Steelers stumble vs. Bengals, lose to 4th in a row to end regular season

Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jan 4, 2025

Published in Football

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PITTSBURGH — The Steelers completed their regular season collapse with flying colors. Now they’re on to the postseason with about as little momentum as a playoff participant could possibly have.

After a miserable 19-17 loss to the Bengals on a frigid Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers are now mired in a four-game losing streak, their longest skid to end a regular season under Mike Tomlin and longest for the franchise since 1998 when they dropped five in a row to finish 7-9.

Tomlin’s team had extra rest and got on their home field for likely the final time until the 2025 campaign. A win would boost them to the AFC’s fifth seed, but instead, they were soundly beaten to the punch by a Cincinnati team now sitting, waiting and wishing for the Broncos and Dolphins to fall Sunday.

This one is even more inexcusable than the slide that included blowout losses to three of the NFL’s best teams. The defensive game plan was shredded on the first drive. The offensive game plan resulted in an anemic showing that included eight whole pass attempts in the first half against a suspect secondary.

On fourth-and-1 from his 37-yard line with 49 seconds left in the second quarter, rather than punt and play field position knowing you get the ball first in the second half, Tomlin kept his offense out there only to get stuffed on a second consecutive rush and gift the Bengals an extra field goal. He told Lisa Salters, who asked him at halftime about that decision, that he wanted to be aggressive, didn’t like that the Bengals had timeouts and “if we can't get a yard, we don’t deserve to win.”

Of all the teams to operate that way, proclaiming that about this one with its short-yardage woes is pretty rich. Now we’ll see if they deserve to win their first playoff game since 2016 or if they’ll keep spinning their wheels into another bleak offseason outlook.

It was over when

Pat Freiermuth dropped Russell Wilson’s fourth-and-12 pass attempt down the seam with 15 seconds left, a play that could've set up Chris Boswell for the winning kick had they connected.

Player of the game

Cam Heyward. The oldest man on the defense keeps trying to put games on his back. He was standing up as an interior pass rusher over the right guard. He was bowling over Cordell Volson, the left guard, from his usual spot. He got his huge paws up to swat a Joe Burrow pass on a fourth down and broke up another pass in the fourth quarter. That gives him 10 passes defended on the season, most among NFL defensive linemen. All due respect to T.J. Watt — who had a strip sack negated by a defensive holding penalty on Cory Trice Jr. — if there ever were a season for Heyward to win his first team MVP award, it would’ve been plenty reasonable this year. His continued dominance is one of the few bright spots to look forward to in 2025. Freiermuth wound up having another big game against the Bengals, too, going for 85 yards and a touchdown on eight catches, but his 11th target of the game sticks out in a bad way.

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Mike Williams. Honorable mention to Najee Harris, who ran hard like it was his first game in Pittsburgh when it could’ve been his last home game as a Steeler. Yes, Williams had one whopping reception, but it was that kind of night. His toe-tapping 25-yard catch down the right sideline was pretty much the lone highlight for this offense for much of the evening. A plethora of fans remain wondering why this guy doesn’t play more. General manager Omar Khan sacrificed a fifth-round pick for him at the trade deadline. No slight to Van Jefferson, but is he that indispensable? Williams looked like George Pickens on that catch and nearly made what would’ve been the go-ahead grab in the end zone on a deep shot from Russell Wilson late in the game.

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The real George Pickens. This is a receiver who practically begs for the ball to be thrown his way but couldn’t snag what was arguably Wilson’s best throw of the game for what would’ve been a big gain down the right sideline. At least he ran the right route and went vertical. That was just the beginning, though. Pickens would go on to have two more drops, even eliciting some boo birds from the crowd. In a vacuum, you could chalk it up as a forgettable night for an otherwise spectacular player. But with the way Pickens handles himself week to week, he puts himself under the microscope, and it makes the lack of on-field success all the more discouraging. Speaking of which, the cameras caught him arguing with fans, apparently, with Freiermuth running some interference on the sideline.

Up next

A return trip to Baltimore as the AFC’s No. 6 seed, assuming the Chargers (10-6) don’t lose to the lowly Raiders (4-12) on Sunday in Las Vegas — and the Ravens are riding high after blowing out a pitiful Browns team to keep the Steelers from their first divisional title since 2020.