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Thirty days may as well be 30 years in the AFC North as we give you Bengals-Steelers Saturday night (8 p.m.-ESPN) at Pittsburgh in a regular-season finale Cincinnati must have.
"AFC North at its finest," said Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo on Monday. "Eight o'clock at night in Pittsburgh, cold and everything on the line for us."
The Steelers left the 4-8 Bengals for dead back on Dec. 1 at Paycor Stadium in the wake of Justin Fields's zone-read keeper for a first down that killed the clock in a 44-38 win.
But since that day the Bengals are 4-0, outscoring their opponents, 118-77, while the Steelers are 1-3 and giving up an un-Steeler-like 28 points per game in the last five weeks. But Pittsburgh is in the playoffs, and they'll know by kickoff if they have to win to take the AFC North because 11-5 Baltimore plays Cleveland at 4:30.
Even if the Ravens win, the Steelers sound as if they'll play it out. A loss to the Bengals would force them to play the Ravens in Baltimore in the Wild Card.
"That might be a thought for later in the week," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin when asked Monday about resting people. "I think it's significant how we go into this tournament. I doubt that I'll be in that mentality that you mentioned."
It's a much simpler scenario for the Bengals. They have to beat the Steelers on Saturday, get help on Sunday, and not let Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson have one of the best games of his Hall-of-Fame career.
Which is what Wilson did on Dec. 1 with 414 yards, many of them coming on uncontested dump passes over the middle that still have Anarumo steaming.
"We gave up over 110 yards receiving to the running backs just on checkdowns," Anarumo said Monday. "We were trying to play some coverages to try to help some people. We'll try to eliminate the checkdown yards. We cannot give up that much, there's no way, so that will be a big part of it."
Since Wilson had a day, the Bengals defense has come alive, generating an NFL-best 12 turnovers and posting the third-best defensive passer since Dec. 1. The change is palpable,
"I'll just point to playing with confidence. You put a month of winning straight under your belt that's going to help anybody's attitude and confidence level," Anarumo said. "Getting takeaways. Germaine's (Pratt) pick was huge the other night; keep that trend going. You go a month without losing a game I think that that adds to everybody's confidence level."
BLACK AND GOLD BLUEPRINT
Anarumo has a blueprint for beating the Steelers, which the Bengals have done in three of quarterback Joe Burrow’s six games against Pittsburgh.
"It starts with stopping the running game. Anytime we've been successful with them we've taken out that part of it. And take the ball away," Anarumo said. "When we haven't done well, it's been that. They've been able to run it and we haven't taken the ball away.
"They're going to want to play ball control and keep it away from our O I'm sure. But we've got to rise up and do a good job in the run game. It starts with that always."
The demarcation points appear to be 103 yards and two turnovers. In the Burrow era, when the Bengals have forced two or more turnovers against the Steelers, they're 3-0. One or none, 1-5. When they've held them to fewer than 103 yards, they're 4-2, 0-3 when they don't.
BRONCOS REVIEW
Except for the 51-yard touchdown pass fired by Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix, Anarumo thought his guys played well in Saturday's 30-24 win over Denver. Nix's 25-yard lob to Marvin Mims Jr. to tie it with eight seconds left was so well covered by slot cornerback Mike Hilton and safety Geno Stone that it didn't infuriate him.
"Mike and Geno were hanging all over the guy (Mims) and the guy makes a great catch," Anarumo said. "Mike hesitates a little bit, but gets back in it. We could probably do a better job of ripping his arms kind of down and through."
He was looking for a little more from Stone and safety Jordan Battle on the unmolested 51-yard touchdown to Mims.
"They've got to be on top of the route there for sure. No matter if it's a 40-yard throw, 50, 60, it doesn't matter," Anarumo said. "It's not like they're going to gauge how far you can throw it. It's just a matter of staying on top of the route. They had good alignments. They were both 14 yards deep pre-snap … certainly could play it a little bit better."
O-LINE LOOK
How tough is left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. as he pitched a no-hitter Saturday night?
After missing six of the last seven games with what had been called a fibula issue, Brown played all 90 snaps and according to Pro Football Focus, he allowed only two pressures on 64 pass blocks, both hurries. No hits, no sacks. Against primarily one of the NFL's top sackers in linebacker Nick Bonitto.
Then Brown revealed he's got two fractures in his leg.
Plus, rookie right tackle Amarius Mims left in the second quarter with reportedly a broken hand, and the Bengals opted to keep Cody Ford at left guard and bring in Devin Cochran for Mims. Rather than kick out Ford to right tackle and bring in Cordell Volson at left guard.
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher indicated they felt making one move was better than two.
"I think you try to limit the amount of moving pieces," Pitcher said. "We put a lot of stock in the preparation we do during the week and the practice reps that guys get and just their mental preparation for what they're going to have to do in any given week. If you can avoid moving two pieces based on if one guy has to come out, then I think that's always good. And then, you when you have a benefit of a week of preparation, potentially, in any given situation, you try to decide what's the best way to go about it. And then you have the contingency in place."
After making his first NFL start at left tackle two weeks ago in Tennessee, Cochran has come off the bench in the last two games for the injured Mims and been solid. He did give up a sack against Denver, but in 44 pass blocks, PFF had Cochran for allowing just a hurry beyond the sack.
Whoever it is, Mims or Cochran, they'll have Steelers edge T.J. Watt, who only leads the decade in sacks. Back on Dec.1, Mims allowed only one pressure in his introduction to the rivalry against the Steelers, via PFF.
TEE-PORTER JR. ENCORE
Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. had a rough time in Paycor on Dec. 1. He was called for holding or pass interference five times, three of them working against Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.
Pitcher can see how Higgins' 6-4 frame and strength causes it.
"Those are things that sometimes get forgotten in the stat line when you check back a couple of months later to see catches and yards," Pitcher said. "Those, at times, are just as valuable to the offense as those recorded stats. (Higgins) poses a problem, especially when he's lined up across from, on the same side as, stacked with, motioned to Ja'Marr Chase. They've got a lot of work to do to figure out how to solve that problem, and that's good for us."
Higgins, who is coming off the first three-touchdown game of his career, had a touchdown on Dec. 1 against cornerback Cameron Sutton to go with five catches for 69 yards. Chase also had a score along with six catches for 86 yards.
SCOUT SHOUT
Before spraining his ankle when he dove to prevent himself from scoring at the end of Saturday's regulation, Bengals running back Chase Brown had racked up his ninth straight 90-yard scrimmage game.
Before that, backup Khalil Herbert had all of four carries in his six previous games with the Bengals. That's how many he ended up with in overtime. Two of them went for 21 yards. The last one rattled for 13 and set up Higgins' 31-yard bomb from Burrow on the next play that was what won it.
When running back Zack Moss (neck) went on injured reserve as the trade deadline crept closer back in October, the Bengals personnel department scoured the league for a trading partner that would yield a reliable veteran back who could run out of the shotgun formation and had experience picking up blitzes.
With Herbert in the last eight games of rookie deal, he only cost a 2025 seventh-rounder.
On Saturday with the playoffs on the line, he paid dividends.
"Khalil's a pro. He's played a lot of NFL football. He's been productive. We really like the way he prepares during the week. He's diligent," Pitcher said. "We brought him here for a reason. We heard really good things about (him). We were able to evaluate the player on the tape and we liked the player. And then we heard a lot of really good things about the person.
"The ability for us to add him was big. Chase played himself into a role where we really didn't want to take him off the field. We were able to spell him in ways with different guys that we felt like we didn't necessarily need as much of that. But Khalil has waited in the wings. And he's prepared."
