The Steelers and Bengals will meet at 1 p.m. in Cincinnati at Paycor Stadium. That game will be broadcast on CBS, and as the lead to their 1 p.m. slate, Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn are slated to call the game. KDKA-TV Channel 2 will have the local coverage of the game. This is the same crew Pittsburgh has had for four of their last six games, including their last two, as they called Pittsburgh’s games against Baltimore, Jacksonville, Green Bay, and Cleveland. However, this will be the second road game they are calling.
This will be an important game for the Steelers to win, and it seems far more likely with Joe Burrow out for the season after suffering a wrist injury. Kenny Pickett will have the onus placed on him after the Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, and Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner will help collaborate to get the gameplan going, while Sullivan will actually call plays.
Nothing really went right for the team under the guidance of Canada and as a result of that, they moved on to get some meaningful change going for a stagnant offense. Mike Tomlin revealed that level of stagnant play is exactly why the move simply had to be made.
“Did not come to this decision lightly to be transparent with you,” Tomlin said. “It’s just a personal belief of mine, my role to absorb and protect those that I work with. This doesn’t feel like that. I’m not interested in deflecting or assigning blame in some way. It’s more in my nature to absorb to be quite honest with you. I’ve been in this role for so long I’m quite comfortable absorbing it. So, just rest assured that this decision was not taken lightly. I’ve got a lot of respect for Matt personally and professionally but I thought it was necessary. This is a result-oriented business. And to be short, the improvements were not rapid enough or consistent enough for us to proceed. You gotta score touchdowns in this business, win games in this business, and just the totality of it as us where we are today.”
With the team averaging just 16.6 points per game, the move seems like one that had to be made. Tomlin said he ‘just knew’ that the time was right now for them to make that change. He saw the results, and Pittsburgh had to make that change for something to change.