Bengals’ snap count distribution vs Steelers: Injuries took their toll

The Bengals lost a gruesome game on Monday night against the Steelers.

The second half was hard to watch as the Bengals slowly lost the lead they had built up in the first half. Still some young players got some valuable playing time, but the Bengals are still not playing some players they should be.

Snap count takeaways:

• The Bengals and Steelers ran almost the same amount of plays. The Bengals had 64 offensive snaps while the Steelers ran 66. The Bengals also narrowly won the time of possession battle, but that was mostly because they dominated it in the first half. They didn’t get anything going offensively in the second half.
• Joe Mixon’s (17) concussion turned Giovani Bernard (44) into the Bengals’ only option at running back. It is unfortunate we didn’t get to see Mixon in the second half of either Steelers game, but Bernard reminded us all why he is such a valuable backup to have in this league. He finished the game with 97 total yards on 15 touches.
• The Bengals played Pat Sims (31) far more than Andrew Billings (11). This is the coaching staff reverting to what they were doing earlier in the season. Billings has moments where he struggles, but he brings far more of an upside than Sims does to the field.
• With Injuries at linebacker, Jordan Evans played every single snap for the Bengals. The team was without Nick Vigil and Vincent Rey coming into the game, and then JuJu Smith-Schuster took out Vontaze Burfict (49) later in the game. Until that point Evans was clearly the linebacker the Bengals wanted out there in nickel situations. Kevin Minter (21) is clearly just a 4-3 personnel linebacker in this team’s eyes.
• Obligatory John Ross mention. Somehow the ninth overall pick is still isn’t playing for a team that only scored three points in the second half. Tyler Boyd (15) and Josh Malone (33) are still out there only catching two passes each. At this point I’d feel okay with sitting Boyd if that is what it takes to get Ross out on the field to at least see what we have in him.
• Adam Jones (5) got injured early after intercepting Ben Roethlisberger. This led to more William Jackson (61) who again had a few very nice plays against Antonio Brown. The real issue is becoming Dre Kirkpatrick (66) constantly getting picked on. The Bengals just signed him to a huge five-year contract this offseason, and somehow he has become the weakest link in the secondary. It may just be the scheme the Bengals run against the Steelers, but he got picked apart on Monday night.
• No one on the offensive line missed a snap, and in the first half of the game they were dominating the Steelers’ front seven. Somewhere along the line they lost that mojo. It could’ve been when they lost Mixon or when play calling seemed to become more conservative. It is still a great sign they were doing so well at all during this game.