It’s Week 10, which means we’re halfway through the season. The playoff picture is starting to come into view, and the Cincinnati Bengals are 6-2 with a chance to take a firm grasp of the AFC North. They host the Pittsburgh Steelers, also 6-2, who beat the Bengals in Pittsburgh in Week 3, 30-27.
The game will be in front of a national audience on Sunday Night Football under the lights, and the Bengals will wear their “White Bengal” uniform. With the history between these two teams and what’s at stake,
this is one of the biggest games played at Paycor Stadium in the last few years.
Here are three reasons why the Bengals will beat the Steelers in front of a home crowd on Sunday night (followed by three reasons why they won’t).
Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins
That’s reason No. 1.
Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins make up the best quarterback-wide receiver trio in the NFL, and it’s not even close. Burrow and Chase have played football together for the better part of a decade, and Higgins and Burrow have been together their entire NFL careers.
And they complement each other perfectly.
Chase is a generational talent. He can play on the outside or in the slot or out of the backfield. He can run any route, and he can burn about any defensive back in a footrace. On top of that, when he gets the ball in his hands, he turns into a running back—capable of breaking tackles and turning a five-yard reception into a 60-yard touchdown any time he touches the ball.
Tee is a big-bodied receiver—6-foot-4, 220 pounds—but he too can fly. His greatest strength, though, is his literal strength when it comes to catching the ball in traffic. You could make a two-hour movie out of his highlights when it comes to keeping the ball in his hands and defensive backs are draped all over him.
The only reason Higgins isn’t WR1 is that Chase is Chase.
Bengals Defensive Line
The defense is improved. It’s not perfect, but it is better. What makes it better is the defensive line. The Bengals went all in on that one position group.
They traded the No. 10 overall pick for Dexter Lawrence, who has been a dominant force in the middle all season long. They also signed Jonathan Allen, who has played extremely well next to Lawrence, and Boye Mafe, who ranks among PFF’s top pass rushers so far this season.
On top of the free agent additions, they retained last year’s starters, BJ Hill and TJ Slaton, as well as their 2024 second-round pick, Kris Jenkins Jr. Sprinkle in Myles Murphy, Cedric Johnson, and possibly Shemar Stewart (I know, I know…), and the Bengals have one of the deepest defensive lines in the league.
So at the end of the game, when the Steelers’ offensive line is sucking wind, and Aaron Rodgers needs time to find his ogre of a tight end for a first down, maybe they won’t be able to hold off a Lawrence who has just taken a couple plays off on the sideline to catch his breath.
Week 10 Offense > Week 3 Offense
We’ve seen this story before.
The Bengals, though they started the season 2-0, looked weird doing it on offense. They were still in offseason mode, like Burrow and the rest of his offense typically are until late October.
Now, the offense is firing on all cylinders. Burrow has thrown for over 1,200 yards, 16 touchdowns, and only three interceptions. If he continues this trend, it would be hard to deny him the MVP.
So, if you go back and watch the Bengals lose to the Steelers in Week 3, and then you watch their offense over the last four weeks, you’ll notice they look much better now.
Bonus Reason: You
This game has potential to be insane. The two teams don’t like each other already, and with what’s at stake, the stadium is going to be LOUD.
I’d like to see Rodgers communicate a change to his receivers and offensive line when he can’t even hear himself think.
So be loud.
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And now, unfortunately, three reasons why the Bengals won’t win on Sunday:
The Bengals’ Secondary
If the Bengals have a big weakness, it’s their secondary. The front office didn’t address the cornerback position despite the overall lack of quality depth, and now it could come back to bite them.
The Steelers don’t boast a receiving corps nearly as good as the Bengals’, but there’s talent there, and Rodgers has spent an entire career making receivers look good.
At 42 years old, Rodgers is playing at a high level, and if the Bengals let him run around in the backfield and avoid pressure the way he did in Week 3 again, he will find open receivers and move the ball down the field. The Bengals’ secondary isn’t good enough to lock up receivers for an extended period of time, and Rodgers is perfectly capable of carving them up if he gets the opportunity to do so.
Jaylen Warren
Rodgers might be the star on the Steelers’ offense, but Warren has been incredible for Pittsburgh. He’s averaging 5.9 yards per carry, which leads the league among running backs with a lot of carries. He averages 88 yards per game, which is more than the Bengals’ offense averages. He’s PFF’s highest-graded running back, and he has more yards and averages more yards after contact per attempt than any other running back in the league with a minimum of 50% of the carries.
Lawrence might be really good at stopping the run when the offense tries to run between the tackles, but he can’t be everywhere. And one major weakness of the Bengals’ defense is their ability to stop the run on the outside.
One of the best ways for the Steelers to defend against Burrow is to keep him on the sidelines, and one of the best ways to keep him on the sidelines is to let Warren carry the ball and chew clock.
The Steelers are coming off a bye; the Bengals are coming off an international game
This matters.
The Steelers are fully rested and are coming off their bye week. They haven’t played a football game since Nov. 1 and are relatively healthy.
The Bengals, on the other hand, not only played on Nov. 8, but they played that game in Madrid, Spain. Then they had to fly back across the planet to Cincinnati and pretend like everything’s normal. They do get the benefit of waiting to play football until Sunday night, but if the NFL wants to continue their international games, they’re going to have to think about giving teams an extra bye week before they have to travel that far.
The Bengals had a good trip, but the stress and adjustment to different time zones probably made things a little more difficult than they would have been had they played the Falcons in Atlanta.
What do you think will happen on Sunday night?
