Duel Opinions: What are the keys to beating the Bengals?

Each week the Steel City Underground staff will put their brilliant minds to task in order to come up with their keys to the game, or, those players, coaching decisions, or situations which could determine the outcome of the game.

Tina Rivers

With the silence from most of the Bengals players in the locker room this week outside of Andy Dalton inferring people make too much of this game as a “rivalry”, I’m guessing the tension could be cut with a knife. Offensively, the Bengals do not have the weapons to put up big numbers unless they get their ground game going and the Steelers will be keying in on that fact. Pressuring Dalton and adding to the 15 sacks he has taken behind a weak offensive line should be a priority.

The Steelers DBs will need to play their zones and keep AJ Green’s yards contained, preventing big plays. Offensively, the Steelers should use the Bell-Brown combo to open up the playbook. Utilizing the tight ends and Nix adds another dimension that will keep guys like Burfict, Iloka and the Bengals D-line from forcing the offensive line into a trench battle to give Roethlisberger time. I’d love to see more up-tempo, no-huddle from Pittsburgh to keep the Bengals defense guessing and gassed from being on the field – similar to the way the Steelers handled the Ravens. Above all, play for the win as a team & not for the glory of the rivalry.

Zachary Celedonia

My key to the game will be Ben’s accuracy, down the field specifically. For years, Reggie Nelson has been a Steelers killer. More so a Big Ben kryptonite. Whereas Dre Kirkpatrick and Pacman Jones are often victimized by Big Ben’s long balls. Now that Nelson is long gone, and not even good anymore for whatever that’s worth, I believe Ben can have his best game of the season yet. Just as long as he can put the ball on the money like we’ve seen him do a million times at home.

Brian E. Roach

As it may be every week from here on out, the key is the run game. The Steelers really need to get Le’Veon Bell involved early and often. They need to build off of last weeks 170+ yard performance and soften up the Bengals defense so that Ben and the receivers can find success as the game wears on. The Bengals have the #2 defense overall right now, one spot ahead of the Steelers, and that is in large part due to their run defense ranking higher than the Steelers (Bengals are 14, Steelers 23). They haven’t allowed a 100-yard rusher this season to this point, and that needs to change Sunday.

There have been a lot of stats thrown out this week about how the Steelers win when they run the ball, but the most convincing to me are these – the Steelers are 24-3 when Bell has 20 or more rushing attempts, and 9-0 when he carries the ball 25 times or more. This is in large part dictated by the score, and if they can stay in front of the chains – it’s hard to run the ball if you are behind by 14 or it’s 2nd and 9 or 3rd and 10. Still, they need to find a way to keep the run game going this week.

Joe Kuzma

My key is the same as the weakest link I wrote about the other day: Antonio Brown.

Brown has not had great success against the Bengals secondary in four of his last five games. With he and Le’Veon Bell carrying the team in terms of production, it’s imperative that Brown has at least an average game by his standards: anything less could be suicide for the Steelers offense.