
But despite playing against an improved Cincinnati front on Sunday led by all-world nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, the Steelers’ offensive line was largely fantastic in both the run and pass game. Pittsburgh averaged an impressive six yards per rush, while quarterback Aaron Rodgers was sacked only twice — once on a blitz pickup miscommunication, and another on an extended play.
Of course, Pittsburgh’s sudden success in this area of the game clearly correlates with a significant change this week, swapping out right tackle Dylan Cook and right guard Spencer Anderson for first-round rookie Max Iheanachor and veteran backup Brock Hoffman, respectively.
While I wasn’t able to keep an eye on him on every play, Iheanachor seemed to have a stellar debut. His easy athleticism shines in his mirroring in pass protection and explosion off the ball as a run blocker. His initial charting backed the eye test — according to New Gen Stats, he only allowed three pressures on 36 pass-blocking reps, including a 75% one-on-one rate.
At guard, Hoffman’s first Steelers start might not have been as flashy, but he still put together a key performance limiting Lawrence’s impact alongside Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick. Despite having two new names on the line, it was the most coordinated the group has looked all season by a mile.
And the strong pass protection numbers weren’t juiced by an exceptionally fast time to throw by Rodgers, either. In fact, according to ESPN’s Benjamin Solak, Rodgers’ 3.19-second average time to throw on Sunday was the longest of his Steelers career.
The Pittsburgh offensive line finally clicking with Iheanachor in the lineup was great news, not just in the context of the Bengals’ game, but for the long-term prospects of a team that has spent heavy resources trying to rebuild the group in recent seasons. There’s still a lot of football to be played before sweeping pronouncements, of course, but the Steelers’ offensive line looked promising on Sunday.
3. Jaylen Warren is RB1
OK, maybe Jaylen Warren played a little bit too much on Sunday, given his legs were the only thing stopping him by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.
But overall, Warren’s performance in Week 3 showed exactly why he should be getting a larger workload moving forward. Against the Bengals, he finished with 127 rushing yards and a 7.5-yard average, not including an 87-yard run that was taken back due to a questionable holding call.
And in the passing game, Warren added another 49 receiving yards, and continued to shine as a pass protector.
As those long runs showed, Warren’s long speed isn’t enough to take every big break to the house, but his burst and contact balance remain excellent. He’s an every-down threat who continues to deserve more playing time than he’s usually given.
Warren remains one of the NFL’s most underrated running backs. He’s also clearly been the Steelers’ best and most consistent skill position player through three weeks. Sunday finally showed what he can do in a bell-cow role.
4. The defense could’ve used Joey Porter Jr.
Despite giving up 27 points on Sunday, I’m far from worried about the Steelers defense. The Joe Burrow/Ja’Marr Chase/Tee Higgins/Chase Brown attack was going to be better than anything Pittsburgh had faced up to that point in the season, and sure enough, that elite offensive core made some elite plays on Sunday.
If there’s anything to be slightly perturbed by, it should be the Steelers’ pass rush not making much of an impact until later in the game, only sacking Burrow once. Still, Pittsburgh’s edge room is made up of proven players, and having receivers who get open with the ease of Chase and Higgins remains a great antidote to pressure.
And those pass catchers might’ve been better minimized if the Steelers had their best cover corner available on Sunday.
Pittsburgh clearly didn’t trust its defensive backs in man coverage against the Bengals’ star duo, but instead, Burrow picked them apart in zone. Asante Samuel Jr. put together a respectable effort matching up against Higgins, but clearly couldn’t match the latter’s size and contested catch ability. Samuel was eventually benched for rookie Daylen Everette, who has more traditional boundary corner size.
Porter would’ve given the Steelers a bigger presence at corner to match up with Higgins, and his press-man speciality, along with Jamel Dean, would’ve allowed the team to switch up more coverage concepts. Ultimately, the Steelers will want Porter down the line if they want the defense to live up to its potential this season, and the star corner has said he’ll “definitely” play at some point — whatever that means.
Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what Porter’s return timeline looks like as the Steelers enter a short week ahead of a matchup against the Cleveland Browns.
5. Odds and ends
- Sample sizes are a funny thing. In two of the Steelers’ three games so far this season, Rodgers has largely played well and done a better job pushing the ball downfield and extending plays than he did in most of 2025. It’ll be interesting what the trend looks like over the rest of the season.
- Ben Skowronek caught a touchdown pass and recovered a key fumble when the Bengals muffed a punt. One of the most underrated Steelers had an underrated performance on Sunday.
- For as impressive as Pittsburgh’s offense was on Sunday, there was still quite a bit of meat left on the bone in the passing game. The team’s performance against Cincinnati felt like the natural continuation of the promise the team showed against Atlanta in Week 1, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
- Eli Heidenreich was an inactive on Sunday while both Lew Nichols and Travis Homer got a nod on the game day roster. This isn’t a knock on the rookie, who was never expected to be much of a contributor this season, but is interesting considering that he made the roster and the other two did not.
- Pittsburgh has a problem with burning timeouts too early.
- I continue to be perplexed by Roman Wilson. He was second on the team in receiving with 60 yards on Sunday (including a touchdown), but also dropped a pass that hit him in the hands, leading to a Bengals interception and eventual touchdown. The inconsistencies remain far too consistent.
- Mike McCarthy might’ve lowered the “volume” of the Steelers’ game plan in practice this week, but his play design was consistently strong against the Bengals.
- The Steelers relied a bit more on the more experienced left side of the offensive line on Sunday, but Warren saw success running all over the field on Sunday.
- Cam Johnston’s 51-yard punt that was eventually muffed was an impressive one — I’m just happy he didn’t suffer another lower-body injury on the earlier running-into-the-punter penalty.
- One of Metcalf’s two holding penalties is tough to really hold against him, but it did continue what’s been a rough start to the season for the Steelers’ top receiver. It’s good he caught a touchdown on Sunday.
- Darnell Washington runs like he has a reputation to upkeep. And it keeps delivering entertaining results.
- It was encouraging to see Derrick Harmon’s big, game-ending sack. He’s up to 1.5 over the first three weeks of the season, a good sign for a player who needed to show more as a pass rusher this season.
- Patrick Queen was everywhere on Sunday with 13 total tackles. Another strong performance from one of Pittsburgh’s off-ball linebackers.
- After a slow start to the season, the Steelers showed some potential as a legitimately entertaining team. Hopefully that trend continues.
Pittsburgh won’t have long to enjoy its narrative-changing win. The Steelers next take the field in Cleveland on Thursday Night Football in Week 4.
What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Bengals? Agree/disagree with the ones above? Join the Behind the Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!
