2023 Steelers Season Recall: Pickett’s second-best career game follows Matt Canada firing
Steel City Underground presents our 2023 Steelers Recall: A Look Back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.
In the past, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals have had some knock-down drag-out slugfests when facing each other. In Week 12 of the 2023 NFL regular season, the Steelers traveled to Cincinnati to face a Bengals team with its own issues. With both teams trying to overcome deficiencies and injuries, no one could have predicted some of the bizarre things that occurred: or that removing one man and elevating two would make such a difference.
But it did, for Pittsburgh.
The Steelers’ first offensive play of the game occurred right after the team received the opening kickoff, and it was eye-opening. Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan dialed up a play that had Kenny Pickett throwing over the middle of the field to tight end Pat Freiermuth for a nice gain and a new first down. The ripples of shock spread across social media immediately.
The evidence of an offensive resurgence with TE Pat Freiermuth’s big game. Prior to this slate against the Bengals, Freiermuth never had a 100-yard receiving game in his NFL career. He would finish the day as the team’s leading receiver, catching nine passes for 120 yards.
That capped off the questions on social media as to whether or not Pickett or former OC Matt Canada were the biggest reason the middle of the field was a no-go zone offensively.
This play in #PITvsCIN is a perfect illustration of the "Catch" rule and how instant replay is applied.
In real speed, watch how fast Diontae Johnson possesses the ball and then loses control of it. From an official's POV, this play appears to be an incomplete pass because the… pic.twitter.com/uYXC6JBPSZ
— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) November 26, 2023
The second offensive drive was efficient except for the finish, with a touchdown to Diontae Johnson that was called back. Upon review, the play should have been called a TD by officials. In the case of this single play, it could have still been called “incomplete” by officials even if Mike Tomlin had challenged it at the time. That’s how inconsistent the officiating continues to be across the league.
With Mike Sullivan calling the plays, the Steelers posted 421 yards of offense against the Bengals. It was the first time Pittsburgh’s offense surpassed the 400-yard mark in production in several years: 59 games to be exact. (And only took the first game after Canada’s firing for the Steelers offense to reach the mark!)
The last time Pittsburgh accomplished the feat was on December 23rd, 2018 against the New Orleans Saints, when they tallied 429 yards. In that game QB Ben Roethlisberger threw to not one, but two 100-yard receivers: Antonio Brown (185) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (115) in a 31-28 loss to Drew Brees.
While the offense was better it wasn’t perfect or vastly different. The team made small tweaks to Canada’s playbook, but still struggled to put points on the board. Pittsburgh entered the game as slight favorites (-1) to the Bengals. The game itself was set on a 34.5 over/under. It was a sucker bet as the Steelers only went over the total twice in their previous ten games. Whether it’s a no deposit bonus Arab casino or a website that offers generous bonuses for high rollers, those who went with the under were rewarded once again as the two lowly offensives combined for only 26 points on the day..
Yet, Kenny Pickett accomplished two different feats in this contest. First, Pickett had gone 7 games without throwing an interception. (The longest active streak in the NFL at the time.) Secondly, he broke Ben Roethlisberger’s consecutive passes attempted without an interception with 208 throws.
It would be Pickett’s second-best career quarterback rating, posting a 97.8% by completing 72.7% of his throws for 278 yards. Unfortunately, he was robbed of the touchdown pass noted above to potentially supersede his best game on the books back in Week 3 against the Las Vegas Raiders. (A 108.5 rating on 235 yards passing and two touchdown throws.)
Running the football was still a major focus and a key contributing factor in the win, per Mike Prisuta:
3 Takes That Resonate from Steelers 16, Bengals 10: Ravens entered Week 12 No. 1 in rushing (155.1 ypg). Steelers averaging 174 over last four after 153 in Cincy. None of it gained vs. Top 10 run D as of Week 12. Still more than enough to prove again they have the running game.
— Mike Prisuta (@DVEMike) November 27, 2023
Jaylen Warren cooled off from his consecutive 100-yard rushing performances the previous two weeks (13 carries for 49 yards) but Najee Harris took the torch to a season-high 99 yards with a 6.6 yards-per-carry average. Harris also added his fourth rushing touchdown of 2023 in this game.
Defensively, Pittsburgh was stingy in defending the run and were really only burned on a couple plays that were as close to a fluke as one could get in a football game. On two different pass plays, Steelers defenders were able to reflect the ball only to see a Bengals player end up with it in their hands. One of those plays set up the Bengals’ only touchdown.
The Steelers dialed up a heavy dose of pressure up front while going toe-to-toe with Bengals receivers down the field. The result was that Pittsburgh was able to own time of possession throughout the game and keep themselves from being gassed, giving the ball back to their teammates on offense to keep pushing for points on the scoreboard.
During the defensive onslaught on Bengals backup QB Jake Browning, T.J. Watt continued to be a wrecking machine. The Steelers linebacker had two sacks and a forced fumble in the game. This set his career sacks total to 91 in 98 games, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer Reggie White (82 games) as the only player since 1982 to reach 90 sacks in fewer than 100 NFL games.
Watt tied for the league lead with 13.5 sacks heading into Week 13. As such, he became only the second player since 1982 (joining White) to have at least 13 sacks in five of his first seven seasons.
Watt also recorded his 20th career game with at least two sacks, joining another club with five other players who had done so in 20 or more of their first 100 NFL games. Those other players include White (29 games), Richard Dent (23), J.J. Watt (23), Bruce Smith (20), and Jared Allen (20).
The Steelers improved to a 7-4 record with the 16-10 win.
