Tag Archives: Ke’Shawn Williams

Steelers Offense Comes to Life in 30-27 Win Over Bengals at Acrisure

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The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 30-27 at Acrisure Stadium in Week 3 of the 2026 NFL season, improving their record to 2-1 and keeping them even in the deadlocked AFC North.

  • Like any good AFC North rivalry game this one came down to the final gun.

When it was all said and done the Pittsburgh Steelers prevailed because a bold personnel decision made by Mike McCarthy had an end-to-end ripple effect across an offense that finally looked NFL-worthy.

Roman Wilson beats Jalen Davis for the Steelers 1st touchdown in the week 3 2026 win over the Bengals

Roman Wilson beats Jalen Davis for the first touchdown. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Four Plays Signal a Dramatically Different Steelers Offense

One constant through the Steelers win over the Falcons and their loss to the Patriots has been a substandard offense. This continued a trend from previous seasons that Mike McCarthy’s hire was supposed to change that. Yet he hadn’t.

Worse yet, the Bengals defense, highlighted by the arrival of Dexter Lawrence, was looking scary good. The recipe seemed to spell disaster for the Steelers.

But it only took Mike McCarthy and his players 4 plays to prove that this offense was capable of something both different and better.

The first play from scrimmage saw Jaylen Warren line up behind Aaron Rodgers, with Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington linked up besides him in the backfield. It wasn’t exactly a Wishbone formation, but the smart money was that McCarthy was going to use his bruising blockers to challenge the Bengals up the middle.

He did not. Instead he called a pass play where Warren slipped into the flat, Pat Freiermuth pancaked a would-be tackler, and 30 yards and a blink of an eye later, Warren was in Bengals territory.

A five-yard dink-and-dunk pass to Roman Wilson and an incompletion brought up a third and five. And here is when things really changed.

  • How many times have we seen Steelers drives sputter in similar moments?

Raise your hand if you weren’t quietly hoping to avoid a sack and wondering whether Chris Boswell could make a 60-yarder. A lot of people should be raising their hands, but Mike McCarthy isn’t one of them.

Instead he was bunching four wideouts on the weakside, allowing Roman Wilson to gain a full 5 yards to hook up with Aaron Rodgers for a 38-yard touchdown.

No, Pittsburgh hadn’t proven it could go touchdown-for-touchdown with Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ high-octane offense, but the Steelers offense had at least made the suggestion….

12 Hands in the Pile for Pittsburgh’s Offense

You can attach a lot of superlatives to the Steelers offensive performance, even if no one will or should mistake it for the Greatest Show on Turf. But what really sticks out is that it was a end-to-end team performance with 12 different players touched the ball.

  • Roman Wilson showed he was more than dink-and-dunk/garbage time wideout
  • D.K. Metcalf didn’t dominate, but caught 3 of 5 passes thrown his way, including a touchdown
  • Germie Bernard only had one catch, but it converted a critical third down
  • Bernard also made a heads-up block enabling the longest catch of the game
  • Darnell Washington made that catch, as well as a critical third down conversion

These individual performances, while important, don’t capture the full story of the step forward the offense took against the Bengals. Mike McCarthy has professed his desire for a balanced run-pass ratio.

With Aaron Rodgers throwing 34 passes and Steelers running backs carrying the ball 19 times, that ratio was once again skewed. But that ratio also shows how too tight a focus on statistics and skew the understanding of the game, as the Steelers second touchdown illustrates.

Ben Skowronek comes in motion, moves up field as if he’s a blocker, Rodgers fakes the handoff to Warren, the safety bites an in another blink of an eye Skowronek is scoring a touchdown – by forcing Cincinnati to respect the run, Rodgers burned the Bengals through the air.

Run! Jaylen Run!

Ever since he arrived as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2022, both fans and professional commentators have been screaming for the Steelers to use Jaylen Warren as a featured running back.

  • For one reason or another, that role never emerged for Warren.

Until today.

And Warren proved he was more than up to the task. How good was Warren? Well, he logged a near-All Pro level game despite the fact that his best run, an 85-yarder, was called back due to a ticky-tacky penalty.

Jaylen Warren breaks one in the 2nd quarter of the Steelers week 3 2026 win over the Bengals.

Jaylen Warren breaks free. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla

Warren hurt the Bengals through the air and on the ground, rushing for 127 yards and catching 3 passes for 49 yards. His play wasn’t flawless – he stumbled on what could have been a game-clinching touchdown run – but Warren was easily the MVP.

Special Teams, Defense Deliver When It Counts

The Steelers special teams were en route to a meh afternoon — Kaden Wetjen wasn’t scaring anyone with his kick returns, and the Steelers return coverage was a little too leaky, spotting the Bengals a little too much yardage.

Yet, when Ke’Shawn Williams let a punt bounce off of him with 11:04 left in the 4th quarter Ben Skowronek streaked in to make the recovery.

  • Four plays later, Chris Boswell was kicking the tying field goal

Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins no doubt made a lot of Fantasy Football Owners happy after this game. It is easy to see why. Each man caught a touchdown, with Burrow throwing another to Mike Gesicki, and really for much of the afternoon they made it look easy.

But the defense delivered when it counted. Going into the locker room at halftime Mike McCarthy revealed that he needed his defense to get two stops of Burrow in the second half (who can imagine Mike Tomlin saying something like that?)

And that’s what he got. Midway through the 4th quarter with the Bengals at midfield on 3rd and 2, Cam Heyward wrapped Burrow forcing him to ground it, bringing up a punt.

  • That allowed the Steelers to score the go-ahead field goal.

Giving the ball to Burrow with 2 minutes left and 2 timeouts is a very dangerous proposition, but with the Bengals passing from Pittsburgh’s 38 the Derrick Harmon strip sacked Burrow, with Sebastian Joseph-Day recovering, allowing the Mike McCarthy to send out the victory formation.

I’ll gladly trade fancy passing stats to Fantasy Football fans in exchange for defensive linemen that can rattle elite quarterbacks in critical situations on any given Sunday.

Offensive Line Provides the Foundation – Now It Is Time to Build

It wasn’t quite a shootout, but the Pittsburgh Steelers did outscore the Cincinnati Bengals. This end-to-end offensive effort was anchored by two names you won’t see in the stat sheet, Max Iheanachor and Brock Hoffman. The right side of the offensive line had been shaky through the first two games.

  • Mike McCarthy not only took note, he took action by starting Iheanachor and Hoffman.

Switching out 2/5 of your offensive line in Week 3 is a risk, but McCarthy’s decision paid immediate dividends:

Great offensive lines are built over the course of seasons, not in single games. Nor was the unit perfect, as sacks forced twin 4th quarter possessions into field goal situations. But hopefully this performance is something that both the line itself and the entire offense can build on.

Hopefully they’re fast builders, because a trip to Cleveland and another AFC North Game is just three days away….

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Hard Depth: Steelers Beat Bengals 34-12 as Mason Rudolph Rallies Offense, Defense Hits Hard

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The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 34-12 in a wild afternoon at Acrisure.

Exactly 31 days separated the two AFC North rivals from their last meeting, with the Bengals dominating the Steelers in their first encounter in ways which the 33-31 final score could not reveal.

  • The results were quite different this time.

When why, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin coyly explained, “I don’t know that we changed anything of any significance. I just thought we were more solid today.”

Fair enough. Tomlin would not and should not tip his hand on the schematic changes he and his staff made. But he betrays his coyness with his use of the word “solid,” because the Steelers turned the tables on the Bengals for two reasons: They hit harder and their depth delivered.

Mason Rudolph, Steelers vs Bengals

Mason Rudolph stands tall in the pocket. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

When You’re Down, Hit Harder

What everyone remembers from the first fiasco against the Bengals was that, starting in the middle of the second quarter, Joe Flacco started firing at will against the Steelers defense. And it’s true that Pittsburgh’s defensive backs looked hopeless covering Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

  • But what everyone forgets is that their tackling was just as terrible that night.

The Bengals won the toss and although they were on offense, the Steelers came out hitting. D.K. Metcalf led with a 4-yard catch, Jaylen Warren followed with a 5 yard run, and Connor Heyward with a determined second effort, got 1 yard in Pittsburgh’s Tush Push Lite.

Two plays later, Warren ripped off a 35 yard run, where he broke tackles at the first level and again in the second level. Two plays later, the Kenneth Gainwell took and 11 yard pass into the end zone and Pittsburgh had sent a message – they were going to be physical.

  • Physicality didn’t simply extend to the Steelers ground game.

The Steelers hit Darnell Washington 4 times, and on each occasion barreled through Cincinnati’s secondary, almost daring Bengals defenders to hit him.

Darnell Washington, Barrett Carter, Steelers vs Bengals

Darnell Washington dumps Barrett Carter. Photo Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com

The Steelers defense of course, laid in the most important hits of game.

About midway through the first half, a Flacco pass flew towards Ja’Marr Chase and just barley missed the target. Jalen Ramsey didn’t hold back and laid in the wood just the same. The play didn’t draw a flag, but it could have, and I thought back to a anonymous quote Jim Wexell shared about the team’s plans to stop Tom Brady in the 2016 AFC Championship game – “We’re going to hit him whenever we can and take the 15 if necessary.”

The thought flashed through my mind a few plays later when T.J. Watt got flagged for a late hit on Flacco – their plan is to make him pay (no, Watt didn’t deserve the flag – that’s called a make up call boys and girls.)

The ease with which the Bengals scored their first touchdown revealed the defense still has its vulnerabilities. But the Steelers responded by proving it retains its ability to hit hard, and that’s why the Bengals never saw the end zone again.

Back Ups Answer the Call

While it’s not the way the NFL’s marketing arm would like to tell the story, winning in pro football oftentimes comes down to who weathers the battle of attrition better (see the Killer Bees’ penchant playoff injuries.)

The Steelers came into the game missing Darius Slay and Alex Highsmith. During the game they’d lose Ke’Shawn Williams, Aaron Rodgers and Jaylen Warren.

  • Mason Rudolph responded by completing 75% of his passes, a touchdown and 127 yards
  • Kenneth Gainwell and Kaleb Johnson only added 39 yards on the ground, but Gainwell had 81 through the air
  • Nick Herbig sacked Flacco at Pittsburgh’s 18, pushing him back 7 yards

Flacco was so frazzled, he took a delay of game penalty and threw and incompletion and the Bengals settled for a field goal.

Substitutes Rewrite New End Script

The Steelers biggest wins this season, against Minnesota in Dublin and two weeks ago against the Colts against Acrisure had a common thread: The both got close, at least cosmetically, at the end.

Two substitute Steelers saw to it that Pittsburgh wrote a new ending to that script against the Bengals.

When the Steelers made their final roster cut down to on August 26th, James Pierre got a visit from “The Turk” while Kyle Dugger was a member of the New England Patriots. If the hard hits of the Steelers defense kept Pittsburgh ahead the entire afternoon, Dugger and Pierre’s big plays muzzled any hint of a Bengals comeback.

While the offense had looked good under Mason Rudolph during the second half, the only points it had managed by the end of the third quarter were a Chris Boswell field goal. The Bengals were maneuvering into Pittsburgh territory when, on third down with the pressure getting to Flacco, Kyle Dugger was in robber coverage and picked of Flacco’s pass, taking it to the house for 73 yards.

Kyle Dugger, Steelers vs Bengals

Kyle Dugger takes it to the house. Photo Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com

The Bengals responded with a field goal, and the Steelers answered with a long, clock-consuming drive that ended in Gianwell’s second touchdown.

Only 3:40 remained and the Steelers held a 27-12 lead, but we’ve seen this team ensure that games remain interesting to the very end. That didn’t happen this time. On the first play after the Gainwell’s touchdown, Flacco hit Noah Faint for 5 yards. Brandon Echols forced a fumble, which James Pierre returned for a 34-yard touchdown.

Pittsburgh Keeps Pace in the AFC North

The win improved the Steelers record to 6-4, giving them a crucial AFC North win and allowing them to keep pace ahead of the Baltimore Ravens, who extended their winning streak to 4.

Next week brings them to Chicago against the Bears, with tough games against the Lions, Bills and of course the Ravens awaiting them. As the weather turns colder the Steelers would do well to lean into the lesson learned against the Bengals: When in doubt, hit harder.

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Steelers Report Card for Loss to Chargers: Pessimistic Teacher Edition

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Taken from the notebook of an increasingly pessimistic teacher, here is the Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card for the loss to the 2025 Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

Ladd McConky, Jalen Ramsey, Steelers vs Chargers, Steelers vs Chargers. SNF

Jalen Ramsey can’t stop Ladd McConky. Photo Credit: IMAGN Images, via Tribune-Review

Quarterbacks
Aaron Rodgers had a bad night. His overall numbers of 16-31-1-2 for 161 are pretty putrid to begin with – and that’s with garbage time glory included. Rodgers was off all night. When he wasn’t overthrowing open receivers and or underthrowing covered receivers he was throwing passes that were too high or too low. Grade: FSteelers, Report Card, grades,

Running Backs
Jaylen Warren had 70 yards on 14 carries adding 21 yards on two catches from the air. Kaleb Johnson had 3 yards on two carries. Steelers running backs were OK when they needed them to be special. Grade: C

Tight Ends
Pat Freiermuth had 3 catches, Darnell Washington had 1 and Jonnu Smith and one more plus another that was reverted on replay. Its no coincidence that the one drive where the Steelers feigned a smidgen of rhythm two tight ends caught passes. Still, the Steelers deployed the Jumbo Package and the blocking wasn’t quite there. Grade: C-

Wide Receivers
D.K. Metcalf had 3 catches for 35 yards and two end zone targets – one that was a gimmie touchdown and another on a ball he had next to no chance of catching. Roman Wilson had 3 catches including another garbage time touchdown. Calvin Anderson had 2 catches for 14 yards, but he also let an easy catch bounce off his hands for an interception that effectively killed any chance for a comeback. Rodgers was off target early and often, but it is also clear that this group of receivers struggles to “get open.” Grade: D

Offensive Line
It is starting to look like Isaac Seumalo is the critical member of this unti, as it was not the same without him. Run blocking was OK at times, but the Steelers needed it to be exceptional. More worrisome was the pass blocking. Rodgers was hit 5 times and sacked three times including one for a safety. And Broderick Jones looked bewildered and jinxed all night. Grade: F

Defensive Line
Keeanu Benton with 7 tackles, a sack and another for a loss. Cam Heyward had 6 a tackle for a loss, and a deflected pass. Kimani Vidal actually had a respectable night for the Chargers, but he never came close to disrupting the game the way other running backs have. Grade: B

Linebackers
Two weeks after plenty of talking heads wanted him traded or at least benched Alex Highsmith posted his second consecutive 2 sack game. Patrick Queen led the team and the group with 12 tackles. Malik Harrison had a tackle for a loss and was a force in stopping the run. Nick Herbig had a sack, tackle for a loss and 2 QB hit. T.J. Watt “only” a sack, tackle for a loss, deflected a pass and 3 QB hits. The linebackers played well enough to win. Grade: B+

Secondary
Justin Herbert is one of the better young quarterbacks in the game, yet the Steelers limited him to 220 yards per game, despite Herbert enjoying an overwhelming time of possession advantage. Moving Jalen Ramsey to safety appears to be helping and Kyle Dugger is playing well. Still, Joey Porter Jr. let an interception slip through his hands and the secondary did give up a long run after Rodgers’ first interception. The Steelers needed spectacular secondary play, not good* performance. Grade: B-

Special Teams
We forgot this now, but T.J. Watt actually answered Donte Jackson’s interception with a punt-forcing sack 3 plays later. Unfortunately, Ke’Shawn Williams when the Steelers theoretically could have still made a comeback. Chris Boswell knocked in a 59 yarder only to miss a 45er. Yeah, it was that kinda night. Grade: F

Coaching
A week ago Teryl Austin’s unit shut down a Colts offense that had been galloping through other NFL defenses. They did it with a heavy dose of turnovers. Against the Chargers they went out against one of the league’s rising young quarterbacks and, although they did give up a long play, they played well enough to win, albeit while leaving turnovers on the field. So far so good.

  • Alas, Arthur Smith’s offense is a mess.

Throughout the season his unit hasn’t been effective in establishing a rhythm, has faltered too much on possession downs and their time of possession has been atrocious. Despite that Smith has more often than not found ways to make it work.

Steelers offense for example has capitalized on turnovers, converted the Red Zone and otherwise gotten far enough into opponent’s territory to allow Chris Boswell to knock in enough field goals so that the Steelers score when they need to.

It is clear after watching the Chargers game that the key component to this was Aaron Rodgers making just enough of the critical throws make all this happen.

Rodgers failed to do this against the Chargers and, in tandem, rest of the offense failed to pick up the slack.

How much of that is due to scheme and how much of that is tied to personnel decisions remains an open question. But as  Mike Tomlin has a clear voice in both, he shoulders the blame. Grade: D

James Pierre, Derius Davis, Steelers vs Chargers

Body Slam! Photo Credit: NFL.com

Unsung Hero Award
He was a former starter who got benched, was allowed to leave in free agency, got cut by his new team, returned, was resigned, then cut, then signed to the practice squad then quickly activated. A concussion thrust him into the starting role and batted away two passes while delivering a WWF (or WWE) style body slam tackle, and for that James Pierre wins the Unsung Hero Award for the Steelers loss to the Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

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Steelers Report Card for Win Over Browns: Struggling to Keep Up on a Short Week Edition

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Taken from the grade book of a teacher who is next to certain that he’ll fail in his assignment to keep this short on a short week, here is the Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card for the 2025 win over the Browns at Acrisure.

Jaylen Warren, Steelers vs Browns

Jaylen Warren runs to daylight. Photo Credit: Alyissa Rubin, Steelers.com

Quarterback
Aaron Rodgers went 21-30-235 for 2 touchdowns. Keeping it real, Rodgers missed a few throws that contributed to a touchdownless first half. But he more than made up for it with laser strikes to the end zone in the 2nd half. And Rodgers deft management at the line of scrimmage has kept elite defensive coordinators rocking on their heels for 2 straight weeks. Grade: B+Steelers, Report Card, grades,

Running Backs
It was back to the future for Generation X Steelers fans as offense deliberately incorporated 3 running backs into the game plan. Jaylen Warren led the group with 52 yards on 11 carries, followed by Kenneth Gainwell who got 22 on 6 carries and Kaleb Johnson who got 15 on 6 tries. All of this came against the NFL’s best rushing defense. Warren and Gainwell added for 2 catches and each running back banged out at least one long run. Grade: B+

Tight Ends
Darnell Washington opened the game with a 36 yard pass and finished the day with 3 grabs for 62 yards. Pat Freiermuth had one catch for 11 yards, and Connor Heyward came up with another for 12 yards, and a touchdown. The tight ends blocking efforts were also critical to the success of the offense. Grade: A

Wide Receivers
D.K. Metcalf had 4 catches for 95 yards all of which were chunk plays, one of which was the decisive touchdown. The only other receiver to get a target was Roman Wilson, who caught 1 pass for 11 yards. That helped set up a score. Grade: B

Connor Heyward, Steelers vs Browns

Connor Heyward with the first touchdown of the day. Photo Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com

Offensive Line
Aaron Rodgers was not sacked and the Cleveland Browns only touched him 3 times. 3 rushers had carries for double digit carries and another had a 9 yard run. Yes, the unit had help from the tight ends and Spencer Anderson again appeared in the Jumbo Package. No, the team couldn’t quite run out the clock. But this was a strong performance against a good defensive front. Grade: B+

Defensive Line
The individual stat sheet might look a little sparse outside of Derrick Harmon’s sack. But stat to focus on is Cleveland’s 3.8 yard-per-carry average. The Steelers needed to make the Browns one-dimensional. And they did. Oh, and Daniel Ekuale dropped into coverage Esezi Otomewo paving  the way for a Dick LeBeau style zone blitz sack. Grade: A-

Linebackers
T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith are all credited with parts of sacks by ESPN. Watt also tipped a pass to force a punt. Patrick Queen was laying in the wood while Payton Wilson and Cole Holcomb quietly put in good days. Grade: A

Secondary
Jalen Ramsey had two sacks his 4th and 5th out of 139 career games. No one got an interception, but DeShon Elliott, Daruis Slay, and Joey Porter all got their hands on passes, as did Juan Thornhill. Its been said that the Steelers 6 sacks were in large part due to Dillion Gabriel holding on to the ball too long – there’s a reason why they’re called coverage sacks. On a day when the Browns threw for over 50 passes, they didn’t cross the 50 until the end of the first half, and then didn’t reach the Red Zone until late in the 4th quarter – where they got shut down. Grade: A

Special Teams
Chris Boswell knocked in 3 field goals and missed another due to the turf. Corliss Waitman only punted twice, but one went for 20 yards. Ke’Shawn Williams opened with a phenomenal punt return that got called back for a penalty. Williams and Gainwell did well on kick returns and coverage was solid. Grade: B-

Coaching
Arthur Smith took a lot of heat last year for failing to turn a Steelers offense that had been stuck in schematic purgatory since the days of Matt Canada and Randy Fitchner. We saw glimpses of what he wanted to do last season, but desire failed to connect with results far too often.

The Browns may be 1-5, but they have what may be reguarded as the NFL’s best defense. Per Bob Labriola:

…the Browns came into the game ranked first in the NFL in total yards passing allowed, first in rushing yards per game allowed, and fourth in average gain per rush. They were fourth in sacks per pass attempt, and second in first downs allowed per game.

And Jim Schwartz is regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the game. Yet Arthur Smith’s offense took control of the game and never relinquished it.

The Browns offense, suffice to say, isn’t remotely in the same category as their defense. Nonetheless, Teryl Austin’s defense did what it was supposed to do against a weaker unit – force them to be one dimensional and keep them out of the end zone.

  • After six weeks, the Steelers stand at 4-1 and with a lead over the AFC North.

That’s good, but its not what’s encouraging about the Browns win. Its that the Steelers continue to get better each week, and Mike Tomlin deserves credit for that. Grade: A-

Jonnu Smith Denzel Ward, Steelers vs Browns

Jonnu Smith with 1 of his 3 catches. Photo Credit: Alyssa Rubin, Steelers.com

Unsung Hero Award
The Steelers wide receiver depth chart is thin. And they’re were down a man against the Browns. Such situations requires coaches to get creative. But to do that, they need players who are versatile. This player converted a first down with his first catch, started a scoring drive with his second, and ran for then yards sustaining the Steelers first touchdown drive and for that Jonnu Smith wins the Unsung Hero Award for the Steelers win over the Browns at Acrisure.

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