The only good news in Pittsburgh following a 19-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals is that the Steelers are in the playoffs no matter what. The rest is bad, including that we’ll have to watch this Steelers team compete with a playoff team in a week.

It’s not going well for the Steelers, and that means that there are plenty of takeaways to be had once again:

1. The Steelers are in quarterback purgatory

We’ve known that Russell Wilson is past his prime for a few seasons now, but nothing made that more obvious than Wilson’s utter collapse in crunch time against the Bengals.

It wasn’t a good game in general, with Wilson throwing for just 148 yards and a touchdown. But the veteran passer’s decision to scramble for just three yards instead of stopping the clock — wasting almost half of the Steelers’ remaining 42 seconds on a must-score, end-of-game drive — turned a rough performance into a complete disaster.

The next play, Wilson took a sack, forcing the Steelers to use their last timeout. The play after that? He missed horribly on a deep ball to a wide-open George Pickens that could’ve salvaged the game for Pittsburgh. Wilson made a nice throw on fourth down that was dropped (it was that kind of night for Pittsburgh), but that doesn’t make up for the cascade of bad plays before it.

And that’s just one drive. Wilson’s performances over the Steelers’ recent losing streak have been varying levels of not great. His decision-making, pocket awareness, and accuracy have not lived up to his Super Bowl-winning resumé.

Barring an inexplicable playoff run, the Wilson experiment has apparently already reached its peak and is headed downhill in Pittsburgh. It began with a 6-1 streak where the Steelers were on the cusp of looking like something that could be special, and was soon followed by an 0-4 collapse where the momentum has completely vaporized.

The current version of Wilson just can’t help the Steelers win meaningful games. Sure, some sort of improvement is possible, but at 36 years old, it’s hard to be optimistic about Wilson as any sort of multi-year starter.

Look at how passers like Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, and Joe Burrow elevated their teams in December matchups against the Steelers — then look at how Wilson performed in those same games. By re-signing Wilson for 2025 and beyond, Pittsburgh is dooming itself to yet another good but far from great season that’ll end in early January.

Look at the AFC playoff picture. It’s the cream of the crop when it comes to quarterbacks, plus a few passers who won’t lead their team on much of a run. As much as the Steelers’ late-season collapses have been a Mike Tomlin problem, it’s just as much, if not more, of a “no elite quarterback” issue.

It’s hard to blame Tomlin for making the switch from Justin Fields to Wilson — for nearly half of the season, it looked like the right call. But now, there’s no way to know just how much Fields has developed, and Wilson looks like a dead end. Can the Steelers feel good about bringing back either in 2025? Starting Fields in the playoffs doesn’t magically answer that question, either.

Elsewhere, the 2025 draft class looks like a rough one when it comes to passers, and the Steelers won’t be picking in franchise quarterback range anyway. The free agent class isn’t much better; the Steelers could attempt to turn Sam Darnold into the next Geno Smith/Baker Mayfield, but let’s be honest — Pittsburgh doesn’t have the offensive braintrust or talent to support that sort of reclamation project.

There’s no good answer. As frustrating as the Steelers’ loss was for this season in particular, the real discouragement is regarding Pittsburgh’s future. It hasn’t felt this grim in a while.

2. Pittsburgh can’t make the routine plays routinely

I’ll steal a halftime Tomlinism here because the Steelers’ head coach hit the nail on the head: The Steelers can’t win if they can’t make routine plays routinely.

Pittsburgh made everything look difficult on Saturday, especially on offense. Both halves’ opening scripts resulted in ruthlessly quick three-and-outs. The run game was inconsistent, with the Steelers not just getting outplayed, but also losing the numbers battle whenever they tried to run outside. When the Steelers needed short yardage, they were once again horrendous, at one point failing on an attempted quarterback sneak through a wide-open A-gap.

The passing game, as mentioned earlier, was a disaster. Nothing was easy in the short range. The intermediate and middle were nearly nonexistent except for a few solid plays from Pat Freiermuth. The Steelers’ usual ace in the hole, the deep ball, was nearly a complete failure except for a nice catch from the underutilized Mike Williams. Instead, George Pickens and Russell Wilson took turns messing up, resulting in a one catch, zero-yard game from the Steelers’ top receiver.

On defense, the Steelers deserve more credit than they’ll get, holding the Bengals’ offense to its first sub-20-point performance since Week 6. Still, Joe Burrow’s red-hot start showed just how ill-prepared the Steelers and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin were for a talented yet familiar foe — even if some of the pressure packages and adjustments showed some promise later on. Pittsburgh was also bailed out in a big way by Tee Higgins’ injury and eventual departure from the game, as well as the lack of Chase Brown.

Special teams lapses were the cherry on the sundae, with a punt return fumble, multiple big plays given up in kickoff coverage, and several short punts (including a bad snap) adding to the Steelers’ list of woes.

Besides Chris Boswell and the field goal unit, it’s hard to point to one significant aspect of the team that performs well on a regular basis. That’s a problem, especially at this point in the season. Pittsburgh can’t do anything right.

3. Clamps Heyward strikes again

If there’s one resounding positive from what’s looking like yet another dismal end to the season, it’s veteran defensive lineman Cameron Heyward’s resurgence. After an injury-shortened 2023, questions regarding how much longer the 35-year-old could perform at a high level reached a fever pitch following Heyward’s offseason extension.

Boy, did he prove the doubters wrong.

Heyward capped off a tremendous regular season with three pass deflections in one game against the Bengals. And he did all of that with the flu.

Depending on what source you use, that makes eight pass deflections on the year. Add that to eight sacks, 70 total tackles, and 12 tackles for loss, and you’re talking about what should be a slam-dunk All-Pro season for a defender many thought was on his way out entering 2024.

It’s been a season to remember for No. 97. It’s a shame the Steelers haven’t been able to do more with Heyward’s elite performances.

4. Odds and ends

I don’t want to take away from the excellent season DeShon Elliott has been having, but his man-to-man reps to open the game were some of the worst I’ve seen in a while.
Mark Robinson could be turning into a special teams superstar. He entered Week 18 with a kickoff coverage forced fumble in back-to-back weeks, and had a big hit on a return against Cincinnati.
Cory Trice Jr. struggled against Ja’Marr Chase in one-on-one coverage — what young cornerback wouldn’t — but his work in run support was very encouraging. If he can stay healthy, his NFL future looks bright.
Beanie Bishop Jr. just finds ways to make plays. He needs to be playing over Cam Sutton in the slot.
George Pickens’ lack of focus after a quiet first half, multiple drops, and poor body language were worrying to say the least. His play has largely overshadowed the accompanying drama over his career, but I think there’s a very good chance he doesn’t sign a second contract in Pittsburgh.

Beyond his antics, the fact that Pickens didn’t have a 1,000 yard season, even with up-and-down quarterback play and missing three games, is hard to believe given that he was such a focal point of the Pittsburgh offense. Pickens has looked the part of a WR1 multiple times throughout his career, but his 2024-25 season might go down as a disappointment.

Love him or hate him: George Pickens just put forward one of the most entertaining seasons with under 1k yards and just 3 TD in NFL history. For the “right” reasons? No. Was it still a joy to watch and impossible to look away from? Yes. And for that, we thank you.

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) January 5, 2025

Mike Williams continues to make plays but is still losing reps to Van Jefferson. The funny thing is that the Steelers swap out Jefferson for Williams when they want to move the ball downfield on two-minute drill drives. I know Jefferson doesn’t mind doing the dirty work in the run game, but the Steelers know at this point that Williams offers more in the passing game. I’m beating a dead horse with how often I mention this, but Williams needs to be seeing the field more.
Considering the penalty-ridden mess that was Joey Porter Jr.’s last outing against the Bengals, Saturday’s matchup was a success.
Pat Freiermuth’s game-ending drop was a brutal way to end what had been one of his best games of the season. Freiermuth’s career has been an interesting one — it always feels like he has one more step to take in his development despite being in his fourth NFL season.

That being said, Freiermuth’s 2024 contract extension, which made him the ninth highest-paid at his position, still feels like a solid deal considering he led the Steelers in receptions this season. His consistency has been better than you’d think, too — per Pro Football Network, Freiermuth is one of only four tight ends to have 60-plus receptions in three of the last four seasons (Travis Kelce, T.J. Hockenson, and George Kittle round out the list). If anything, Freiermuth should’ve been targeted more in 2024.

Patrick Queen seemed to have a good game overall for the Steelers, showing off his range and even logging a sack. His improvement in the second half of the season should alleviate some concerns from his underwhelming start as a Steeler.
The Bengals’ Shaka Heyward forced a fumble on a punt return while the Steelers’ Connor Heyward recovered a muffed punt later in the game. A big night for the Heyward family on special teams.
For as many resources as the Steelers have poured into their offensive line over the last two years, it’s a shame that the group is still playing like one of the NFL’s worst. The team desperately needs Troy Fautanu to be the upgrade they drafted him to be once he’s healthy. They should probably think about bringing back James Daniels, too. Oh yeah, the re-sign Dan Moore Jr. campaign should probably be on its last legs as well.
It was a quiet game for T.J. Watt on the stat sheet, but he and the Steelers’ pass-rush put together a good performance against a struggling Bengals’ O-line. Unfortunately for them, Joe Burrow was elite when it came to navigating the pocket, even if he still did eat four sacks. The Pittsburgh front seven should wreak havoc if it gets to match up against the Texans and C.J. Stroud, the NFL’s second-most sacked quarterback this season, in the playoffs.
An interesting Next Gen Stats nugget: The Steelers are the only team with three edge rushers who have generated at least 15 quick pressures (pressures under 2.5 seconds) this season: Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig. The Steelers’ pass-rush has disappointed when it comes to sack numbers, but teams exploiting them with the quick passing game has more to do with coverage issues than the rushers.
It’s hard to defend the Steelers’ coaching staff following the loss to the Bengals. The usual excuses during the losing streak don’t hold anymore; the Steelers were well-rested, largely healthy, and playing one of the NFL’s worst defenses in Week 18. Things should’ve been different. Instead, Pittsburgh scored under 20 points, had more clock management miscues, and suffered several secondary breakdowns yet again.

The same Steelers team that held Trey Hendrickson to no sacks and scored 37 offensive points in Week 13 scored just 17 and gave up 3.5 sacks to Hendrickson in Week 18. And this time they were playing at home! The regression is staggering, and it’s another indictment of the Steelers’ coaching staff. An absolute mess all around.

Arthur Smith calling an outside run to Cordarrelle Patterson on a crucial fourth quarter drive might’ve been the best way to get all of Pittsburgh mad at him in just one play. You almost have to respect the commitment to the bit.

What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Bengals? Agree/disagree with the ones above?Join our Behind The Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!