Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card Week 10: Grading Each Unit

After winning against the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-17, on Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers head into their bye week back in the thick of the AFC North race once again.

The Steelers have a long way to go, but they do have the opportunity now to make a run at both the division title and the AFC's No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

As the Steelers head into a long-awaited and well-deserved break, it's time to take a look at how they graded out.

Offense: Skill Positions

Quarterback: B

Ben Roethlisberger was very good in this game, completing 21 of 33 passes for 245 yards and throwing both a touchdown and an interception. He did, however, miss on some deep passes that left Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown unable to exploit their ability to break away from defenders. Overall, a great game, but not his finest.

Running Backs: B+

Once again, the Steelers didn't put a great emphasis on running the ball, but the running game did produce two touchdowns in the red zone and over 100 yards on the day.

Rashard Mendenhall gained a lot of tough yards, particularly deep in Bengals territory.

The Steelers still haven't been able to do a lot when trying to open up the running game with their passing attack, but that's starting to come around a little. That's something they'll have two weeks to work on now.

Wide Receivers: A

Jerricho Cotchery made his first real appearance of the season with a first quarter touchdown, and Mike Wallace became a force both in the passing game and with two excellent efforts on end around plays.

The big star once again, however, was Antonio Brown, who caught five passes for 86 yards. Brown continues to be the answer for almost every type of coverage a defense can use, catching a couple of passes in double coverage with some amazing acrobatic moves.

Offense: Line and Blocking

Offensive Line: B

I'm not going to complain much about the sack numbers. Most of those sacks were either coverage-induced or were the result of Ben Roethlisberger holding the ball a little bit too long.

A couple of minor issues that I noticed were Ramon Foster being unable to hold blocks for as long as the other four linemen and also the fact that the right side of the line was notably weak against the Bengals run defense.

Max Starks has continued to be quite a force on the left side and has dramatically improved the Steelers blocking as a whole. I'm also impressed with the growth of rookie Marcus Gilbert.

In the end, this was a fine game by the offensive line, but there are some issues that need addressed.

This line, however, does seem to have gelled to the point that they can be successful. As long as this group can avoid injuries, they should be effective the rest of the way.

Defense: Line and Linebackers

Defensive Line: C+

The name of the game is pressure. For the Steelers and their 3-4 defense, it starts with the ability of the defensive line to get good push off the snap and open holes for the linebackers to run through. This has to happen quickly.

It didn't happen at all in this game. Except for a few random plays where James Harrison or Jason Worilds was able to get good edge pressure and one play where James Farrior was able to burst through the line, the Steelers had almost zero pressure on rookie quarterback Andy Dalton.

The Steelers must figure out how to get Casey Hampton back to playing his game. He's been playing scared since he was chopped legally several times during Week 1. He has to forget that and play stronger.

Linebackers: B-

This unit was acceptable on Sunday, but not at their best. I'm being a little more lenient than I usually would be because they are playing without Lamarr Woodley and with a clearly-slowed James Farrior.

Still, they weren't able to get much pressure, and Farrior was particularly bad against the run, getting caught flat-footed several times and missing a few tackles. The secondary had to come up in support often, something that shouldn't happen with the talent the Steelers have up front.

The linebackers must use the week off the get healthy and back to playing with a high motor. Right now, James Harrison is playing by himself out there on the pass rush, and the only linebacker who made a big play in this game was Lawrence Timmons.

Defense: Defensive Backs

Defensive Backs: B

Troy Polamalu was great in this game, making some big plays in defense of the run and also disrupting some pass plays. His lone mistake was on the A.J. Green touchdown, where he and Ryan Clark had position but failed to make a play on the ball.

The corners were also good in this game. William Gay came away with a rare big play on his interception that helped seal the Steelers' victory. Ike Taylor was also big, playing tight coverage on the Bengals outside receivers and preventing any big plays in his direction.

Overall, this was a good game for a secondary that got utterly victimized on Baltimore's 92-yard game-winning drive last week. They've got some work to do during the break, namely getting Polamalu more involved in pass defense.

Special Teams

Kicker/Punter: A

No complaints here, which is unusual for me. Shaun Suisham was effective, kicking a field goal and having several deep kickoffs. There's no question that Suisham's kickoffs were aided by the strong winds, but he still was able to have a good game.

Jeremy Kapinos had a huge game, averaging 41.8 yards on five punts. He booted two that were longer than 50 yards and helped the Steelers keep the Bengals out of prime field position despite several drives ending in their own territory.

Coverage Units: A

No issues here. The Steelers have been very good on coverage this year, and once again allowed nothing of note on Cincinnati's returns. They've neutralized some of the field position problems that plagued Steelers squads in past years by keeping return men bottled up.

The play of Cortez Allen has been excellent, and he's been a standout here.

Return Game: I

I have to give Antonio Brown an incomplete here because he didn't get many opportunities to return the ball thanks to the strong winds and the good punting of Kevin Huber. The returns he did get were a mixed bag. He did nothing wrong, but also didn't break anything big. It was a quiet week.

Coaching Staff

Overall Coaching: C+

This grade may be a bit on the harsh side considering the victory, but I wasn't impressed with some of the situational work on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, the Steelers nearly squandered a tiny lead by going into an ultra-conservative attack that involved first and second down runs directly into the line and third down deep balls. That's not how games are won.

Defensively, the Steelers improved on third down, but they are still giving up a lot of big plays both in the running game and against the pass. A.J. Green's touchdown shouldn't have happened, and too many easy routes for Jermaine Gresham also contributed to the problems.

The work during the bye week should be focused on continuing the improvements made this week in the red zone and also on getting more pressure on defense. Until these happen, the Steelers will continue to struggle to put opponents away.

The red zone offense puts points on the board. The defensive pressure creates turnovers and keeps opponents out of the end zone. It's that simple.