Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Breaking down the turf toe play, offensive adjustments for Jake Browning, and lingering issues on defense

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

An otherwise routine football play led to Joe Burrow's turf toe injury, but what went wrong that left Burrow in a vulnerable position? Jake Liscow is joined by Mike Santagata to break down a quick game play where Ja'Marr Chase got jammed and that forced Burrow to hold onto the ball, but a 2nd-and-20 situation also influenced decision-making. Plus, we break down how the offense changed and will continue to change for Jake Browning, and trends we're starting to notice in Al Golden's defense that will need adjusting as the season marches forward.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit https://5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2FYahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Draft now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After reviewing the film, let's break down what exactly happened on the play that Joe Burroughs sustained turf toe, how the offense will change with Jake Browning and what still needs to be fixed for the Bengals defense. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liskow, host of the lockdown Bengals podcast, your one-stop shop for everything you need about the Cincinnati Bengals

from the latest news and analysis to film reviews like this one, joined by our resident film buddy, Mike Santagena, who, as I say now, is part of his standard introduction, grinds those coaches clinics for fun in his free time. And if you're one of those guys, this is the episode for you or gals. And today we're going to be taking a look at, specifically what went wrong on the play where Joe Burrow was hurt, how the offense will change and adjust and do things a little bit differently with

Jake Browning or do things that are the same with Jake Browning and talk about what still needs to be fixed on that defensive side of the ball. Welcome back to all the everydayers out there, all of you who make Lockdown Bengals your first listen. We appreciate all of you deeply. And today's episode is brought to you by Mazda. Stay tuned later for this week's moving the game forward, Mazda, move and be moved. And Mike, we're going to start, unfortunately, with another Joe Burrow injury as I think there's a natural inclination for human beings to look for what went wrong or look for someone to blame.

And I don't necessarily think that there should be blame on any one individual per se. maybe there's blame to be shared on this play. But when you look at the play, it's quick game. The first look on quick game isn't there. It's second and 20. Joe Burroughs trying to keep the drive alive. And the pocket is muddy. Chaos ensues.

And unfortunate things happen on a hit that happens thousands of times probably in an NFL season. Usually doesn't end up in injury. But when you see this play, Mike, there are people that want to talk about Dalton Riser, who's taking accountability and said, you know what, I feel awful. It's my fault I lost. There's Jamar Chase getting jammed. There's Joe Burrow needs to get the ball out because it's a quick game. He takes a one step, looks, pumps, pulls the ball down.

What's in your mind is happening on this play that could have played out differently? It starts just to break the play down. The Jags got into, it looked like a cover two. zone, two deep safeties and five underneath zone defenders. And they wanted to play their corners tight because they have safety help over the top. So they want to jam those wide receivers. And the Bengals on offense had a pick-aside read where one side was their one high beater. That was to the right.

And the left side was their concept lion, which is two slant routes. And that's their two high-beater because you're going to, in theory, with the timing, if you get a clean release, that hook defender to that side has to choose, am I going to take the slant route in front of me? Or should I get into the window of the slant route behind that? So they had it on paper. They had the beater, but Jamar Chase got jammed up. And that doesn't happen off.

Like, Jamar Chase is awesome. But on this particular play, he gets jammed. The timing's off. Now that hook defender can play both. He plays the front one first, is able to pass up. off and then get eyes into the second slant window. So Burrow, that's why he looks, pumps, and goes, crap. When that happened, Dalton Reisner took an L on one side.

There was an unclean stunt handoff on the other side. It's second and 20. So in Burroughs mind, at least what I think he thinks, is if I turtle up, if I throw this ball away, if I just take a sack, if I do whatever to just live another down, we're punting. Like we are going to run the ball or run some little screen and punt. Like there's a 1% chance we can pick up third and 20. But if I can get us seven yards and get us the third and 13, we're alive. So he's looking for some type of answer and maybe takes too long, but it's moving around the pocket and unfortunate injury happens as cleat, gets caught and just, yeah,

turf toe. It's got like a fun name for a god awful injury. If you just, like put your foot and try to bend it back to the foot, that kind of hurts. Imagine it going against your will, like all the way and tearing ligaments. That's what happens. So it stinks. There's a lot of blame to go around from front office to Burrow to why they end up in second and 20 in the first place with those first two plays to the offensive line, to Jamar.

And overall, I think it's all just unfortunate, unlucky. And it's, I don't know, it's one of those things where it seems like every time Burrow gets an injury, it's the worst version of whatever it is. But I don't, I don't have enough medical knowledge to tell you that his ligaments are easier to tear. Like, that's why I, who knows? It's not. Nobody on the outside knows the state of Burroughs ligaments.

But it's hard to argue now at this point that he's not injury prone to some degree. The calf, the wrist, the now turf toe that requires surgery. It's not unprecedented. We talked about this on the podcast. Patrick Mahomes had surgery to repair turf toe after the Super Bowl in 2020. In February 2021, the 2020 Super Bowl, he had a surgery, was back for training camp, was within four months doing some stuff in OTA. So the recovery timeline will probably depend on what's going on with the bones,

what's going on with the structures around the ligament that tore. But we'll probably talk more about that. Some other time, maybe after the surgery, there will be some information that we get about the degree of the repair that was required, and maybe we'll have more of an idea of the recovery timeline at that point. Meanwhile, the Bengals have signed Mike White, who we mentioned on the show yesterday, as a potential target for the Bengals to the practice squad. Brett Rippin has moved from the practice squad to the 53-man roster,

and Sean Clifford is the other practice squad quarterback who are Lockdown Bengals insiders, who are part of the group at Joinsubtext.com slash lockdown Bengals heard about yesterday. Bay as a potential target for the Bengals practice squad. As the Bengals are looking for somebody to be the backup to Jake Browning out of that group, it's going to be a different offense, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But just going back to the blame game, when you think about some of those injuries, calf, non-contact, wrist, breaking your fall on an otherwise innocuous hit, the turf toe trying to push off the leg on an otherwise innocuous hit,

these couple of plays where most of the time, Those don't result in injuries, but the more hits you take, the more you have a chance for the most of the time. There's no injury on this hip, but sometimes there is. And Joe Burroughs been the unlucky recipient of that sometimes, too many times at this point. And that's where it goes back to the organizational bit about could have just maybe invested a little bit more. They've tried to invest, but we were asking from March until, late August sign another guy at Gart. They finally do.

And ironically, I guess, he's part of the problem on this play. Eric Armstead grabbing at Joe Burrow from the ground as those guys are both on the ground. There are plenty of factors that go into this. Getting into the second and 20, like you said, is because of a Drew sample hold on a first and 10 screenplay that is dead from the jump. the second and, sorry, the first and 20 play that follows their protection issues there, where Joe Burrow gets high load. And if you go look at that one on film, you might cringe much harder, not knowing the outcome of either play because of the severity of the hit he takes on that one and the issues

of protection on that one. Meanwhile, you look at the rest of the game, Mike, when Burrow was in, and yeah, there were some issues with stunts. There were some issues with the running backs, but, like, they were starting to figure it out, and they started to figure it out a little bit more with Jake Browning. And so maybe that's where we go next. Let's talk about how the offense was different and adjusted for Jake Browning, what was different in protection and what was different when Browning was in the game.

We'll discuss all of that next. This episode is brought to you by Mazda's moving the game forward. For those who believe it's not just about playing the game, it's about redefining it. There are moments that do more than put points on the board. They move crowds, they move culture, and they keep moving the game forward. This week's a moment that moved the game forward. Well, got a shout out Mitch Tinsley. Mitch Tinsley capitalizing on his first NFL target, his first NFL catch with a one-handed,

toe-tapping, knee-tapping touchdown reception from Jake Browning that led to Jake Browning celebrating Mitch Fing Tinsley on the sideline. Mitch Tinsley is moving the game forward for himself, earning himself more opportunities. and when you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. It's just like there's more to every highlight. There's more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda, move and be moved. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is also brought to you by GameTime.

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Mike, let's talk about how this offense changed with Jake Browning, or maybe how it didn't. From your viewing of the film, what were the big differences when Browning entered the game and they started making adjustments throughout the rest of the game? second half while Browning was playing. Start with, I think what becomes apparent are the easy button gimmee stuff that Browning can get. Tap pass, which counts as a pass attempt to Jamar Chase, a smoke screen to Jamar Chase, a bubble screen to Jamar Chase. Just, I don't remember Burrow throwing any of those weeks one and two. So I don't know if he's, I can't remember last time he's done one of those tap passes,

if he's done one. It's been a while, if he has, to Jamar. I know he's handed off a couple times like jet sweeps. But I think those are really effective because way back, we used to talk when Jamar Chase was draft prospect, that guy's built like a running back. That guy's got some good yak. We always talk about how good yards after catchability is. But you look at him, he's got big calves.

Those are running back calves. Those are, I'm running through contact calves. And he did it. He showed why he's such a good yard after catch guy. And it just makes you wonder like, hmm. why don't you just implement some of those with Burrow when the run game doesn't work and it hasn't worked weeks one and two whether they go under center pistol shotgun they could i guess the goal line stuff they have a touchdown on that maybe but um front game hasn't worked so maybe find a way to

create a pseudo run game with just these little throws to Jamar Chase that are about as brain dead for Burrow as handing the ball off but for Browning they were there and he made good on them and they used to run them too much, so I get why they scaled it back. But I feel like they scaled it all the way back to zero instead of like, yeah, we should sprinkle these in as a supplemental run game instead of just, they can't replace the run game with it because once you key in on it, becomes a lot more difficult. One of the big differences, I think that we will see, and you can tell me your opinion here, when Jake Browning is a quarterback for this team for the foreseeable future, is the Bengals have this tendency with Joe to when they need something. And, you know, and

just drop Joe back. Because your play action game doesn't get respected. They're not really screening too much with Joe Burrow, one of the lower screen rates in the NFL. You compare to some of the other past heavy offenses last year, for example, the Chiefs, one of the more past heavy offenses in the NFL along with the Bengals. Patrick Mahal's is on twice as many screens,

not twice as much play action as the Bengals. And they have dudes on their offensive line, especially on the interior, that the Bengals do not. So the Bengals get this tendency to say, okay, Joe, you can do that. And I really liked, it was Timo from PFF, had a tweet about this yesterday,

where like the Bengals offense works because Joe Burrow can drop back essentially infinitely. There's only so many guys that can just drop back infinitely and keep winning without getting overwhelmed, without needing the offense to hold their hands, hand a little bit or a lot, depending on which quarterbacks you're talking about around the league. But the Bengals can't run the ball despite trying to. And they've tried a lot of different things over the years. And their personnel still doesn't really allow them to run the ball. And the way

they deprioritize, I think, the run game institutionally doesn't help. But with Browning, you can't just say, Jake, you're just going to drop back. We're just going to put you in a drop back offense. when they tried to call the game like it was Joe Burrow. And it was against Pittsburgh, I think. And then immediately they're like, oh, yeah, we can't do this with Jake Frang. We need to do things differently. So there will be adjustments, right? Yeah, I remember that game is lining up and empty for like a quarter of the snaps.

It's like, I don't know about this one. There's got to be some adjustments to make a run game work. And I do agree, like institutionally the run game hasn't been emphasized at all. And you look at, you were three different offensive line coaches. And I think the best the run game ever looked was 22 under Zach Taylor. And really, that was like, it was a, they get such light boxes. They should be able to recreate the 2022 run game in my head. Like it's not explosive.

It's not sexy. Nobody's going to look at that and go, best run game in the league. Like, we want to be the Bengals. But they're picking up five yards. Like they're so successful just at picking up five yards on first down. Their success rate, I believe, was top three in the run game that year. You should be able to do that with the boxes that Joe Burrow gets, but they can't. And so that's where it becomes like two things like, yes, the Joe Burrow offense becomes more difficult to run block for because it's shotgun.

But on the other hand, it's also easier because you're not blocking single high, gapped out looks. You're blocking too high. Safety's out of the run fit looks. And they still can't run block it well enough to pick up five, six yards. The longest run of the year is 11 yards. And that's the only run, I believe they have over 10 yards from a running back. It was last week, one run. It was with Joe Burrow in there for 11 yards.

I just feel like after two weeks, like you should look at that and go like, there's something wrong here. There's just institutionally wrong. And it goes back to last year when they ran that pistol power play where Eric all in motion over. And like the first week, we were gushing about like, oh, there's so many things you could do off this. And it was week eight. And they just run the same one play off of that same look. It's like, how?

How do you not have any counter? Like they just, you get one good idea and like, good enough. Let's go back to developing more pass plays. Whatever, you have Joe Burge and Marchase T. Higgins. Like, that makes sense too. But you should put a little bit more thought, a little more brain power, and resources into the run games just to make things a little easier on Joe. And part of it is the guys that they have in the building, Orlando Brown better pass blocker than run blocker.

Dalton Reiser, at least on paper, he hasn't really shown this. Well, actually, I think this is still true. still actually been a better. It's just neither. Don Reiser struggled, to be fair, through two games. Still has been, and throughout his career, has been a better pass blocker than a run blocker. I think Ted Carr is probably a better pass blocker than a rub blocker, although it's closer for him.

And Amarious Mims hasn't really figured out run blocking. That was one of the steps we're really hoping to see him take this year. And so far, he looks like more or less the same guy, despite some preseason hype. We know he's been battling injuries between the wrist and ankle. So I'm sure that's part of the equation for Marius who had to leave the game for a handful of snaps and Cody Ford looked like an absolute mess on the few snaps he was on the field for.

So that's not so good either. But there is this problem where they need to do more in the run game, but so much of that is just having guys that can do something for you in the run game, prioritizing athleticism. Dylan Fairchild, we were talking before we started recording, is currently probably their only guy that has some run blocking to him, like can move some guys, has that athleticism to do it. And my joke or my quip was like, yeah, we'll see how long that lasts before he's, you know,

doing what the Bengals want him to do, which is so focused on pass protection. But with Jake Browning, I think this is something that we've seen in the past does force them to emphasize the run a little bit more and have to try to figure that out a little bit more because you can't just drop Jake Browning back the same way you can drop Joe. Burrow back, like you said, in those empty looks and those receiver heavy looks, they got to keep guys in to protect a little bit more, they got to run a little bit more, they got to give him a little bit more help. And they've shown that they can in the past.

And that always begs the question, why don't you do this with Joe Burrow? I think part of this also goes into how defenses play the two, where instead of if you're going to play two deep coverages, they'll play quarters so that near safety can be into the run fit, instead of playing the offense, which is what I would do, if I was. but as a guy who's watched the Bengals a lot and knows this team just can't run block even with light boxes. I'll play the offense,

just play my safety's way back there. Yeah, go try to beat the six-man box, and they usually don't. But instead, it feels like teams move to, instead of, we dare you to run the ball like they do with Joe Burrow, they'd go to, we dare Jake Browning to beat us with his arm.

And it's, okay, like, you'll take that. No, gee, Joe J-M-R. Yeah, they just line up and press cover one, and they'll just play that. It's like you have to respect the receivers a little bit here. Even if you don't respect Browning, and Browning is one of the better backup.

So I don't understand that. We'll see if that continues next. I mean, Flores is kind of his own beast. So he's kind of going to do whatever he wants. But I think that's the other big part of this is just like teams for some reason, Joe Burroughs out and they start like weirdly respecting the Bengals run game. It's like, why? Why would you do that?

Make them earn that respect. Yeah, playing cover one on the T. Higgins touchdown, for example, example, but, and I brought this up previously, they did go zero on Joe Burrow in the red zone, and Jamar Chase has a free touchdown when you try to zero them, and Jamar wins on the release when he has a two-way go. Coming up next, Mike, let's shift gears. Let's talk about the defense was worse. We thought it would be worse against Jacksonville, more dynamic playmakers in that offense, but there are some consistent issues now that we can talk about after two weeks that Al Golden in that unit can look to try to fix. We'll finish on the defense here coming up next.

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So if you're looking to get some bets and you're ready to play, download the Fandual app. Check it out at fandul.com. You can get started there. That's fandle.com to place your First, $5 bet. Mike, let's talk about this defense. There are some consistent issues through two weeks now that we've seen

against two, I think, very different teams. And one of them, glaringly, is a pass rush. And the other one is it seems like there's a different corner having issues through two weeks. First week, it was Cam Taylor Britt. We talked about that. He had a nice bounceback game. And if we have time, we can talk about what he did well this week. We've also seen the Trey Hendrickson and Dax Hill and Jordan Battle have had a couple of nice games

to start the season. But in week two, it was DJ Turner, which I don't know if it's, you know, DJ Turner's playing badly or if they're structural issues that are leading to them having some problems. Well, let's start with the pass rush. It's really, as was feared and as was the case, a lot last year, it's Tray Hendrickson and some guys. What do you think is going on with the pass rush in terms of the success rates they've had and what they could do to try to improve?

So the stunts aren't working. We talk about that as possibly a way that could alleviate the concern just because you're now going to stress offensive line communication more than you're going to stress their abilities with your athleticism ability. But they just haven't really freed anything up. I think there's a couple that you could watch and go, if somebody wasn't open immediately or like if his first read wasn't there, this stunt was going to get home like it did free him up.

there was a Miles Murphy one, and I think there was one other one too, where they got the free runner, but it also took just a fraction too long. It didn't even get a hit on the quarterback. Like, he's running free, but didn't even get to hit the quarterback. Other than that, nobody has stepped up, really. Shamar did a little bit, week one, but week two was the exact opposite. I don't know if I would have charted him for any pressures in week two. So it was kind of a step back.

Maybe that's some Anton Harrison is improving, or maybe it's just Jack Conklin and, Cornelius Lucas might not be high-end talent or maybe it's just rookie. Rookies are not consistent. That's a very normal thing for a rookie deal with. Now he's injured, sadly. But nobody's really stepping up. B.J. Hill was the closest in week one, I think, too. He was there week one, but you look across there.

Yeah, week one, they had some wins. But week two, no, it was just Trey. Even when they got guys against Walker Little who Trey was beating most of the time, they still, those guys weren't beating him. And I think structurally you could look at a couple things where they reduce the non-Trey defensive end down a lot. So he no longer gets to play in space with a two-way go like Trey gets to. Just to remind people reduce, meaning they're putting them inside of the tight end that

may be on that side. Correct. Yeah. Because they want Trey in that weak defense end. So we can go play in space, get a one-on-one impasse protection as much as he can. And when you're four down, you have to reduce a guy inside in that situation, because otherwise you're going to get blown up in the run game. But they still get into these third down situations. I'm not able to do it. The blitzes haven't worked either. I can't think of, I think a couple of run

blitzes worked in the run game. Like a Dax Hill TFL happened from one, or maybe it was at the line. But no real like past game blitzes. And they've brought some stuff that's interesting. I think there was one play Orrin Berks finally beat a running back. Like one of the linebackers finally beat. the running back and pass protection. It was Oren Berks, who got a little bit more run this week. I just feel like that should be a night. Night should be a better pass rusher than, but he also should rush the passer more than what he's done.

He's so athletic, so young, just go blow up the running back and go make a play. But they're not getting free runners on those either. So something's up. That would be what you'd think to. We can't rush the passer outside of Trey. Instead of just putting all our faith and hope that one of these guys starts doing, it well let's create some havoc let's blitz and those blitzes haven't worked they don't blitz that much either so far through two weeks which is a little bit surprising because al i'll did that a lot

at noder dame at least five man pressures and i haven't seen a ton of that either so it's interesting nobody stepped up sadly and then to go with that none of the stunts none of the blitzes none of the stuff that's stressing offensive lines brains is working either yeah and when you watch those things work against the Bengals' offensive line and how quickly some of those stunts can be executed against the Bengals' offensive line. It feels like it can't be only an athleticism difference because Ram Stewart's been involved in these. Miles Murphy's been involved in these, and those guys are explosive athletes that can move quickly and it should be working, but for whatever reason, the paths they're taking or the way it's designed or the way they're being executed, it is taking a long time

for those stunts to get home. And that's something that goes back to the preseason that I've been complaining about. I like the idea because we see it beat the Bengals all the time of putting in all these stunts and twists and games, but it looks like they're taking too long. They're really slow to develop and by the time the guy's even trying to loop around the balls out. So definitely something to look at. I thought Logan Wilson was effective as a blitzer in week one. Don't know if he blitzed in week two. There was one where they sent both linebackers. They got tangled up with each other and fell. So I think that was a Bayshalt-Tooten touchdown. So what you're seeing instead is the Bengals are dropping ends into coverage when they send linebackers.

And so you're getting a lot of four-man rushes that are dropping ends on that play. They dropped Shamart and Cam Sample. Cam Sample, you know, on paper makes the tackle for no gain. And, you know, the X's and O is look good there. You get a checkdown. Cam Sample makes tackle the running back who catches well two yards behind the line of scrimmage, but didn't play out that way on the field. The other issue, I think, that we wanted to draw.

attention to is this crosser issue. We maybe aren't going to get to the run issues that they had with contain at least a couple plays that stand out. But crossers, I think this is two weeks now, where they've had issues losing guys and crossers and not really having answers. And a lot of that is a position that the defense is putting the DBs in, not necessarily the DBs individually, making bad plays or being. too slow or whatever it is in coverage on this place.

Yeah, this was huge with back, oh, when Shaw McVeigh first hit the scene, and everybody wanted to play cover three because the Seahawks just were Legion of Boom at the time and they were awesome cover three team. And Al is playing a ton of single high coverage. And in any type of single high covers, what you're going to do is funnel your receiver if you're inside the divider, which a lot of these crossers come from inside of a divider location, the divider being somewhere around the numbers, it's going to depend where the ball is on the field, but just know, like, basically slot or inside or anywhere that's a little bit tight,

you might get a crosser because it's closer to cross the field. And when you play single high, you're going to play to the outside of that guy because you want to funnel him to your safety, to your help. And sometimes you also, in cover one, you have a hook linebacker or a dropping safety that's playing that location as well. The most common way to beat that is you run that crosser and now where's the help when you're outside the numbers on the opposite side of the field? You don't have it.

So to me, a lot of what happened in DJ Turner was that, where he is lined up, correctly leveraged outside, and the Jags run a crosser with him, whoever he's guarding, Diammy Brown, Parker, Washington, Brian Thomas Jr., etc. They run across her, and he can't keep up despite his speed because he's playing from a losing starting position by being outside against that route. It's rock versus scissors. There's two ways, though. I think you can counter this. And it's kind of interesting.

Al hasn't done one of them. One of them is get pressure because those do take a second to develop. And that's just not happening. Okay. So we need a second answer here, too. That's weak rotation with the safeties. Like, they do a lot of strong rotation where they're going to drop the. safety towards the passing strength, which makes sense in terms of you want to get four guys over

those three, and we're going to drop the other safety back into the post for a single high look. If you change that and drop your weak safety, now you're coming from depth, can see that cross are coming and help on it. So I think that is one change that you want to look at making, especially against any type of reduced split that they're getting. And they made some change against reduced splits week one with that really cool switch where Turner, he's, he's yellow shallow and battle runs all the way across the field to go make the play. The easy version of this is to use the safety on the other side of the field. And when you get crossers, it's not even switching so much as it's just, okay, you can cut that crosser off. And it creates kind of a bracket.

You might not mean to bracket whoever that is, Diami Brown. Like you're not drawing up a bracket for toiamy brown but because of the leverage that you play with in a single high coverage you want that help there because otherwise it's just theoretical help to me they're like yeah in theory the post safety is in the middle of the field but he's not 20 yards down the field and specifically on one of the numbers like that's that's where these balls are going somewhere around there so when you drop it that way when you weak rotate it so that you get a guy coming from depth towards the crosser with leverage, you can kind of stop those a little bit. There's other issues that come from that, too, but I think you've got to mix some of that

in there. And I especially think week two, I was kind of surprised there wasn't more weak rotation on these cover one cover three looks where you could get a guy taking that from depth. The easier answer is find a pass rush, you know? Yeah, of course. Because people look at this happening against the Bengals defense. They're like, why aren't the Bengals running crossers on offense? And well, they can't hold up long enough to get to those crossers,

a lot of the time. Sometimes they're in there. I remember going back and looking because there was some game, some period of time last year we're like, why aren't the Bengals ever running crossers? And I went back and looked, they're running crossers. They're just not getting to them sometimes. Sometimes the ball's going to other places.

And sometimes you're not getting looks that are conducive to those throws like you're talking about. There are things defenses can do to take them away, but you're giving something else up. So the nature of defense in the NFL, if you're not winning with four up front and you're trying to take something away, you're probably giving something else up

because you're dedicating resources to one thing, and it's always that paper-rock scissors game. It's a little bit more complicated than that, but can be reduced down to a simple analogy like that one. And I think the Jags being such a tight team in terms of their splits for the receivers, a lot of condensed formations, a lot of crossers in that offense.

It was a good game plan for one, and two, you do have to make those adjustments to it at some point. We'll see what adjustments come from this defense. We'll see if these trends continue. I don't see a fix coming to this pass rush. Unfortunately, I mean, Ezra Cleveland, to me, was an exploitable matchup in that game in pass protection. The Bengals did not take it to Ezra Cleveland on the interior.

They don't really have a guy there. Of course, they're picking the first round of defensive end. Unfortunately, Charmarsh Stewart hurt in this game. Sounds like he's going to miss a couple of weeks, potentially with an ankle sprain. So instead of getting any help, on the defensive interior where they're better against the run up the middle, they're still having issues in the pass rush that will need to be sorted if the defense is going to look any better because without it,

it really does make your DVs look worse across the board. Was part of my reaction to week one, like you're asking these guys to hold up in ways that, you know, the pass rush really should be winning in the first half, especially. But then in the second half, there's that play that I keep coming back to where Trey Hendrickson wins as fast as you can win. win and Joe Flacco still beats Cam Taylor Britt on the outrout to Jerry Judy. But we'll see how that continues to develop.

We'll continue to have you cover with these film takeaways as the Bengals season does march on and so do we here on lockdown Bengals. You can find Mike's writing at Bengals Talk, S.I. Find him on Twitter at Bengals underscore Sands. Maybe he'll be watching a coach's clinic somewhere on YouTube. So we might need to wait for a reply until he's done with that. And I'll stop making those jokes now. Until next time, thanks for listening.

to this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast, Hootay, and have a good one.