3 takeaways from the Pittsburgh Steelers' surprise victory against the Cincinnati Bengals as Joe Burrow has nightmare opening week

The AFC North kicked off the 2022 season with a bang as the Pittsburgh Steelers surprised neutrals with a tense, overtime win against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals turned the ball over an incredible five times, but the Steelers' lack of offensive nous kept the game close. After throwing a career-high four interceptions, quarterback Joe Burrow will be looking to put this one behind him.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from the Steelers-Bengals game:

#1. Zac Taylor still hasn’t learned how to self-scout his own offense

Pittsburgh Steelers v Cincinnati Bengals

Over and over again last season, I talked about how Zac Taylor and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan needed to look themselves in the mirror and understand how they were holding back an offense. Joe Burrow started to take over and created one of the most explosive passing attacks in the league. We can talk about their issues with protection last season (where way too often teams were able to manipulate their rules), but I think in this game, their five guys up front just got their asses kicked.

So my focus here is on their predictability and tendencies, which defenses are able to pick up upon. Going under center and/or using 12 personnel were huge tells for them running the ball, along with just first-down calls. Right on cue Sunday, on their 18 plays from under center, they ran play-action twice and handed it off the other 16 snaps (and their success on those declined throughout the day).

The one thing I give the coaching staff credit for was putting Ja’Marr Chase at the third slot in trips and how it expanded the space he could work, along with him just roasting corners on the perimeter when left one-on-one. He was an inch or two away from having four touchdowns on the day and he was the one guy the Steelers could seemingly do nothing against, as Burrow and him pretty much rallied the team back after four interceptions.

#2. T.J. Watt played like a man possessed, but Minkah Fitzpatrick won the Steelers the game

Pittsburgh Steelers v Cincinnati Bengals

Let’s just say that the investments into the offensive line protection issues for Cincinnati did not bring the results they wanted to see. Burrow was sacked seven times and pressured another 14. T.J. Watt in particular was an absolute monster in regulation, racking up six tackles (three for losses, with one of those where he basically wrapped up Joe Mixon the moment he secured a handoff), a sack, a pass batted down and an interception (where he had to get around the tight-end and then recognized Burrow was loading up, so he jumped up for it).

Unfortunately, he tore his pec when he was wrapping up Burrow, but right now it looks like he’ll be back in six to eight weeks. With that being said, Alex Highsmith had a career game with three sacks and the guy who ultimately won Pittsburgh this game was the other star on defense – Minkah Fitzpatrick. Following Cam Heyward's sack on Burrow on the Bengals' first offensive snap, the safety immediately took control of the game for the Steelers with a pick-six (by jumping a corner route in cover-two off a smash concept and making it look easy, despite the slot receiver Tyler Boyd basically making a square break to take away the angle).

Fitzpatrick raced up in run-support, helped bracket receivers in certain situations, led the team with 14 tackles (not missing any) and was responsible for a passer rating of just 42.7. Plus, he blocked the PAT following the Chase touchdown with two seconds left on the clock (squeezing through the C-gap, when he really should have been blocked). That sent the game into overtime and allowed Chris Boswell to kick the game-winner on the other end.

#3. If this is what Mitch Trubisky can give the Steelers, it won’t be long before we see Kenny Pickett

Pittsburgh Steelers v Cincinnati Bengals

I could go on about the offensive line and how they weren’t able to create any push in the run game (which if you take away Chase Claypool’s six carries for 36 yards on jet sweeps and end-arounds, their actual running backs plus Trubisky gained just 39 yards on 13 attempts), but that was already known to me. However, Mitchell Trubisky did not play particularly well and the offense looked anemic with him under center.

The Steelers managed only 231 yards of total offense and 13 first downs through 70 minutes of play. Trubisky amassed less than 200 yards on 38 pass attempts and nine yards on three carries. He had one very impressive throw on that reverse flea-flicker, where he had to release with both his feet in the air and still dropped it into the bucket for Pat Freiermuth on a delayed wheel route for 31 yards.

But on a few throws, where he just needed to plant and rip the ball, those ended up off-target. He badly missed rookie receiver George Pickens, who ran by his corner for what should have been an 85-yard touchdown (but the ball landed in the Cincinnati team-area instead, despite a clean platform to release from).

Pittsburgh won the turnover battle five-to-zero and scored once themselves to get the game started, yet it took that blocked PAT and a field-goal in overtime to even get the win.

Check out my piece on the full Week 1 slate at halilsrealfootballtalk.com !