The Bengals haven’t beaten the Steelers since 2015, and their last meeting was a blowout in Joe Burrow’s last full game before suffering an ACL tear the next week at Washington. Now Ryan Finley will be getting his first start of the season after Brandon Allen was declared out because of a knee injury he suffered Sunday against Dallas.
Here are five storylines to watch going into Monday night’s game:
1. Finley gets another shot
Finley returns to the starting lineup for the first time since 2019 when he got three chances to try to prove himself in Andy Dalton’s place. His last start came against none other than the Pittsburgh Steelers, a 16-10 loss in which he completed 12 of 26 passes for 192 yards and one touchdown, took four sacks and lost one of two fumbles.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor went back to Dalton after that, and Finley’s only opportunities this year came in injury situations where he had to come off the bench. He replaced Burrow in the third quarter against Washington and the offense managed just 17 yards on 18 plays. Taylor pushed Allen – the emergency COVID quarterback on the practice squad – ahead of Finley after that.
Now, after his first week running the first-team offense this season, Finley gets a chance to show if he’s improved when able to properly prepare. Taylor said Allen remains “day-to-day” and Kevin Hogan will come up from the practice squad as the backup Monday.
“It just seems like he’s ready to go, like this is his year to prove himself, so I believe he’s going to do well,” wide receiver Tyler Boyd said.
2. Run that ball
In light of Finley’s struggles, the Bengals should be looking to run the ball as much as possible. The Steelers rank first in the league in turnover margin (plus-11), scoring defense (allowing 18.2 points per game) and are second in pass defense while allowing just 202.2 passing yards per game. They are sixth against the run (100.9 rushing yards per game).
Cincinnati, still without Joe Mixon, could be looking more to Trayveon Williams to get the running game going. However, Taylor reiterated earlier this week he wasn’t making a statement when he took out Giovani Bernard for the rest of the first half against Dallas after he fumbled on the game’s second snap.
Taylor had planned to rotate Bernard with Williams and Samaje Perine. Williams, a sixth-round pick in 2019, didn’t get his first NFL carry until last month and he fumbled on his fourth carry of Sunday’s game and 10th of his career. He ended up with career-highs of 12 carries for 49 yards, and he’s averaging 4.0 yards per carry while Bernard is at 3.3 and Perine at 3.8.
“Just wanted to provide some opportunity for him,” Taylor said when asked about Williams’ increased role. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in Gio and and Samaje as well. Two guys that do everything the right way and exactly how you want it done. As we continue to try to be explosive on offense and create ways to get more explosive plays to score more points, we’re turning over every stone to try to find ways that can happen. Trayveon hadn’t gotten much of an opportunity, so we felt like let’s take a peek at him and see if he can give us a jolt on offense.”
The Bengals average 92.3 rushing yards per game and their 101 yards last week were the most on the ground since totaling 139 yards rushing against Pittsburgh in Week 10. The Steelers are missing some linebackers with Bud Dupree and Robert Spillane on injured reserve.
Cincinnati’s offensive line continues to shuffle with Fred Johnson expected to start at left tackle, and Quinton Spain and Xavier Su’a-Filo getting looks at the guard spots while Michael Jordan was inactive last week as a healthy scratch.
3. Turnover trouble
The Steelers lead the league in takeaways with 25 -- 17 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries – and that is something the Bengals have struggled with this season. Cincinnati has turned the ball over 22 times, including nine by interception and 13 by fumble. Three of those fumbles occurred on the first three possessions for the offense last week against Dallas.
Pittsburgh also leads the league with 3.5 sacks per game, and Finley has a tendency to hold onto the ball much too long. He has been sacked seven times in 34 snaps this season, but hasn’t fumbled. Last year, in three starts he fumbled four times and lost three of them.
“When you watch them on tape, when they’ve got guys wrapped up you see them punching at the ball,” tight end Drew Sample said. “You see them gang tackle, they’re around the ball. They chase guys down. That’s something obviously we’ve seen, and we need to make sure we’re dialed in on that because they are the best at it. We’ve seen it on tape, and obviously last week we had some issues with that. They’re going to be gunning for it.”
Winning the turnover battle could be the difference in the game. Jessie Bates leads the team with three interceptions but has been close on a few more. Vonn Bell has two fumble recoveries and one forced fumbles to go along with a team-high 96 tackles.
4. Affecting the quarterback
Daniels said the Bengals have to do more to affect Ben Roethlisberger this time. He wasn’t sacked and only faced six pressures in the first matchup, while throwing for a season-high 333 yards. Carl Lawson leads the defense with 4.5 sacks and 23 pressures.
Roethlisberger gets the ball out quickly and is hard to take down anyway, but Daniels said the pass rushers have to get off their blocks quicker and at least try to bat down balls if they can’t get to Big Ben. The Steelers only ran the ball 20 times for 44 yards in that game.
“They have a Hall of Fame quarterback,” Daniels said. “You’re going to utilize him whether your running game is hot or not. You’re going to utilize your Hall of Fame quarterback. There may be games where they run the ball 30-plus times. There may be games where they are definitely more 80-20 pass-run. We just know that we have to be ready and to expect anything because this is an NFL game. And like I said, it’s a rivalry game. They’re going to bring their best and we have to bring ours.”
The Steelers have struggled to run the ball all season, though, and James Conner is questionable with a quad injury that limited him in practices this week. Pittsburgh averages just 89.1 rushing yards per game, better than only one team in the league, but Cincinnati’s run defense ranks 28th while allowing 131.7 rushing yards per game.
5. Special teams shake-up
Austin Seibert will get another chance to kick for the Bengals on Monday, Taylor said. He replaced Randy Bullock last week but only got a chance to kick off and kick one extra point, which he made.
“For Randy, we need to make some of those kicks, so we took a look at Austin (Seibert),” Taylor said.
The Bengals have to be better at special teams this matchup after having multiple mistakes in that area at Pittsburgh. Brandon Wilson, who missed last week with a hamstring injury, remains questionable. Alex Erickson handled all the return duties against Dallas.
TODAY’S GAME
Steelers at Bengals, 8:15 p.m., ESPN, NFL, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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