Steelers vs. Bengals, Week 4: How the Bengals offense will try and move the ball against the Steelers defense

The Pittsburgh Steelers are gearing up for the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 4 of the 2019 regular season. After dropping three staright games to start the season, they face a Bengals team who also searching for their first win of the regular season.

This isn’t a unique matchup for the Steelers. They know their AFC North rivals very well, but there are a lot of new faces on the Cincinnati side of things who haven’t been there during the Marvin Lewis era. So, I wanted to do was to get the lowdown on what the Bengals might have in store for the Steelers by talking with Cincy Jungle, SB Nation’s Bengals website, writer Patrick Judis to pick his brain on the upcoming matchup.

In this first of many installments, I asked Patrick what he thinks the Bengals will do when they have the ball and trying to move the ball on the Steelers’ defense. Check out his response:

Joe Mixon has shown some success against Pittsburgh over his short career. Unfortunately, coaching and injuries have limited him from having as big of an impact as he probably should’ve. After seeing signs of life from the running game last week, I think the Bengals try to feed their feature back a little bit more than in past season.

When the Bengals go to the air, it is a matter of if Andy Dalton will have time to set his feet on a consistent basis. It seems like left tackle Cordy Glenn may be closer to retirement than returning to a football as he still remains in concussion protocol from a concussion he suffered during the preseason. That leaves good ol’ Andre Smith at left tackle, which has been an adventure (to put it kindly). Expect plenty of Tyler Boyd and Auden Tate, who had a career game last week, underneath. Also John Ross will either go off for over 150 yards or he will lay a goose egg. There is no in between.

It makes sense the Bengals might want to lean on the run more than the pass, especially considering the loss of their starting tackle, and the Steelers inability to stop the run over the first three weeks of the season.

The Steelers defense will have to try and make the Bengals as one dimensional as possible, and most would suggest forcing the game into Andy Dalton’s hands would be the best course of action to seeing success on the defensive side of the football. However, if they continue to struggle to stop the run, giving the Bengals the ability to both run and pass at will, then you can expect a similar defensive performance as the last three weeks. And that would include the overall result if they can’t stop the run.

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, and be sure to keep tabs on BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the Bengals in Week 4.