As you can see below, Cincinnati walked seven defenders up to the line of scrimmage just prior to the snap and presented a Cover-0 look (man-to-man with no safety help) in the secondary: Roethlisberger saw a pre-snap blitz look from the Bengals. And Harris, the brilliant young tailback, swung to the right as an outlet option for Ben Roethlisberger: Roethlisberger’s read Tight end Pat Freiermuth crossed the field towards the left hash before heading vertically. Ray Ray McCloud (right slot) worked up the right hash. Wide receivers Chase Claypool (split left) and James Washington (split right) stemmed inside before widening towards the pylon at the back of the end zone. The Steelers ran one of their staples - four verticals - out of a 3x1 look. Here’s a closer look at the play and some thoughts on what it may mean for the Steelers. Specifically, the decision by the quarterback. Why would they run a play that had no chance of gaining 10 yards? Why did they not throw the ball into the end zone? It wasn’t the call that was the problem, though. On the surface, it was a terrible play call. Needing a conversion or a touchdown to stay alive, the Steelers did this: A sack, a short pass to James Washington and an incompletion created a 4th and 10 situation. Somehow, despite being dominated, they had a puncher’s chance down 24-10 with just under four minutes to play, all of their timeouts remaining and a 1st and 10 at Cincinnati’s 11 yard line. Cincinnati fell back into a soft zone and the Steelers racked up yards on dinks, dunks and the sheer will of Najee Harris. This was especially true of the offense, which resembled a dead car battery for three quarters before flickering to life in the fourth. They played without much energy or emotion, executed poorly, committed an array of careless penalties and were generally outplayed by the younger, faster Bengals. They were banged up before the game started. The Steelers, on the other hand, looked like a shell of the team that opened the season with an upset of their own in Buffalo. Lions fans had plenty to be proud of as their team fought to the brink of an upset over the heavily-favored Ravens. While that sort of gut punch is devastating, the blows the Steelers received in their 24-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals had an entirely different effect. The Lions lost in excruciating fashion to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, yielding a fourth and 19 conversion in the final :30 before Justin Tucker kicked an NFL record 66-yard field goal on the final play to give the Ravens an improbable 17-16 victory.
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