PITTSBURGH (AP) — Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning scrambled to his right with two Pittsburgh Steelers defenders closing in during the first quarter on Saturday and thought he did what he's done so often of late while filling in for Joe Burrow: make the smart play.
One problem. Well, two problems.
The first was that the pass he meant to throw out of the back of the end zone barely made it across the goal line. The second was that it ended up in the hands of Pittsburgh safety Patrick Peterson, who grabbed it to swing momentum to the Steelers in what became a 34-11 loss that dealt a blow to Cincinnati's postseason hopes.
“I didn't even know it was picked," Browning said. “So stupid.”
More miscues were on the way.
Browning threw for 335 yards, including an 80-yard TD pass to Tee Higgins, but also tossed three interceptions that Pittsburgh turned into points as the Bengals (8-7) saw their three-game winning streak end.
“I've got to find a way to turn those plays into incompletions or check-downs or something to give us a chance,” Browning said after falling to 3-2 in place of Burrow, who is out for the season after having surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist.
In what has become the year of the backup quarterback, Browning has authored one of the more unlikely success stories. He'd spent four years on the practice squads with Minnesota and Cincinnati before earning the No. 2 job behind Burrow in training camp.
Burrow's injury thrust the 27-year-old into the lineup for the first time in games that mattered since his senior year at Washington in 2018. Browning struggled in his initial start against the Steelers on Nov. 26 before helping the Bengals to three straight wins that kept them in the playoff picture.
The picture is far blurrier after Browning was fooled by a Pittsburgh defense missing its three safeties and having an inside linebacker rotation filled with guys who weren't on the roster two months ago. Browning threw his second interception in the second quarter, when backside pressure by outside linebacker Alex Highsmith caused a slight underthrow that safety Eric Rowe — filling in for Minkah Fitzpatrick — grabbed and returned to the Cincinnati 14.
Four plays later, the Steelers were up 21-0. The Bengals never got closer than 16 the rest of the way to get swept by Pittsburgh for the first time since 2019.
“I knew that this was not going to be some situation where we roll in here, we're been playing well, they've had some losses, it didn't matter,” Browning said.
No, it didn't. Cincinnati's defense had trouble containing Steelers third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph and wide receiver George Pickens, who connected on a pair of long touchdowns as the Steelers built a 24-point lead and coasted.
“This is a humbling league,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “This is a humbling day.”
Cincinnati finishes the season by visiting Kansas City on New Year's Eve before hosting Cleveland. The Bengals began the season with a dismal 24-3 loss to the Browns, the start of an uneven year that began with Super Bowl expectations that have failed to materialize for various reasons.
There is still time to get it together, but not much.
“We know what the narrative will be going forward,” Taylor said. “So we'll just own up to it, be accountable to it.”
Browning will have to find a way to bounce back while opposing Patrick Mahomes. He's relied on his resilience to stay in the NFL. He'll need to lean into it going forward if the two-time defending AFC North champions want to avoid finishing in the basement of the league's toughest division.
“There's a lot of quarterbacks that have bad games, I obviously had a bad game," he said. “So now it's a little bit of, ‘How do you respond?’ And so that's kind of where I'm at and that's where we're at as a team.”
