The game will be physical and fierce, that much we know. But here are five other things to watch for when the Bengals and Steelers renew the nastiest rivalry in the NFL with both teams trying to improve to 2-0.
Pittsburgh pass rush
It was basically non-existent Monday night in a 38-16 win at Washington. The Steelers surprisingly didn’t blitz much against Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins and finished with zero sacks for the first time since Week 9 last year and only the second time in the team’s last 25 games overall.
Pittsburgh historically has come after Dalton, and with success, registering nine sacks in the three games prior to last year’s Week 14 contest when he suffered a season-ending broken thumb on Cincinnati’s first offensive series.
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While Dalton has gotten much better at diagnosing and beating the blitz, Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Keith Butler surely took notice of the seven sacks the Jets registered against the Bengals last week.
Exploring the options
The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t need to see A.J. Green’s massive performance in the season opener — when he tied his career high with 12 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown — to know that he needs to be the central focus of their gameplan this week.
Green has inflicted plenty of damage on the Steelers, particularly of late. He’s caught a touchdown pass in four of the last five games against Pittsburgh and seven of 11 in his career. And Green has averaged 8.3 receptions for 120 yards in his last six Steelers games.
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A big reason for those recent numbers has been the presence of Tyler Eifert and Marvin Jones, but Dalton those options won’t be available Sunday. Instead, the Bengals will need receivers Brandon LaFell and rookie Tyler Boyd, a Pittsburgh native, to get open and make plays, along with tight end C.J. Uzomah.
Look for the Steelers to give plenty of safety help over the top while also buzzing Green with a linebacker underneath at times as they try to make Dalton beat them with his secondary options.
Start to run, stop the run
The Cincinnati Bengals have struggled to run the ball against Pittsburgh, averaging 78 yards per game and 3.5 yards per attempt the last six seasons. And they are coming off a disappointing showing in the season opener at New York, where they managed just 57 yards at a clip of 3.0 per rush.
Getting Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard going this week will be especially important because the better they go, the longer the Bengals are on the field and the longer Roethlisberger and the Steelers explosive offense is on the sideline.
Hill had a modest 60 yards in the win at Heinz Field last year, but they came on just 15 carries for a 4.0 average, which was one of better numbers in a disappointing sophomore season that saw him finish with a 3.6 average.
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On the other side of the ball, the Steelers are without Le’Veon Bell, but 33-year-old DeAngelo Williams is coming off a 143-yard, two-touchdown performance Monday night that earned him the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award.
The Steelers didn’t have Bell for last year’s Week 14 and wild-card games, and Pittsburgh still ran for a combined 251 yards on the way to a couple of wins.
Safety returns to the scene
Shawn Williams made the first start of his career in last year’s Week 7 game at Pittsburgh when the Bengals opened in a three-safety alignment, and he would go on to turn in the play of the year with his diving interception against Ben Roethlisberger to set Dalton’s game-winning touchdown pass to A.J. Green.
Williams went on to make three more starts in injury relief and played well enough to earn a four-year, $19.5 million extension as the Bengals let Reggie Nelson walk in free agency.
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The coaches said throughout the spring and summer that Williams just needs to play his own style and not try to be Nelson, but it would benefit the Bengals greatly if Williams can show some resemblance today to his mentor who tormented Roethlisberger the last few years with four interceptions in his last three regular-season games against the future Hall of Famer and six in the past six.
Wet, possibly wild, weather
The forecast in Pittsburgh calls for an 80 percent chance of rain with thunderstorm, which mark the second consecutive Bengals-Steelers game that’s been played in the rain after soggy sadness enveloped Paul Brown Stadium at the end of January’s wild-card game.
But unlike PBS, Heinz Field has natural grass. And that field has been notorious for causing footing issues even in ideal weather.
The addition of predicted storms could mean the game will be delayed at some point if lightning strikes in the general vicinity of the stadium.
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