Steelers-Bengals takeaways: Cincinnati stays alive in playoff race

The Cincinnati Bengals needed a win on Saturday night to keep their playoff hopes alive going into the final day of the regular season. They got it in the form of a 19-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Now they have to hope for a Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins loss on Sunday.

Here are some takeaways from their win.

Knee-jerk reaction: The Steelers are in trouble

While the Bengals keeping their playoff hopes alive is significant, they still need a lot of help and are far from a sure thing to make the playoffs.

The Steelers are in the playoffs, and they needed to show something on Saturday after three straight ugly losses to contenders.

Defensively, they did. They limited one of the league’s best offenses and an MVP-caliber quarterback to only 19 points, forced a turnover and sacked Joe Burrow multiple times.

It was a winning effort from that side of the ball.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, their offense completely wasted it, struggling to generate any consistent offense against one of the worst defenses in football.

George Pickens dropped three passes, Russell Wilson led one of the ugliest two-minute drives imaginable, and they did nothing as a group to show they could compete at a championship level on the biggest stage against top-tier competition.

If the defense plays this way next week, that will be good enough to give them a chance against either Houston or Baltimore.

The offense playing at this level will give them a chance against nobody.

That has to scare them at the most important time of the season.

Game MVP: Joe Burrow, quarterback, Cincinnati Bengals 

This was far from Burrow’s best game of the season, and the absence of running back Chase Brown (and later wide receiver Tee Higgins) certainly hurt, but it was still an impressive showing by Burrow to help his team in a must-win game.

He was sensational on the game’s first two drives, resulting in 10 quick points, and even though he was under pressure most of the night, his elusiveness and ability to avoid the rush helped keep some drives alive.

He doesn’t always need to put up MVP numbers to play like an MVP.

That was the case on Saturday.

Turning point: Bengals stop the Steelers on fourth down before halftime 

The Steelers had a chance to get points before halftime and potentially take the lead going into the break.

But a chaotic sequence of events that saw them get stopped on two short yardage plays, including on a fourth down play deep in their own territory, gave the Bengals a short field to work with under a minute to play.

They ended up kicking a field goal on the final play of the half to take a 13-7 lead.

Those three points ended up being significant.

They were set up by one of the Bengals’ biggest defensive plays of the season.

Goat of the game: George Pickens, wide receiver, Pittsburgh Steelers 

Pickens is a headache for the Steelers.

He is their most talented playmaker on offense and the one guy that can flip a game for them.

But he also makes too many mental mistakes and is inconsistent with his ability to get open and make contested catches. He was awful on Saturday, dropping three passes, including a deep ball down the sidelines that could have set the Steelers up for points. 

They need him to be a key player for them to win. They need him in the lineup. They also need more than what they got from him on Saturday.