The Pittsburgh Steelers went into Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals knowing that they cannot afford to lose and fall below .500. The worry was that the Steelers offense wouldn't be able to keep up but head coach Mike McCarthy put together an excellent plan that netted the Steelers a huge 30-27 win. Here are our big takeaways from the game.
Take this win for what it is
Now is the time for the Steelers to enjoy this win and stay humble. Those first two games still exist and could be back as soon as Thursday. Now is the time for humility and focusing on the next game now taking shots at critics or gloating.
Jaylen Warren is a workhorse
We said we felt like this was the week for Jaylen Warren to shine and boy did he ever. Warren rushed for 127 yards on 17 carries and hauled in three passes for 49
yards. Warren is a completely different type of play than Rico Dowdle or any other back on the roster and is the offensive line can keep doing its job, he's going to be tough to stop.
The new offensive line was much better
The move to plug in Brock Hoffman and Max Iheanachor really paid dividends and it's hard to see them going back to Spencer Anderson and Dylan Cook.
The pass rush staying in the locker room
What should have been a huge mismatch for the Steelers turned out to be a stalemate for the Steelers edge defenders. Cincinnati stonewalled T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig all game long which was a huge reason the Bengals were in the game right until the end.
The secondary might need Joey Porter Jr.
We recognize that if the Steelers pass rush had even been average, the problems in the secondary would have been less. But the pass rush was bad and it might be bad again, so the more talent the team has in the secondary, the better.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: 5 big takeaways from the Steelers win over the Bengals
