Bengals Defense Plays Better but Finds New Way to Stamp Their Names in Worst-Ever Record Book

PITTSBURGH – Lost in the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals gave up at least 27 points in their ninth straight game to tie the NFL record, and the fact that they put out another feature-length teach tape on how not to purse ball carriers and how not to try to tackle them, and the fact that three of them got the man-vs.-boys treatment on the same play, were actually a few positives.

But the Bengals defense even managed to turn several of those into negatives in Sunday’s 34-12, stake-through-the-playoff-hopes loss to the Steelers at Acrisure Stadium.

Even with some signature head-shaking moments, the Bengals only gave up 10 points in the first half, tied for the fewest they’d allowed through 30 minutes all year.

They held the Steelers to 2 of 7 on third down and forced three consecutive punts for the first time since Week 4.

“It was one of the better games they played,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said of his defense. “They gave us opportunities, only allowing 10 points going into halftime after giving up (a touchdown) on the first drive of the game.”

There was a disastrous final drive of the second half, where the Cincinnati defense had:

A 12-yard pass interference penalty.

A 15-yard roughing the passer penalty.

A 31-yard reception by Pittsburgh tight end Darnell Washington who stiff-armed Barrett Carter into oblivion and laughed off a weak attempt by Geno Stone to push him out bounds.

A 12-yard run by Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell.

A 15-yard roughing the passer penalty.

Those five gaffes came in a six-snap span.

But the defense was able to hold Pittsburgh to a 25-yard field goal that made it 10-6 going into halftime.

After the Cincinnati offense opened the third quarter with a field goal drive, the Bengals defense walked onto the field with a 10-9 deficit and saw Mason Rudolph at quarterback instead of Aaron Rodgers after the 21-year veteran left the game with a hand injury.

All Rudolph did was convert on third and 11 and third and 17 while leading a 15-play, 61-yard field goal drive that pushed the lead to 13-9.

“It comes down to certain situations and people are out of spots,” safety Geno Stone said. “We've got to execute the call. and everyone's got to rally to the ball.

A Joe Flacco pick-six gave the Steelers a 20-9 lead, and the next time the Cincinnati defense went on the field, it gave up another conversion on third and 11.

And allowed the Steelers to score a touchdown two plays after facing first and 23, making it 27-12.

“You try to keep everything in front of you and just rally and tackle them,” rookie linebacker Barrett Carter said. “It's frustrating that we had them in so many of those situations today and weren't able to get off the field. Those are favorable situations for the defense. If we can get them in third down and long several times, that's playing good football.”

The NFL average for converting on third and 10 or longer coming into Week 11 was 19.4 percent.

The Bengals ranked next to last in the league in that category, allowing teams to convert 30 percent of the time (6 of 20).

Six times in nine games.

Three times Sunday alone.

Three times in one game is tied for the most in the league this year.

Missed tackles didn’t lead to all three conversions, but there were enough of them throughout the day to give the loss a familiar feeling even despite some of the marginal improvement the defense showed at times.

A few sentences into Taylor’s postgame news conference, he was giving the Steelers credit.

But he also was throwing some passive-aggressive shade at his own defense.

“You got to give them credit,” he began. “They did the things you need to do to win these games in the AFC North, November and December football.

“They tackled better,” he said pointedly. “They won the turnover battle 2-0.”

The Steelers returned both turnovers for touchdowns, which means the defense technically only gave up 20 points.

But as a team, the Bengals surrendered 27 points for the ninth consecutive game.

That ties the single-season record set by the Los Angeles Chargers in 2020.

Not the post-merger record.

Not the Super Bowl era record.

The all-time record going back to 1920.

When a reporter circled back to ask Taylor about pointing out how the Steelers tackled and how it’s been an issue for the Bengals all year and would there be any personnel changes, he responded with a one-word answer:

“No.”