'Just Flat From The Whole Team' - Barrett Carter Ready To Dial Up Defensive Intensity After Steelers Speed Bump

Cincinnati is back to the drawing board on defense.

Sep 27, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) throws against Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Barrett Carter (49) during the first quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Barrett Carter continued his strong start to the 2026 NFL season individually against the Steelers, but it was a rough overall day for the Bengals defense in a 30-27 loss.

They let a 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers get the most comfortable passing looks he's arguably ever had in two seasons playing for the Steelers, and things went south quickly. The lowly Pittsburgh offense posted more than seven points in an opening quarter for the first time in 69 games.

Carter earned the second-highest Pro Football Focus grade on the defense (68.1), but needed more help around him.

"Definitely wasn't the cleanest day," Carter said about his side's showing. "Definitely needs to be better in the next game, next couple of weeks, the rest of the season. So I feel like it was just flat from the whole team today, especially on defense. I feel like offense did a good job of kind of compensating for us and our lack of stops, and I feel like they were our offense marching on them. So we have to set the tone from the first snap. I felt we didn't really do that today. We came out flat. We settled in as the game kept going on, but we have to do it from the first snap. We have to set the tone, and we didn't do that today."

Cincinnati gave Rodgers 3.19 seconds on average to throw, way higher than he had been averaging this season, and ESPN's Ben Solak also noted he had 15 attempts of at least 10 air yards -- his most in a game since he started playing for the Steelers.

They let a declining legend dip into his bag of tricks en route to the loss.

"Big thing for me right now that I saw was third down efficiency," Carter keyed in on. "I felt we weren't getting off the field like we should have, but I have to watch the film and see the exact specifics on what went wrong. We know that this game should not have gone the way that it went today, but we have the right guys in the locker room to respond. So we'll be back next week, and we're going to start on Wednesday at practice. Just being more intentional and hammering those details out."

Cincinnati is home all week as Jacksonville gets ready to play in The Jungle on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

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