Let's talk about the Bengals

[TLO]

A sneaky big game in the AFC, and probably our toughest game left before playoff time.

Talk about it here

[O.city]

Need to stop turning the football over on dumb shit like muffed punts and red zone turnovers.

[smithandrew051]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

bengals have only allowed 10 TD passes this year

mitchell trubisky, cooper rush, joe flacco, teddy bridgewater, lamar jackson, andy dalton, marcus mariota, jacoby brissett, baker mayfield, kenny pickett, ryan tannehill

This.

Bengals have a middle of the road pass defense and a middle-bottom third pass rush, despite playing an awful group of QBs.

[scho63]

I think our focus will be 100% in this game with some new plays rolled out.

We win by 4 points

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by smithandrew051

This.

Bengals have a middle of the road pass defense and a middle-bottom third pass rush, despite playing an awful group of QBs.

They're not going to send the house anyway. They're going to put both of their passrushers on an island against Wylie/Brown, and they're going to drop 7, and leave one player to spy.

They're not going to come for Mahomes, they're going to bet their DEs are better than our tackles (they are), and they're going to smother Kelce and force other WRs to get open for Mahomes.

That was a killer strategy last year, when they could throw the farm at Kelce and Hill and just bet Pringle/Hardman/Robinson couldn't get open.

This year, that's a riskier proposition, but, I mean, it's the only shot they have to gum up Mahomes.

[Kman34]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

They're not going to send the house anyway. They're going to put both of their passrushers on an island against Wylie/Brown, and they're going to drop 7, and leave one player to spy.

They're not going to come for Mahomes, they're going to bet their DEs are better than our tackles (they are), and they're going to smother Kelce and force other WRs to get open for Mahomes.

That was a killer strategy last year, when they could throw the farm at Kelce and Hill and just bet Pringle/Hardman/Robinson couldn't get open.

This year, that's a riskier proposition, but, I mean, it's the only shot they have to gum up Mahomes.

They are going to try what they did in the second half of the AFCCG, but Andy and Patrick will have something for their ass. Andy and Patrick have had a whole offseason to prepare and stew over that loss.. Plus Chris Jones and Carlos Dunlap will be motivated to **** shit up…

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

This thread is pretty much a rah-rah thread, but here's some actual analysis.

This Bengals team is damn good. Way better than their record.

Burrow is fantastic, of course, and they have a top 3 set of offensive weapons in the NFL. We should assume Jamar Chase magically is healthy enough to play this week, and this is one of those games Spags loses sleep over. To accommodate the rookies in the secondary, his back seven is incredibly basic zone, and really good QBs can carve it up if they don't face a ton of pressure. If we can't get a ton of pressure on Burrow, it's going to be very hard to stop him, even without Chase. Their weapons really are that good. (For the record, the Bengals will get one additional year of not-breaking-the-bank-Burrow, but two years from now this team is going to have to pay Burrow and Chase, and it's going to gut their team.)

After the bye, Spags has done everything in his power to generate the best possible passrush, and it shows. The Chiefs live in teams' backfields right now -- though I do wonder how well that's going to work against Cincy. The Titans have a really great passrush and only planted his ass in the dirt once. Do not believe the advance stats, guys: the Bengals offensive line is very good in pass protection now. They're healthy and they're not allowing a ton of pressure.

Of course, the Chiefs have a cheat code in Chris Jones, but Burrow is nearly Mahomes-esque in pocket navigation. They need multiple passrushers to have a game, and Spags needs to be surgical with his blitz calls: none of these stupid fire blitz calls by the handful that killed the D against Josh Allen.

The Bengals have a run game that is workable, but won't kill them necessarily. Mixon is very good but not healthy. Perine is basically late-career Spencer Ware: good player, but he's not the guy who beats you.

The Bengals defense is underrated, I think. They just shut down Derrick Henry, which is somewhat deceptive. They stacked the box against the Titans, which you can't do against Mahomes. But their two interior DTs are healthy now and they're massive and extremely hard to move.

The Bengals have a good secondary, but it doesn't matter right now with Mahomes and this offense... This is as good an offense as the Chiefs have ever had, and the multitude of weapons the Chiefs boast with what's probably going to be an A-game from Andy Reid with tons of man beaters... I just don't think there's much the secondary will be able to do other than double Kelce and dare Mahomes to beat them with anybody else. Mahomes is extremely sharp this year, and he will beat them with everybody else.

The only hope for the Bengals is to get to Mahomes, and Hendrickson/Hubbard is going to give our tackles a lot of problems. I'm guessing the Chiefs give Wylie as much help as they can manage in this game, and just pray Brown can hold off Hendrickson, which he couldn't in the playoffs. So this will be how the Bengals contains Mahomes, if at all.

The Bengals also have that deadly "rush three with a spy" alignment that they stifled Mahomes with twice last season, including the AFCCG where Mahomes was so locked down, he seemingly forgot how to play football. I suspect the better talent this team has across the board will be the solution to that problem, but it's not one we should dare to forget.

The Bengals are a balanced team, with a metric ton of offensive talent, a good secondary, and tough in the trenches.

The Chiefs are capable of handling all this, but they have to get to Burrow, and they have to keep Mahomes clean.

I do agree with everyone that Mahomes and Reid want to absolutely murder the Bengals, and I bet both of them will be at the top of their game. But there's a reason the Bengals swept us last year in the exact same way: they are very talented and their coaching staff had a great feel for our tendencies.

I have this game as a true tossup, maybe even a very slight lean to the Bengals.

When did their pass protection become very good? Less than a month ago, the Browns were all over Burrow. Yesterday, the Titans had several QB hits and several tackles for loss. Pittsburgh had a bunch of QB hits before that.

For the season, the Bengals are tied for last in pass block win rate.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

When did their pass protection become very good? Less than a month ago, the Browns were all over Burrow. Yesterday, the Titans had several QB hits and several tackles for loss. Pittsburgh had a bunch of QB hits before that.

For the season, the Bengals are tied for last in pass block win rate.

They got Lael Collins back. He makes a difference for them, and they held up well against a good Titans passrush.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Kman34

They are going to try what they did in the second half of the AFCCG, but Andy and Patrick will have something for their ass. Andy and Patrick have had a whole offseason to prepare and stew over that loss.. Plus Chris Jones and Carlos Dunlap will be motivated to **** shit up…

I will be fascinated with what Reid/Mahomes have dialed up for that defense.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

They got Lael Collins back. He makes a difference for them, and they held up well against a good Titans passrush.

Collins was an up and down shitshow yesterday.

[Hammock Parties]

direckshun jizzing all over a mid team that barely beat the steelers and saints and LOST to cooper rush

biggest paper tiger of 2022

[Mecca]

Zac Taylor is also a terrible head coach.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

This thread is pretty much a rah-rah thread, but here's some actual analysis.

[smithandrew051]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

direckshun jizzing all over a mid team that barely beat the steelers and saints and LOST to cooper rush

biggest paper tiger of 2022

Sacks don’t tell the entire story, but they do mean something when you have a large or small amount.

Hubbard and Hendrickson are fine, but not on the Bosa/Mack level.

Hendrickson used to be pretty consistent, which he still is but it isn’t resulting in his typical 1-2 sacks per game. He would rarely have a huge game, but was normally always good for a sack in a key moment. This year, he has 4.5 sacks against Flacco and Pickett. 1.5 against the rest of the league. 8 of his 19 QB hits came in those two games.

Hubbard hasn’t been overly dominant either.

If the Chiefs aren’t ready for the Bengals to sit back in coverage, I’ll be very surprised. Honestly, that first drive of the second half in the most recent Charger game should tell you that this year is different. Reid and Mahomes will be much more content to take what’s there, and we have better pieces to do so.

[O.city]

Why did we suck so much ass in the redzone yesterday?

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

Why did we suck so much ass in the redzone yesterday?

Mixture, poor execution, lack of focus, some weird playcalling. That trick play 100% got called to be on tape so teams have to prepare for it.