![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mike-mccarthy-pittsburgh-steelers.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
(Photo by Joe Sargent\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> are off to a 2-0 start, and the defense is at the heart of their impressive performances. In Week 2 against the Houston Texans<\/a>, the Bengals<\/a> defense took away the running game, forcing C. J. Stroud to make 55 pass attempts.<\/p>\n Moreover, Dexter Lawrence II\u2019s arrival has shifted the culture on that side of the ball for Cincinnati. There were questions after the Bengals traded a Top 10 pick for Lawrence, but through two games, the veteran defensive tackle has shown to be worth it. <\/p>\n In two games so far this season, Lawrence has played 86 snaps, leading to a 91.5 overall PFF defensive grade<\/a>. The Bengals star has also recorded eight total pressures, six hurries, two QB hits, three stops, and three solo tackles.<\/p>\n Ahead of the Week 3 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, Cam Heyward issued a warning to his own team\u2019s offensive line, warning them that they need to double-team Lawrence in their upcoming game. <\/p>\n \u201cCincinnati\u2019s defense has been balling as of late,\u201d Heyward said during a Sept. 22 appearance on \u201cThe Rich Eisen Show.\u201d<\/a> \u201cA lot of respect for what Dexter Lawrence is doing over there, and he knows how to plug up the middle. If you\u2019re not double-teaming that guy, that is crazy because he\u2019s already a behemoth of a man. So, it\u2019s putting a lot on the center or guard to just block him one-on-one.\u201d<\/p>\n Rex Ryan Gets Blunt on Dexter Lawrence II\u2019s Impact<\/p>\n The Steelers will be looking for a bounce-back win against the Bengals after scoring three points in their Week 2 loss to the New England Patriots<\/a>. Cincinnati is coming off only giving up six points to the Texans, so it will be interesting to see how this matchup plays out. <\/p>\n Amid Cincinnati\u2019s impressive start, former NFL<\/a> head coach Rex Ryan is praising the defensive tackle as the team looks to carry this form into Week 3. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no miracle formula; same defensive coordinator and all that [but] they got the man in the middle, Dexter Lawrence,\u201d Ryan said on a Sept. 21 appearance on \u201cGet Up\u201d<\/a> when talking about the veteran defensive tackle.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy in the world would you give up a top-10 pick in the draft? Why? Because of this monster inside. This is the best defensive tackle in football.\u201d<\/p>\n Tee Higgins Pushing Bengals to Get Better Ahead of Week 3<\/p>\n Despite being 2-0, the Bengals aren\u2019t content, and wideout\u00a0Tee Higgins<\/a> noted that the team still has areas to improve as they look to go 3-0 when Week 3 comes around against the\u00a0Steelers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like everybody was clicking today,\u201d Higgins said after the win over the Texans<\/a>. \u201cObviously, we left some out there. I\u2019m not gonna ever say that it was perfect out there because we wasn\u2019t. A lot of flags that shouldn\u2019t happen, a lot of false starts, and not only by the O-line, some by skill position, and that\u2019s things we got to correct.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna say it was the perfect game. Obviously, we won. It\u2019s a good thing, but we got to build off the mistakes and off the errors and come back stronger next week versus Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Joe Sargent\/Getty Images) The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a 2-0 start, and the defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1008383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":["post-1008382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117319132226182247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}