NFL
By Jalen Willingham
The Cincinnati Bengals will go on the road to face their division rival Pittsburgh Steelers in week 16 of the 2023 NFL Season. Pittsburgh is on a three-game losing streak while Cincinnati is on a three-game winning streak. The Bengals are 0-4 when facing the AFC North in 2023.
When: Saturday December 23 at 4:30 pm ET
Where: Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Network: NBC
Offense
Cincinnati will be without receiver Ja’Marr Chase for possibly the remainder of the regular season. Pittsburgh will not have either starting safeties of Minkah Fitzpatrick and Damontae Kazeee after Kazeee was suspended for the rest of the year.
The last time these two teams met, Cincinnati put way too much pressure on Jake Browning to make plays. There has been much change since then. The Jake Browning the Bengals have now is not the Jake Browning that played the Steelers in week 12. He has shown that the offense can consistently move the ball and put points up.
This offense needs to commit to the run while facing Pittsburgh. The Steelers game up 170 yards rushing to the Indianapolis Colts last week. Cincinnati needs to utilize Joe Mixon and Chase Brown early and often. Even though he’ll probably get to him a few times, the Bengals need to limit the amount of opportunities that T.J. Watt has to get to Browning.
With Chase being out, the passing game will revolve around Tee Higgins likely getting more targets. I think this will be another low-scoring game, so taking care of the ball will once again be important. An interception is what eventually sealed the game for the Bengals the last time they played the Steelers. Every time they enter the red zone, Cincinnati needs to come away with something.
Defense
The Steelers have benched Mitchell Trubisky in favor of Mason Rudolph. This will be Rudolphs first start since week 9 of the 2021 season. Cincinnati has lost defensive tackle D.J. Reader and cornerback DJ Ivey for the rest of the season due to injuries. Add that the Bengals are still without Cam-Taylor Britt and there could seriously be holes in the Bengals defense for the Steelers to exploit regardless of who’s at quarterback. Someone has to step up and make plays.
Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to score more than 18 points in the last five games. Stopping the run will be key. I’m sure the Steelers may break some runs for big gains though. Vikings running back Ty Chandler had over 130 yards on the ground last week. With Reader out, expect to see more of Zach Carter in his place.
Pittsburgh may have plenty of room to work with as far as the passing game goes. Cincinnati is giving up over 12 yards a completion which is 31st in the league. They allowed 303 yards to Nick Mullens who hadn’t started a game since 2021 before last week. The Bengals have continued their trend of giving up big games to opposing tight ends. Don’t be surprised if Pat Freiermuth has another great performance. He had nine catches for 120 yards against Cincinnati in week 12.
The Steeler will be able to move the ball. The difference makers will be forcing sacks and creating turnovers at opportune times. Trey Hendrickson now has 15 sacks on the year. No one else on the Bengals has more than five outside of him though. Rookie defensive end Myles Murphy is starting to come along though. I can definitely see him making a big play that the Bengals will need.
Prediction
Bengals win 21-14
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