George Pickens Nears Milestone Entering Week 18
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens needs 100 yards receiving in Saturday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals to reach the 1,000-yard mark on the season.
If Pickens accomplishes the feat, he’ll become the first Steeler since Mike Wallace to have 1,000+ receiving yards in two of his first three seasons.
Pickens, who has 58 receptions for 900 yards (15.5 average) and three touchdowns this season, would have surpassed 1,000 yards receiving if he wasn’t sidelined for three games (Weeks 14-16) because of a hamstring injury.
Pickens has just two 100-yard performances this season. He caught five passes for 111 yards and a touchdown in the Week 7 win over the New York Jets and recorded seven receptions for 113 yards against the Indianapolis Colts in the Week 4 loss.
Pickens had three receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown in the Steelers’ Week 13 win over the Bengals in Cincinnati. Overall, Pickens has had his way with the Bengals in his career. Pickens has recorded 15 catches for 413 yards (27.5 average) and four touchdowns in five games against Cincinnati.
In last year’s Week 16 contest against the Bengals at Acrisure Stadium, Pickens went off with four receptions foe 195 yards (48.7 average) and two touchdowns.
The Bengals defense has improved during the team’s four-game winning streak, but they’ve played a pretty weak group of quarterbacks — Cooper Rush, Mason Rudolph, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and rookie Bo Nix.
On the season, the Bengals rank 24th in pass defense (230.0) and 29th in points allowed per game (26.1). The Steelers put up 44 points and Russell Wilson threw for 414 yards in the Week 13 win over the Bengals.
Pickens will try to bounce back after a subpar performance in the team’s 29-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last week.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed on Monday that Pickens’ route running “had zero” to do with Wilson’s crucial red zone interception in the loss to Kansas City. Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger disagrees with that assessment, however.
On his Footbahlin podcast, Roethlisberger ripped the third-year wideout for dogging it on his route.
“Basically, you’re trying to in-and-out the safeties and corners and then find the seam down the field. Issue number one is George Pickens didn’t run his route,” Roethlisberger said. “That’s issue number one. Because if he doesn’t run his route, the safety has no threat now.”
Roethlisberger admitted that he doesn’t know the exact play-call or coverage by Kansas City, but from his experience, George Pickens stopping on his route was “90 percent of the issue.”
Roethlisberger also criticized Wilson for making an ill-advised pass.
“Now Russ has got to see that. He can’t just blindly throw a ball in there to Pickens, ” he said.
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