Lolley's 10 Thoughts: Steelers planned on TE usage
"One man's misfortune is another's opportunity," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "Efforts like Trent's today
Harris was contacted by about half of the Cincinnati defense about five yards into the run, but kept driving his legs and – with help from right tackle Broderick Jones and others – turned it into a 20-yard gain before being brought down.
"He's our down-in, down-out ball toter," said Tomlin. "We doesn't get a lot of credit because of the nature of which he plays and the style we play. But that attrition component is significant."
Harris is a grinder. And in games like this, when you're trying to protect a lead, grinders are gold.
On the Steelers' final field goal drive – which pushed their lead to 16-7 – Harris ripped off runs of 22 and 13 yards to get the Steelers into scoring range, largely because the Bengals didn't want to tackle him any more.
Unfortunately, on his final run of the possession, he lost one yard. The Steelers would have had three consecutive individual 100-yard rushing games had that not happened. Warren had rushed for 100 yards in each of their previous two games.
"Oh man. That's crazy," Cole said when told Harris had just missed 100 yards. "But we'll take 150 (yards) however we can get it."
• Pickett's 278 passing yards were the second-most he's had in a game in his career. And he could have easily had more if the Steelers had wanted to keep throwing.
But with the Bengals struggling to move the ball consistently – they had 10 total first downs – there wasn't a lot of reason to keep throwing.
Freiermuth was like a convenience store. He was open all day.
"I wouldn't say we're relieved," Pickett said of the offensive output and finally getting over 400 yards of offense with him at the helm. "I would say we always knew what we're capable of doing. It's just putting it together. And we still haven't 100 percent put it together. We were driving really good. I felt like we left points out there. But you've got to take the positives and continue to march forward, which is what we plan on doing."
• Sunday's win, coupled with losses by Houston and Cleveland, puts the Steelers right back at the top of the AFC Wild Card standings. And it also allows them to keep the pressure on the Ravens for the AFC North title.
Last week's loss to the Browns was tough. And it obviously facilitated change for the Steelers.
But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't kill them.
One week later, they're right back where they were going into the game against the Browns.
• I'm not an NFL coach, but I'm pretty sure that leaving T.J. Watt unblocked, as the Bengals did on third down with 6:42 remaining in the game trailing just 13-7 at that point is not a good way to survive.
Watt had two sacks in the game. Cam Heyward also had one, just beating Watt to Browning. Otherwise, Watt would have had three.
Heyward's sack gives him 13.5 in his career against the Bengals. That's the most by any player against the Bengals in their history.
Watt has 17 sacks against the Browns. He needs two more to match Terrell Suggs for the most sacks by a player against Cleveland.
James Harrison holds the record for most sacks against the Ravens with 16. Watt is two behind him in second place with 14.
Notice a trend?
