Steelers vs. Bengals: What to Watch For in Season Opener
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There's a new era in black and gold with a new quarterback behind center and a new general manager at the helm. The more things change, the more things stay the same as the Pittsburgh Steelers will see a familiar foe to open their season, the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals.
After dropping three in a row to their division rival, can Pittsburgh break the streak and shock the world with yet another week one upset in back-to-back seasons? Here is what to watch for:
Bengals Offensive Tendencies
In 2021, Cincinnati was in 11 personnel (three wide receivers, one running back, one tight end) a whopping 77% of the time, second highest in the league. Head coach Zac Taylor comes from the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan coaching tree and runs mostly a zone run blocking scheme, specializing in wide zone. In the final matchup against the Bengals in 2021, they dialed up wide zone 18 times for 119 total yards on the day. An interesting note, Joe Burrow doesn't seem to particularly care for turning his back to the defense with the Bengals being 31st in the league in terms of play action passing.
Joe Burrow's Rise
Burrow gave the Bengals franchise something to be proud of after he led the organization to a Super Bowl appearance in just his second professional season. The former number one overall pick gave Mike Tomlin's defense fits last season, throwing for three touchdowns in 11 passing attempts against the blitz in two meetings last season. Burrow's 123.6 passer rating when defenses brought five or more rushers ranked 2nd in the NFL behind only Matt Stafford, minimum 100 passing attempts.
Ahkello Witherspoon's Big Test on the Boundary
Witherspoon inked a two-year deal to return to the steel city shortly after free agency began in the spring.
It was extremely important for the Steelers to retain him given how incredible he played down the stretch last season. It's been a while since Pittsburgh has had this type of height-weight-speed skill set at the cornerback position. He gets a premier matchup to open the season in reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Ja'Marr Chase.
Witherspoon barely played in either matchup last season as Pittsburgh opted to roll with Joe Haden and James Pierre instead. As Joe Burrow's favorite target, Witherspoon will need to come in clutch for the Steelers defense to have a shot at slowing him down.
Cam Heyward Begins 12th Season With a Favorable Matchup
Coming off of his second career double-digit sack campaign, the former Ohio State Buckeye is showing no signs of slowing down.
His 2022 season could bring some fireworks early on as he could get some favorable looks in week one with Cincinnati opting to start rookie fifth round pick, Cordell Volson on Sunday.
Volson was able to beat out incumbent Jackson Carmen for the starting left guard spot along the offensive line. However, Volson faces the by far the biggest test of his young career on as the Steelers will surely try to get Heyward matched up one on one with Volson on passing downs.
Despite a surprising preseason for the rookie, this is a major mismatch that the Steelers will look to exploit early and often.
Learning From Last Years Mistakes
Burrow torched the Steelers last season when they elected to stay in single high coverage shells, cover 1 and cover 3, going 21-26 for 282 yards, four touchdowns to just one interception. The Bengals receiving trio of Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd is in the conversation for tops in the league making this matchup a tough one to gameplan for.
Burrow loves to throw the deep ball as Chase is capable of running by just about anyone due to his electrifying speed and Higgins is a body control wizard with fantastic ball skills. Pittsburgh might elect to play more split safety looks to prevent the splash plays and make Burrow check the ball down.
Bengals Defensive Tendencies
During the regular season in 2021, Cincinnati played a nice blend of single high/split safety to keep offenses honest but that changed in their two matchups against Pittsburgh as they played two-high well over 70% of the snaps.
The Steelers saw a ton of those looks last season given their inability to test the middle of the field as well as their overall inability to punish teams for low box counts. Lou Anarumo's group rarely blitzed last season, ranking near the bottom of the league in blitz percentage. That was something they stayed true to against Pittsburgh, only blitzing Roethlisberger on 14 total snaps.
Have a Plan for Trey Hendrickson
The subject of this weeks film review, Hendrickson's 2021 campaign flew massively under the radar last season but it shouldn't have as he ranked fifth in total sacks with 14 and 4th overall in pressures with 72 of those.
The former New Orleans Saints edge is the equivalent to the energizer bunny who plays with an insanely hot motor that runs at all times to compliment a fearsome bull rush and a series of stab/swipe moves. He aligns strictly on the right side of the defense which means he'll see Dan Moore Jr. on Sunday. Their last matchup was one sided as Moore allowed 11 pressures and two sacks to Hendrickson.
After a rocky preseason, this is a great opportunity for Moore to start the new year on the right foot and start trending upwards again.
Chase Claypool Revenge Game?
If you didn't catch the All-22 of the Steelers/Bengals week 12 matchup, you missed out on some pretty comical entertainment.
There were a bunch of back and forth extracurricular activity between Chase Claypool and Eli Apple, the latter of which threw a couple cheap shots on the receiver away from play. It was an interesting back and forth to say the least.
With Claypool destined for more snaps inside as the teams primary slot receiver, he'll see more of Mike Hilton, a man that needs no introduction to Steelers Nation.
Claypool has a massive size and athleticism advantage in that matchup and if the Bengals elect to stick in those two-high looks, there will be opportunities to make plays over the middle. As a player that wears his emotion on his sleeves at all times, right or wrong, it's fair to expect Claypool to be pretty jazzed up about this game which could pay dividends for the Pittsburgh offense.
Najee Harris' Impact in the Run Game
It's not secret that the Steelers struggled to run the football last season due to various factors but if they want to be successful this year on offense, that must change drastically.
When going back to watch film on the Bengals defense from last season, it was a particularly poor tackling group overall. In fact, they ranked 31st in the National Football League in broken/missed tackle percentage on run plays, trailing only the Detroit Lions. The only running back that broke more tackles than Harris did last season when pounding the rock was Javonte Williams, who compiled 35 broken tackles, four more than Harris in 2021.
Pittsburgh's new look offensive line will need to give Harris some room to breath for a change but Harris will need to be the focal point and pile on those yards after contact to wear the Cincinnati defense down.
Pittsburgh's Offense Must Become Explosive Again
One of the integral missing components of the Pittsburgh offense last season was the lack of splash plays. The Steelers only registered 42 explosive passing plays and the same number of explosive rushing plays, both of which ranked near the bottom of the league. Compare that to Cincinnati, who's 79 explosive pass plays ranked fourth in the league and you can quickly understand that this will likely be a key factor in determining this weeks outcome.
Mitch Trubisky's legs have the potential to create more of those on the ground this year while rookie wide receiver George Pickens made a living on those downfield plays while playing at Georgia.
With a less than stellar offensive line, those 12 play drives down the field will be difficult to come by. If they can win the battle in this department, there's a chance that the Steelers could pull off the upset on the road.
Make sure you bookmark All Steelers for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!
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