3 Takeaways from Steelers' Week 15 Loss

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Yes, that was the actual result on Monday night. Pittsburgh fell flat and was dragged back into a fight for the AFC North title because of it. 

Red flags popped up all over the place in Monday's defeat at Paul Brown Stadium, which was the third in a row for a team that started 11-0.

Mike Tomlin's team looks nothing the squad that reeled off 11 straight victories and now it is in serious danger of hosting a playoff game and even winning one postseason contest. 

Ben Roethlisberger struggled for consistency in the pocket, and when he found it, the success only lasted a quarter. 

The loss dropped the Steelers down to the No. 3 seed behind the Buffalo Bills on a head-to-head tiebreaker and they are only one game ahead of the Cleveland Browns in the AFC North with their Week 17 meeting looming large. 

The least of Pittsburgh's concerns going into Monday night was containing Ryan Finley in the Cincinnati rushing game. 

The third starting quarterback of the season for Cincinnati torched the Pittsburgh defense for 47 yards on 10 carries and he scored on a 23-yard end zone scamper in the fourth quarter. Prior to Monday, Finley ran the ball 11 times in his seven appearances for the Bengals. 

Finley caught the Pittsburgh defense by surprise by keeping the ball on a handful of zone-read plays that the Steelers thought were going to Giovani Bernard, Samaje Perine or Trayveon Williams.

The Steelers did not have an answer for Cincinnati's twist in offensive strategy because the defensive ends kept biting on the fakes to the running backs. 

Minkah Fitzpatrick made one of the few stops on Finley with two-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth quarter to give the ball back to the offense.

However, that stop came too late since the damage was already done by the reserve quarterback in an area of the offense no one expected him to thrive in.

Pittsburgh's sluggish start was made by worse by the turnovers committed by Ben Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster in the first quarter. 

Roethlisberger was credited with a fumble after a poor snap was recovered by Josh Bynes on the first play of the Steelers' third offensive series. 

Cincinnati benefited from that miscue and opened the scoring seven plays later through an Austin Seibert field goal. 

One turnover could have been excused, but then the Steelers compounded their mistakes near the end of the opening period. Smith-Schuster was hit hard by Vonn Bell and fumbled after hauling in a Roethlisberger pass near midfield. 

Cincinnati turned its second takeaway into a Bernard four-yard touchdown at the start of the second quarter, and it was at that moment when the upset seemed somewhat possible. 

Just when the Steelers thought their start could not have gotten worse, Mackensie Alexander picked off Roethlisberger in the second quarter and that led to Bernard's 14-yard touchdown catch. 

If those three giveaways did not occur, the Steelers would have been able to deal with the sluggish open by winning the field position battle. 

Instead, they dug themselves a hole they were never able to get out of despite a third-quarter surge. 

In the last five games, Roethlisberger averaged 239 passing yards, tossed eight touchdowns and was intercepted on six occasions. 

The last two contests were the worst performances of that run, as Roethlisberger failed to produce 200 passing yards in back-to-back games for the first time since the final two games of the 2013 regular season. 

Roethlisberger's longest pass play of the night was 37 yards, but most of the work on that catch was done by Chase Claypool sprinting down the left sideline. 

If you take that play out of the equation, Roethlisberger did not have any pass plays than went for over 25 yards. 

The lack of a big-play threat allowed the Bengals to either cram the rushing lanes to stop Benny Snell Jr., or play tight coverage on the Steelers' wide outs, which resulted in pass break-ups and tackles right after completions. 

The Indianapolis Colts and Cleveland Browns may try to replicate Cincinnati's defensive strategy from Monday night, and they could do even better jobs limiting Roethlisberger's threat in the pocket because they have more talented pass-rush units. 

All the Steelers need to do is beat the Browns to win the AFC North, but the possibility of that happening seems less likely with Pittsburgh spiraling downhill.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from Pro Football Reference.