Steelers will try to shrug off their uneven start vs. Bengals
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PITTSBURGH -- Aaron Rodgers says he isn't worried about the Pittsburgh Steelers' resolve.
Maybe, but if the four-time MVP and an offense that remains very much a work in progress can't find a way to take a significant step forward on Sunday when Joe Burrow and unbeaten Cincinnati visit, it might be time to start worrying about the results.
The future Hall of Fame quarterback and his team have hardly looked crisp through the first two weeks. Scoring one touchdown in eight quarters and absorbing four sacks during a miserable afternoon in New England last week will do that.
Now here come Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and a revamped Bengals defense eager to stamp itself as the early AFC North favorite after a decisive road win in Houston.
The quarterback who once famously encouraged everyone to "R-E-L-A-X" isn't panicking. Yet with a pair of division games looming, the Steelers (1-1) don't necessarily have the luxury of taking their time to figure things out.
"I hate the whole, 'We're close,' or this or that," Rodgers said.
The 42-year-old has no interest in assigning blame for why things have looked so bumpy during the beginning of first-year head coach Mike McCarthy's tenure.
It's football. It happens.
"A lot of times it was just 10 guys doing it right and one guy not doing it right," he said. "It was a lot to go around. I had my plays, but everybody had their plays, so we got to shore that up."
Pittsburgh doesn't have much choice if it wants to turn things around against Cincinnati, which is seeking to begin a season 3-0 for the first time since 2015.
The Bengals have certainly looked the part of a contender in beating Tampa Bay and Houston, the latter on the road in a game in which the rebuilt defense led by Dexter Lawrence was disruptive at all the right times to give Burrow -- who believes he's played very "average" so far -- and the rest of the offense the kind of help it has sorely lacked in recent years.
"Just the playing off each other, I think, in all three phases when you go on the road against a good team that we have a lot of respect for, that's the way you got to win, and taking good care of the football, which we did," Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor said. "So I was impressed. It doesn't mean that there's not a lot of room for improvement, which there should be early in the year."
Just not as much as will be required in Pittsburgh, which may switch things up in search of a boost. Rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor could take over for Dylan Cook at right tackle and the secondary might have some fresh faces given the volatile status of cornerback Joey Porter and veteran Jamel Dean's ankle injury that forced him to miss practice time this week.
Whoever is on the field, the Steelers know only too well they need to improve, and do it quickly.
"At the end of the day, our job is to whip the other guy's (tail)," McCarthy said, "and we need to make sure we're staying in tune with that."
Matchup to watch
Pittsburgh's interior offensive line vs. Bengals DTs Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen. The arrival of Lawrence via trade and Allen in free agency has given Cincinnati's front a needed jolt. The two have already made an impact, with Allen picking up a sack in each of his first two games with the club and Lawrence providing a critical fourth down stop last week against Houston. They're facing a Steelers line coming off a miserable performance last week in New England in which Rodgers was sacked four times and failed to produce a touchdown. If they don't take a significant step forward at Acrisure Stadium, a sluggish start will become immeasurably worse.