Breaking Down Russell Wilson's Big Day vs. the Bengals

In his 6 games since taking over as the Steelers’ starting quarterback, Russell Wilson has revived his career and sparked Pittsburgh’s ascension to the top of the AFC North. He’s completed 65.8% of his passes for 8.7 yards per attempt, has a 10-3 TD-INT ratio, and a 104.3 passer rating. More importantly, the Steelers are 5-1.

In Week 13 against the Bengals, Wilson threw for 414 yards (the second-highest total of his career) and 3 touchdowns. He did a tremendous job managing the game. He took what Cincinnati’s defense was giving him all afternoon and then attacked downfield when the time and the coverage was right.

In fact, there were many throws where Wilson got the ball out of his hands quickly underneath, which hasn’t been his style throughout his career. Wilson’s time to throw on all pass attempts against the Bengals was 2.59 seconds, his fastest in any game this season according to PFF. For context, Wilson’s average time to throw through his first five games was 2.84 seconds.

I don’t know if he was just taking advantage of the holes in the Bengals’ pass defense or if it was a point of emphasis all week from offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Perhaps a combination of both? Whatever the reason, it worked. Wilson kept the offense on schedule and racked up yards. The result was his best performance as a Steeler and another critical division win for Pittsburgh, improving their record to 10-3.

We’re going to break this one down using the Chat function of Substack again. Click on the link below to check it out:

Russell Wilson’s 400-Yard Performance vs. the Bengals

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