Jaylen Warren — Week 3: Career-High Yards From Scrimmage

27 all, seven 39 left in the fourth quarter, first and 10 at the Pittsburgh eight. Jaylen Warren went up the middle and was brought down at the Cincinnati five, 87 yards. DK Metcalf was flagged for holding, the penalty was marked off from the Pittsburgh 14, and six yards is what stays on Warren's line. Pittsburgh got most of the way back anyway: 14 to Metcalf, 47 to Darnell Washington, and then Warren again, first and 10 at the Cincinnati 32 with five 23 left, behind the left guard for 26 to the six. +1.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 8.8 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. The drive reached the five before a third-down sack, and Chris Boswell's 33-yard field goal was the winning score.

The line: 17 carries, a hundred 27 yards, no touchdown, five first downs, eight of the 17 successful, +3.3 expected points on the carries; four targets, three catches, 49 yards, two first downs. The carries went −1, 13, four, nothing, 35, three, one, four, nine, seven, four, five, two, three, six, 26 six. Seven before halftime for 55 yards, 10 after for 72. The 35 was first and 10 from the Pittsburgh 35 in the second quarter, up 14 to 10, around left end to the Cincinnati 30; on the next snap an 11-yarder to the 19 was also cut back by a Metcalf holding call, to three, and that drive ended in a field goal. Both of his third-down carries were third and one, and both converted. The first catch was the first snap of the game, 30 yards over the short middle to the Cincinnati 43, three snaps before Roman Wilson's touchdown. The last was eight yards to the Cincinnati six on second and 10 in the third quarter, the snap before Metcalf's touchdown.

17 of Pittsburgh's 20 designed runs were his; Pat Freiermuth, Travis Homer and Lew Nichols had one each. Rico Dowdle, who had 15 carries across the first two games, was ruled out with a toe injury, per NBC Sports. Warren's hundred 27 were all but 13 of the Steelers' hundred 40 rushing yards, and his carries came out above zero in expected points for the first time this season, after −1.2 and −2.2. A hundred 76 yards from scrimmage is the most of his career, past the hundred 58 he had against these same Bengals last October.

Back in June the preview's read on Warren was a career year — sixteenth among running backs — followed by Pittsburgh signing Dowdle, and it called the carry split the entire bet. Week 1 was 10 carries to Dowdle's eight, with a lost fumble; Week 2 was 11 to seven. Sunday said nothing about the split, because there was no split: with Dowdle out the job was Warren's, and he had the biggest day of his career by yards from scrimmage. Three games: 38 carries, 216 yards, no rushing touchdown. The preview's question comes back when Dowdle does. Pittsburgh is at the Browns on Thursday the first.

_Data via nflverse._