Offensively, the Steelers showed Sunday that they have the ability to establish a sold run game. The team’s defense, the week, is facing a team that has proven to be able to do that for some time now.
The Bengals, paced by running back Joe Mixon, provide the Steelers’ run defense with a bigger challenge than it faced Sunday in the team’s 20-10 win over New Orleans this past week.
“Our goal is that we have to stop Joe Mixon,” said Steelers offensive coordinator Teryl Austin Sunday. “If Joe Mixon runs on us, that doesn’t leave us much of a chance.”
Mixon is 18th in the NFL in rushing yards this season. A somewhat pedestrian stat, sure, but the 6-1, 220 pound tailback is coming one off the best games of his career, racking up 153 yards and four rushing touchdown, plus 58 receiving yards and another score, in Cincinnati’s 42-41 win over Carolina two weeks ago.
“Man, he’s really looking to punish a secondary,” defensive end Cam Heyward said of Mixon. “He's not shying away from contact, and he’s got good balance. You really got to wrap up well with him.”
The Steelers, in Week 1, stunned the defending AFC Champs with a 23-20 overtime win. The casts have changed some, but Pittsburgh’s defensive recipe remains the same.
“We go into every game with the idea that we have to stop the run first,” Austin said. “I know a lot of people are like, ‘what are you talking about, it’s a passing league?’ But that’s how we go into the game. We feel no different this week. We felt no different in Week 1.”
That said, it is a passing league. And the Bengals certainly have a passer.
Joe Burrow has helped lead Cincinnati back from a 0-2 start to, right now, a game out of first place in the AFC North at 5-4. He has passed for 2,535 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions — four of which came against the Steelers in the opener.
“I feel like the competitor in him was like, that's not going to happen again,” Heyward said of Burrow’s miscues. “And, for us, what can we do to sustain that and make sure that he feels uncomfortable in the pocket?”
“We’re going to have to really work hard to try to see if we can get some turnovers, get some takeaways from these guys,” Austin added. “We had a stellar game the first time. That doesn’t usually repeat itself, but there’s still gong to be opportunities there for us that we still have to take advantage.”
Burrow presents another challenge, his legs. He hasn’t run for an exceptional amount of yards (151), but did go for a season-high 47 against the Steelers. He has rushed for touchdown in four of Cincinnati’s last five games, as well.
“He's even keel,” Heyward said of Burrow. “Even if you do fluster him, he's still going to give you your shot. And then I just think he's deceptively mobile. He does a great job of shrugging off defenders…. You really got to make sure you really bottle him up, keep him in the pocket, because he can beat you with his feet, as well as his arm.”
Austin agrees, in a sense.
“That’s a really big deal for us, to try to keep him in the pocket and not have him make big plays outside of the pocket or scramble for big yards,” Heyward said. “I don’t know if he’s deceptive. He’s pretty dang good.”
The Steelers stunned the Bengals the first time around by forcing five turnovers, and sacking Burrow a season-high seven times. The third-year quarterback was dropped 13 times in the first two weeks, but just once against Carolina. So the chance to turn such a talented thrower over that much seems doubtful, and Burrow has said publicly this week that he doesn’t intend on history repeating itself.
But the Steelers will try.
“I don't think anybody quarterback thinks they are going to four picks again,” Heyward said. “I was mad we didn't make it five picks.
“Going forward, he's not going to give us those opportunities.
We got to make those opportunities. And it's about seizing those opportunities.”