Steelers defense stays the course in Monday’s snap count totals against the Bengals

It was refreshing to see change in the air Monday night as the Steelers secured their first win of the season with a 27-3 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

For fans who were upset at the coaching staff in weeks prior, namely stating they were incapable of adjustments, this week served notice that Mike Tomlin’s comments about “painting the barn red” (when you only have “red paint”) rang true.

Thin at the tight end position, the team failed to utilize an extra tackle, namely Zach Banner, in their loss at San Francisco: this week, Banner would play 29% of the offensive snaps.

Newly added TE Nick Vannett was out on the field for 75% of the game, which may raise some eyebrows as well, but it was rookie Zach Gentry, who entered the previous week’s game due to injuries to Vance McDonald and Xavier Grimble, who should raise more, as he paired with Vannett and Banner often in the Steelers run game.

Gentry would play 25 of the Steelers 59 snaps on offense.

A few more notables:

• Donte Moncrief returned from being inactive, playing three snaps.
• Benny Snell saw a season-high 12 snaps.
• For a second consecutive week Ryan Switzer only played special teams.

On the defense, rookie Devin Bush played the entire game for a second straight week. To illustrate how rare this is, Ryan Shazier didn’t play a full game as a rookie and only played a single full game in his second season. (Shazier would eventually takeover playing full-time in 2016 and prior to his injury in 2017.)

Furthermore, Vince Williams had only played a full game twice, and was a snap shy of doing so a third time last year: all of those instances occurred in the first three weeks of the season.

The secondary stayed the course, as per the usual, with some of the younger outside linebackers, such as Olasunkanmi Adeniyi and Jayrone Elliott, getting playing time this week. Tyler Matakevich also saw his first playing time of the season on defense.

Here are the full snap counts for the Steelers on both sides of the ball.

Steelers Offense

Steelers Defense