It's a battle for the AFC North: Steelers at Bengals Week 10 primer

• Ben Baby

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  Ben Baby

  ESPN Staff Writer

  Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN's NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
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• Brooke Pryor

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  Brooke Pryor

  ESPN Staff Writer

  Brooke Pryor is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. She previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and the University of Oklahoma for The Oklahoman.

Nov 13, 2026, 06:00 AM ET

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham arrived at his news conference a few minutes late Monday afternoon.

"Sorry about that," he said as he stepped behind the lectern. "Tee Higgins, Joe Burrow, [Ja'Marr] Chase, a lot of guys."

He laughed and shook his head as a reporter asked if anything was different from their first matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals nearly two months earlier -- a 30-27 win in Week 3.

"No, they're all out there," he said.

It's a matchup that would give any defensive coordinator nightmares, and Sunday night in Cincinnati (8:20 ET, NBC) the chess game between the Bengals' high-flying offense and the Steelers' stalwart, veteran-laden defense clashes again with high stakes.

The winner of Sunday's rematch will move into first place in the AFC North. For the Steelers, a win will mean a crucial division sweep of the Bengals to maintain their tiebreak advantage. For the Bengals, a victory will even the 2026 series with the Steelers with three division games left -- including two against the frisky Cleveland Browns.

"I love playing in primetime," Burrow said. "Some guys would rather play at 1 [p.m.]. I'd rather play every game [on] Sunday night, 'Monday Night Football.' I want to be able to showcase what we do and how hard we work and go and showcase what we can do to the world. And this is a big moment for it."

Burrow, though, has never played in a home divisional primetime game. On the other side, the Steelers haven't won a road divisional primetime game since 2024.

Since their September meeting, each team has lost once, and both enter the matchup riding a four-game winning streak. The Steelers are well-rested after a bye week, while the Bengals are recovering from a quick trip to Madrid, where they beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-17. DraftKings has the Bengals as 3.5-point favorites.

"We have a lot of positive energy going right now, and we got a big-time game, 'Sunday Night Football' in Cincinnati," Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said earlier this week. "It's going to be a great atmosphere, and we got a chance to sweep the Bengals and that's what you have to do in division games. You have to win these division games."

Steelers reporter Brooke Pryor and Bengals reporter Ben Baby break down the big game.

Burrow vs. Rodgers: One QB coming off a big win and another off bye. How does each respond?

Baby: Other NFL quarterbacks can only dream of the situation Burrow finds himself in -- mining through the finest details of his game that need to be improved.

Because as of now, he's playing as well as ever in his seven-year career. In his past four games, he has thrown 16 touchdowns to just three interceptions. If one takes away drops and throwaways, Burrow is completing 82.2% of his passes.

And yet, the misses linger. There was a throw last week against the Falcons that he wanted back.

"I just hold myself to a high standard and learn from my mistakes," Burrow said.

Cincinnati is aware of the rhythm Burrow is in and how that needs to be nurtured for the rest of the season.

"When you find yourself in that place, you have to maintain the urgency to stay there because you don't just take that for granted," Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said.

Pryor: Aaron Rodgers grinned as he spoke to the media Wednesday in his first availability since getting a full week off for the Steelers' Week 9 bye.

"I always look forward to it, and appreciate Mike's bye week schedules over the years," Rodgers said.

McCarthy has a 12-6 career bye record, but Rodgers doesn't put too much stock in it.

"I think that's one of those stats you can just find if you're looking for it," Rodgers said. "Obviously, there's a slight advantage in rest, but yeah, I just think that's an outlier stat, probably."

Before the bye, Rodgers had his lowest passing output of the season in the Steelers' Week 8 win against the Browns, completing 52% of his attempts for 172 yards and an interception. For the season, Rodgers is averaging 6.5 air yards per attempt -- up from 5.9 in 2025 -- but he aired it out in the Week 3 meeting with the Bengals. He had two touchdown throws of 20-plus air yards in the victory (and just one such passing touchdown in all other seven games combined, per ESPN Research), and he averaged a season-high 8.6 yards per attempt.

Rodgers, who is 2-0 in head-to-head matchups with Burrow, enters this primetime matchup with 180 career wins including playoffs, one away from tying former New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees for fourth most since 1950.

Which units have improved the most since these teams last played each other?

Baby: The offense. One of the pretenses the Bengals finally dropped midway through the season is that with Burrow at quarterback, there's no notion of a traditional offense.

What happens on first-and-10 tells the full story. In those neutral situations, the Bengals were under center on 56.3% of those snaps at the start of the offensive sequence. Since then, that rate has plummeted to a mere 25.2%, good for the lowest rate in the NFL, per ESPN Research.

Here's another fact that might surprise people: The Bengals like throwing the ball.

Cincinnati is last in the NFL in rushing attempts (177) and rushes per game (22.1). When Burrow, Chase and Higgins are playing this well, one sticks with them.

Pryor: The run game. Jaylen Warren exploded in the first matchup between these two teams, and the ground game has been on a roll since. With Rico Dowdle sidelined, Warren racked up 176 all-purpose yards in the Week 3 victory.

"What 30 did in that game, that was kind of his stepping into the spotlight moment this season," Rodgers said Wednesday. "He was unbelievable. Just the amount of tackles that he forced, missed, just his vision, he was the catalyst behind that. So fortunately or unfortunately, he set the standard that day for himself, and he's lived up to it the last few weeks, and he's a dynamic player."

Warren has eclipsed 100 rushing yards in three of the Steelers' five games since the Cincinnati win, including a season-high 143 in the team's most recent triumph against the Browns. The Steelers are averaging 145.7 rushing yards in their past three games.

How does Pittsburgh halt the long game on the outside with Chase and Higgins?

Pryor: Say a prayer? Outside of divine intervention, though, the Steelers' best hope to limit deep shots to Chase and Higgins is through an effective pass rush. In Week 3, the Bengals relied on a quick passing game, and as a result, the Steelers' pass rush didn't get many opportunities to affect Burrow. The Steelers sacked Burrow just once when Derrick Harmon, who returned to practice this week but is still on injured reserve, brought the quarterback down late in the game.

"At the end of the game we got them into some advantageous situations, and so when we did that, then we got our pass rush hitting home," Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said this week. "But it was just about staying patient in the game, and going into this game, we're not going to have as many shots, but when we get them, we got to make them count."

The Steelers' secondary has been inconsistent in shutting down splash plays, and that has certainly been the case in previous matchups with Chase and Higgins. And if the Bengals go back to the quick pass formula, the Steelers have to be sure they have tacklers to limit the Bengals' explosiveness after the catch.

Baby: Fortunately for Pittsburgh, it has perhaps the only solution that is currently helpful in stopping Cincinnati's explosive tandem -- a good defensive front. Throughout the week, Cincinnati talked about how when a team is able to be effective with four pass rushers, it leaves the other seven defenders on the field devoted to pass coverage.

"If there's any team in the league who dictates that the defense should be devoting as much or all of their resources to coverage, it would probably be us," Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said.

The Steelers are second in the NFL with 18 total sacks when bringing four rushers despite actually having one of the worst overall pressure rates in the NFL (29.2%, ranked 30th), per ESPN Research.

If Pittsburgh can get good pressure on Burrow without blitzing, that will leave Graham with more options to slow one of the NFL's best passing attacks.

What's the X factor that could decide this game that nobody's talking about?

Baby: Cincinnati's defense hasn't been great this season.

And during the Bengals' four-game winning streak, that hasn't mattered because of how good the offense has performed. For that to continue against Pittsburgh, being effective could come down to being the better team in the red zone.

Cincinnati ranks fifth in the NFL in red zone efficiency, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. But the Steelers' defense is ranked even higher. Pittsburgh is third in defensive efficiency inside the 20-yard line because it produces stops on 37.5% of opposing drives.

In recent weeks, the Bengals have had moments where the offense finds ways into the end zone. Amid a season in which the seat has never been hotter on coach Zac Taylor, his offense has never been better.

That could result in a win Sunday night that puts Cincinnati in the AFC North catbird seat.

"Right now, we're excited that we're in a position where we don't have to cheer for other teams and get a chance to control what we can control," Taylor said.

Pryor: DK Metcalf. Much has been made about the wide receiver's struggles this season, and for good reason. The Steelers' highest-paid offensive player has more drops (five) than touchdowns (one) in eight games this season, and he recorded just three catches off 12 combined targets over the past two games. His 7.7% drop rate is the highest of his career, and it's well over his career average of 4.1%.

But Metcalf's lone touchdown in 2026 came against the Bengals, and the Steelers are coming off a week of self-scouting where the offensive staff explored ways to maximize Metcalf.

"We got a tremendous amount of confidence in DK, and we got to look at, are we putting DK in the right position to be successful," Steelers offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio said Monday. "So there's some things that we're going to try to do to help him and certainly get him more ops to be effective, because certainly he's a really dynamic player and we have a lot of confidence in him to be that player."

Rodgers has also been vocal in his support of and belief in Metcalf throughout the wide receiver's slump, but as the trade deadline passed without the Steelers making a move for pass catcher, the urgency for Metcalf to turn things around is amplified.