Week 10 brings a heavyweight AFC North clash to Sunday Night Football, and the setup is as good as it gets. The Bengals are 6-2, the Steelers are 6-2, and Cincinnati gets the chance to answer a 30-27 loss in Pittsburgh from Week 3. Under the lights at Paycor Stadium, with the Bengals in their “White Bengal” uniforms, this one has the feel of a game that could shape the division race.
Cincinnati has a few clear paths to a win, and they start with the obvious headliners. Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are the best quarterback-wide receiver trio in the NFL, and it’s not even close.
Burrow and Chase have been working together for the better part of a decade, while Higgins and Burrow have spent their entire NFL careers side by side. The fit is seamless.
Chase can line up anywhere, win any route, and turn a short catch into a back-breaking play. Higgins brings size, speed and the kind of contested-catch ability that makes life miserable for defensive backs.
The only reason Higgins isn’t WR1 is that Chase is Chase.
The Bengals’ defensive front is another major reason to like them here. They went all in on that group, trading the No. 10 overall pick for Dexter Lawrence and adding Jonathan Allen and Boye Mafe in free agency.
Lawrence has been dominant in the middle, Allen has played extremely well next to him, and Mafe has been one of PFF’s top pass rushers so far this season. Add in BJ Hill, TJ Slaton, Kris Jenkins Jr., Myles Murphy, Cedric Johnson and possibly Shemar Stewart, and Cincinnati has one of the deepest defensive lines in the league.
If the Steelers’ offensive line starts wearing down and Aaron Rodgers needs time to work, that front can change the game.
There’s also the version of the Bengals offense we’re seeing now, which looks a lot sharper than the one that showed up in Week 3. Cincinnati started 2-0 but still looked like a team in offseason mode on offense.
That’s changed. Burrow has thrown for over 1,200 yards, 16 touchdowns and only three interceptions, and if that pace holds, it’s hard to keep him out of the MVP conversation.
Compared with the offense that lost to Pittsburgh earlier in the season, this group is operating at a much higher level now.
And then there’s the atmosphere. This has the makings of a loud one, and that matters.
The two teams already have plenty of edge, and with this much on the line, the crowd should be a real factor. Good luck to Rodgers trying to get everyone on the same page when he can’t hear himself think.
Still, there are real reasons to think Pittsburgh can leave with the win.
The Bengals’ secondary is the biggest concern. The front office didn’t address cornerback depth, and that could show up against a quarterback like Rodgers, who has made a career out of making receivers look better.
The Steelers don’t have a receiving group on Cincinnati’s level, but there’s enough talent there for Rodgers to work with. At 42, he’s still playing at a high level, and if he’s allowed to escape pressure the way he did in Week 3, he can pick apart a defense that isn’t built to hold up in coverage forever.
Jaylen Warren is another problem Cincinnati has to solve. Rodgers may be the star, but Warren has been outstanding.
He’s averaging 5.9 yards per carry, which leads the league among running backs with a lot of carries, and he’s putting up 88 yards per game - more than the Bengals’ offense averages. He’s also PFF’s highest-graded running back, and he leads the league in yards and average yards after contact per attempt among backs with a minimum of 50% of the carries.
Even if Lawrence helps shut down the middle, Warren gives Pittsburgh a way to attack the edges and bleed the clock.
The schedule spot is the final concern. The Steelers are coming off a bye and have been off since Nov. 1, while the Bengals just played on Nov. 8 in Madrid, Spain before flying back to Cincinnati.
They do get the advantage of a Sunday night kickoff, but the travel and time-zone adjustment are still part of the equation. The trip was a good one, but it’s not the same as staying home and preparing normally.
In Other News...
Bengals May Have Found A Late-Season Edge At The Perfect Time
The Bengals trip to Madrid seems to have landed at exactly the right moment, giving a late-season team that was already rolling a little extra fuel. Players and people around the organization have pointed to the international visit as a boost for bonding and chemistry, the kind of reset that can matter when a locker room is trying to carry momentum into the stretch run. With Cincinnati on a four-game winning streak, the timing could hardly be better as the focus shifts to a key meeting with the Steelers.
There is also a broader backdrop here that makes the moment feel bigger than one road trip. The Bengals have dealt with some external noise around front-office decision-making, including criticism tied to compensatory picks, while a called-off trade involving Arnold Ebiketie added another layer to the conversation. For a team trying to sharpen its edge in December, the question now is whether the chemistry from Madrid can translate into something more tangible when the games get tighter. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Are Staring At A Steelers Mismatch They Know Too Well
The Bengals are heading into another divisional meeting with a familiar problem to sort out, and it starts with how Pittsburgh plans to use Darnell Washington. Steelers offensive coordinator Brian Angelicho recently talked up the tight ends role, pointing to the matchup edges Washington brings with his size, strength and value in both the passing game and the run game.
For Cincinnati, the concern is less about one isolated player and more about a season-long issue that has shown up against tight ends. Washington has already emerged as a key part of the Steelers passing attack, and Pittsburgh media expect him to keep having an impact in this one, which leaves the Bengals facing a test they have not handled especially well so far. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Now Face A Roster Problem The Deadline Didnt Fix
The trade deadline came and went without the Bengals making a move, leaving Cincinnati to sort through the same roster questions it had going in. With needs still lingering at certain spots, the front office now has to look for help the slower way, which means scanning the free-agent market instead of plugging a hole with a deadline deal.
A few familiar names could fit that search, including Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs and Jaydon Blue, all of whom would bring a different kind of help if Cincinnati chose to explore the market. None of that guarantees a move, of course, but it does underline the reality the Bengals are facing now: the deadline passed, and the roster issues did not. [Read more 🡒]