EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsCINCINNATI -- Slightly hunched forward and still mostly in his game attire, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow sat and stared at the inside of his locker as he pondered a game that slipped away.The Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1) halted Cincinnati's strong start to the season with a 30-27 victory on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. And as Burrow pondered what went wrong in a game Cincinnati (2-1) came close to winning, the theme of self-inflicted mistakes jumped out more than anything else.And as the Week 3 loss showed, those types of errors can be the undoing of a team with championship aspirations."Like last week with the penalties, we just can't shoot ourselves in the foot like that," Burrow said. "You can't win in this league when you do that. It's really hard. It's really hard. We could have overcome it, but it's hard to win like that."Cincinnati was looking to start the season with three wins for the first time since Zac Taylor took over as the team's coach in 2019. Against Houston in Week 2, the Bengals won despite being called for 12 penalties.One week later, the mistakes by the entire team were too costly.A Bengals defense that had big moments in the season's first two games surrendered 411 yards to a Pittsburgh squad that failed to score a touchdown a week earlier. Special teams had two major blunders: a roughing-the-kicker penalty that extended a drive culminating in a touchdown and a muffed punt recovered by the Steelers.That fumbled punt led to Chris Boswell's 33-yard field goal with 2:15 left that proved to be the winning margin."We just didn't close it out," Taylor said. "That's all there is to it. We had opportunities in all three phases in the fourth quarter. We didn't get it done."That includes the offense.Following Boswell's field goal, Cincinnati got the ball back and still had two timeouts. The Bengals worked into kicker Evan McPherson's range when disaster struck.After Steelers defensive tackle Derrick Harmon got a quick pressure, Burrow wriggled out of a potential sack and tried to throw the ball away. But Harmon recovered and knocked the ball loose before Burrow could get rid of it, leading to a fumble the Steelers recovered to ice the game."Trying to take a shot at the end zone," Burrow said of his final play. "Trying not to take the sack, trying to get the ball out. Fumbled it."It unspooled an otherwise sterling day from Cincinnati's star quarterback -- 28-of-37 passing for 282 yards and three touchdowns, including one on fourth down that put Cincinnati ahead 27-24 with 13:29 left.And it also uncovered another trend that has been lurking over the years. Dating to the start of the 2024 season, Burrow is tied for the league lead in lost turnovers in the fourth quarter or overtime, per ESPN Research. He has thrown eight interceptions and lost four fumbles in that span.When it comes to fixing some of the self-inflicted mistakes, Burrow believes he knows the elixir for Cincinnati's woes."Guys have to take ownership of their roles, take ownership of themselves and just be smart situational football players," Burrow said.For a team that doesn't just want to snap a three-year postseason drought but also wants to be a championship contender, Sunday's setback at Acrisure Stadium was nonetheless a little more palatable to swallow than previous disappointments."It's something that we can control," Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase said at his locker after the game. "It's in our hands, not out of our hands."
