The Cincinnati Bengals' passing game was too much to handle for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night.
Quarterback Joe Flacco, in just his second start with the Bengals, passed for 342 yards and three touchdowns. The wide receiver duo of JaMarr Chase (16 receptions for 161 yards and one touchdown) and Tee Higgins (6-96-1) combined for 22 catches, 255 yards, and two scores.
Yet lost among all the passing yards was running back Chase Brown, who rushed for 108 yards on 11 carries in the Bengals' 33-31 victory over the Steelers at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, ending Pittsburgh's three-game winning streak.
"Just not playing gap-stop football," linebacker T.J. Watt said of the Steelers' inability to stop the run. "Obviously, we'll have to look at the tape. It felt like the run scheme we had this game was going to be
effective. I think it's going to come down to, when we look at the film, just guys getting out (of the) gap."
The second-place Bengals (3-4) closed the gap on the AFC North-leading Steelers (4-2) in the division standings, cutting Pittsburgh's advantage to 1 ½ games.
However, defensive tackle Cam Heyward was looking at the stat sheet more than the standings after the game. Heyward clearly did not like what he saw.
The Bengals had 142 yards rushing in all. The Steelers had held their previous two opponents, the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns, to 70 and 65 yards on the ground after allowing 182, 117, and 119 in the first three games of the season.
"As a defense, we've got to own it," Heyward said. "As a D-line, that run game is a big wrench on our group right now."
The Steelers are 18th in the NFL in run defense. While not great, it's better than their No. 31 rank in pass defense.
There will be plenty of time to analyze the Steelers' defensive problems as they don't play again until Oct. 26 when they host the Green Bay Packers.
However, inside linebacker Patrick Queen was able to boil down the defense's performance on Thursday in one sentence.
"We just weren't doing our job," he said.