Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CLICKING: Bengals’ Offseason VISION REALIZED with Tight End Success, Trench Dominance

Starting point is 00:00:00 A lot of positive signs for the Cincinnati Bengals in week one. Their offseason plan coming to fruition in a week one win. Let's talk our lingering thoughts as a Bengals transition to week two. 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 Locked on Bengals podcast. He's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake Liscoe.

Starting point is 00:00:33 We are locked. on Bengals and with a couple of days removed from the Bengal season opener, we've watched all the film, sometimes numerous times, and we've got our thoughts as we've looked at all the advanced stats and everything for the Bengals coming out of week one and how 12 personnel is a big part of this offense now. They kept all those tight ends for a reason. It worked well for them in week one. We've looked at explosive play rate. We've looked at what needs to get better on the defensive side of the ball, on the offensive side of the ball. Where can you? and they push the envelope a little bit

Starting point is 00:01:06 as we're starting to think a little bit about the Houston, Texas. We'll cover all that in this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast, brought to you by Fandall, where you can get $350 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you bet $5 every day for seven days. You can check that out at fandle.com.

Starting point is 00:01:21 But Joe, we're going to start today with the things that are working that we saw the Bengals invest in heavily in the offseason. We saw them lay the groundwork for getting under center, for playing with more tight ends on the football field. saw that starting last year. We knew that Eric Hall's return would lead them in that direction. We saw the havoc that they created with their defensive line rotations in this game as well.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Let's start on the offensive side of the ball where 12 personnel is a big success for the Bengals in week one. Yeah, and 12 personnel means you have two tight ends out there for the people that are joining in because the season's fun now, right? You don't want to listen throughout the entire off season. So the Bengals keep five tightons and then initial 53. They also call up Tanner Hudson after cutting him and doing some roster of gymnastics. So you end up with five on Sunday again, and people question that. Why do that? Why have all those guys?

Starting point is 00:02:10 And we talked about how they want to get under center. They want to run the ball. Teams are getting explosive play rates at a high level, high success rate from 12 personnel, from these under center play action, crossers, or hitting the second level in between the safeties and letting the tight ends use their big bodies up the seam. We saw that with Mike Keseki, not necessarily off play action, but in 12 personnel. They had a lot of success. So last year, here's the big data points, Jake, for the listeners.

Starting point is 00:02:38 They used 12 personnel last year at the 10th highest rate in the league, which is good. They used it a lot because Mike Keseki counts. But they were 31st in EPA. So they were not good. They were not successful when they were doing this. It's something they really wanted to do more, but they also wanted to do it at a successful rate. It has to be a good part of your offense.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Well, week one, sixth in 12th. personnel usage. So they go up a little bit there. But second, an EPA out of 12 personnel, and we've got all the plays listed. We went and did this. I watched the film on all of it. Jake, you look at the data on all this. It was successful. Hey, offseason checklist. That's one they really wanted to hit. One weekend, you can put the check on. Yeah, they were also efficient when they were in 12 personnel, not just from an EPA point of view, which measures sometimes to a two large portion of the pie, an explosive play here or there, a touchdown here, there.

Starting point is 00:03:35 And the Bengals did score two touchdowns. Both of their rushing touchdowns. No, one rushing touchdown, one very successful run play in the red zone. That was a 12 personnel play as well. So they had a rushing touchdown out of 12 personnel, but their success rate is where I was trying to get to as I fumbled my thoughts in my head, was also very, very strong in 12 personnel. They ran 20 plays in 12 personnel, according to my search here that I've got going on true

Starting point is 00:03:58 media, 70% success rate on those plays, which was tied for third in the NFL behind only the Giants and the Raiders. Those two teams, though, ran many, many fewer plays in 12 personnel. So the Bengals did it the most and were very successful in it compared to these teams in the same category as they were. And so they stayed on schedule and they went to 12 personnel and the Bengals have multiple 12 personnel packages. They have the Drew sample Eric All package.

Starting point is 00:04:28 which they ran duo out of very successfully a number of times in this game can talk about how Eric All played in his first game back as well. Drew Sample had a really nice game for his role in the offense with a number of key blocks on big run plays. And even at one point, like I've said, I think a couple of times now, having one of the plays where he looked the best as I can ever remember for Drew Sample in terms of transitioning from a receiver to a runner, getting upfield and converting a little pass in the flat into a successful play for the offense.

Starting point is 00:05:00 A good game for those guys. Mike Gaseki obviously had his moments as well, was a leading player for the Bengals in the passing game. And they ran this wide cross play a couple of times. It could have been another explosive play for Mike Gosecchi. If Joe Burrow had stood in there, taking a hit and delivered a pass instead of scrambling. And I understand why Joe Burrow made the choice he did on that play.

Starting point is 00:05:20 I'm not saying this to blame Joe. But I'm just saying Gaseki was open on another play for a potential explosive, that the ball didn't go his way. as well. And he was a recipient of two explosive plays for the Bengals on the day. So a nice, the Bengals. Oh, right. What's that?

Starting point is 00:05:37 Could have had a second touchdown as well. Yeah. And another one where the pressure did affect Joe Burrow on that one, unfortunately, nearly another touchdown for Gaseki. Could have been an even bigger day. The point I'm trying to make here is that the tight ends were on the field a lot and were successful and the Bengals could be

Starting point is 00:05:53 buried in the way they deployed the tight ends. And you can see that in the way Tampa match. had Tampa matching Bengals 12 personnel with nickel on nine out of those 20 plays and then their base defense on the other plays. So when the Bengals are putting a couple of the receiving tight ends out there, they're getting nickel. And that can let them do some more interesting things as well when they see how teams are going to choose to match their varied 12 personnel packages that they can put on the field.

Starting point is 00:06:19 Yeah. So I want to talk for a second. Eric All in his return, 22 snaps. He graded as PFF's worst player on offense. when I watched film and focused on him specifically, I didn't think he was that bad. Now, again, this is how you digest film and how you feel. Your own barometer does not always translate to a number that, you know, this process has, in this case, PFF.

Starting point is 00:06:42 He had two bad negative plays that I thought could have been explosives for the offense, the screen to Jamar. If he hits the right guy and they cross those blocks, Jamar's going to split that. And it's Alex Anzal Only, Alex Anzaloney only. That is tough to say, to catch. Jamar Chase. Could have been a big play. Then there was another pitch play where Chase Brown, they get everyone hits their blocks, but Eric Hall doesn't really get out of his stance quickly,

Starting point is 00:07:07 doesn't hit his guy, kind of confused as Burrow killed the play, and he had to get up to the line of scrimmage and he was just too late to get yaya Diabbi and ends up being a tackle for one or zero, whatever it was. But that could have been a big because everyone else blocked really well on that. So maybe that drags his grade down. Otherwise, I thought he was effective. He was explosive. He got to a lot of blocks that the Bengals don't have anyone else on the roster that can get to. And that's valuable, right? Even doing that and getting that section of the playbook back into this team and back into the rotation, as we said, would be huge. It was. They had a lot of good plays out of it, a lot of good runs out of it. And then also, like I said, Tanner Hudson was called up.

Starting point is 00:07:45 He was out there on the first third down in the slot. He was also out there late in the game as well. There was a 12 personnel package with Gaseki on one slot, the other side, and Tanner Hudson on the other and I just enjoy that for which guy do you want to treat as the number three receiver because the other guy is going to get a linebacker or a safety or the bucks just had to go zone and they did here he sat down and caught a pass was promptly hit pretty hard but it was still a nice conversion that's what I'm talking about where they have multiple 12 personnel packages they can put on the field and get different kinds of ways that the defenses are going to match them right now the drew sample air call package is largely you know under center running the ball a little bit of play action out of

Starting point is 00:08:25 I'm sure they're going to dial up some plays for Eric Hall as a receiver as well. A lot of those play action plays went to Drew Sample, like the play action screens, the play action flat to Drew Sample, but the way that all is in motion quite frequently on these plays in 12 personnel where he's coming across the formation, kicking out on the other side, the move block kind of stuff for Drew Sample is in line. They're going to build some stuff off of that that is going to get the ball to Eric all on the flat.

Starting point is 00:08:50 We've seen him convert those into successful plays in his rookie year. we'll see how he moves with the ball in his hands this year. That is something that we haven't seen a whole lot of. There was one route where he's running kind of a clear route. He's out wide on a play. It looks like he's laboring a little bit to get vertical on that play to me, like not necessarily explosive long speed, not that kind of play, right?

Starting point is 00:09:10 That's what Mike Keseki is for. And so there are ways to get him involved in the offense. And I want to see how he looks at the ball in his hands. That is one thing that we didn't get to see in week one. That's something that they can build on in 12 personnel. But I want to talk a little bit, Joe, about what they did on the defensive side of the ball that worked well as well. There's also plenty for them to work on.

Starting point is 00:09:29 We'll talk about the areas for the Bengals to improve on as well. But the defensive plan, I think, while it wasn't perfect on Sunday, did also work. And I want to talk about how that part of the offseason plan came together as well coming up next. Most people don't realize how much of their personal information is being bought and sold every single day. Data brokers out there collect details about you from public records, from the internet, then packages sell that information, and they don't get your consent. They're not paying you for that.

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Starting point is 00:11:22 Make this season your most rewarding season ever with Fanduel. Visit Fanduil.com to get started today. Jake, one of the things that they were really successful, we're talking offseason plans, vision for this team on offense, getting under center, 12 personnel, you know, doing these play action. Play action rate was low. We'll talk about that in a second. But on defense, I think it was waves of defensive linemen coming at you.

Starting point is 00:11:45 I've got some nits to pick on how they did that. But I think it was successful. If we were to come away from week one and say, okay, you have eight, maybe even nine guys, depending if you want to put Chris Jenkins in there as well. And when Shamar Stewart gets back, you have guys that you can rotate through. That is a strength of your team. You can rely on that. Also, it's going to keep the linebackers a little bit more free.

Starting point is 00:12:07 I thought on tape they didn't deal with blockers in front of their face nearly as much as they did in the past. They still had some missed tackles. Again, I don't want to wade too far there yet. We will talk about the things that they need to clean up. But I think proof of concept here of that front and the waves of players and the quality of talent and having so many veterans can be dangerous for other teams to block and handle, right? That's a lot. If that was coming against the Bengals' offensive line, I would have some concerns as well. So to see the Bucks who were, what were they, third or fourth, BFF rankings for offensive line.

Starting point is 00:12:39 And you see some of the analysts afterwards talk about, wow, really shocked at how much the Bengals can throw at you and how the Bucks offensive line struggled to contain it. I think that says a lot for the plan. I think we can put a check on that as, okay, this may work this year. Yeah, Dexter Lawrence is obviously a big part of that, keeping the linebackers clean. Doesn't show up in the stat sheet and you got New York Giants fans on Twitter talking crap about, thanks for that first round pick. Like, all right, guys, let's watch some film. I can guarantee you that the Giants fans talking did not watch the football game and see how Dexter

Starting point is 00:13:12 Lawrence played. And they maybe saw one play. And they like to pick their selective endpoints or whatever. Lawrence, keeping those linebackers clean, you can see it on a number of plays out there disrupting the pocket, creating opportunities for other guys on the defensive line. He's doing what they paid him to do, and he's also out there creating some of his own havoc and clogging up rush lanes and compressing pockets. Jonathan Allen, same deal, right? Where you can go down to your third, fourth, fifth defensive tackle and you still have decent to good players out there. And like you said,

Starting point is 00:13:47 we're going to talk about the rotation, some things that we would like to see them tweak a little bit in some of these defensive line rotation, something that really stood out when I really digested the film, Joe, but the Dexter Lawrence edition, the Jonathan Allen edition, the Boye Amap edition. You can see those guys creating plays for themselves on the defensive line. And it's not like it used to be where it was like Trey and some guys, where it was if Trey didn't win on a play, there's no pressure. The pressure did eventually get home. And like you said, this is supposed to be one of the better defensive lines, or sorry, offensive lines in the league that Tampa is putting out there. And so if we look back and see that, you know, by various sites, Bengals had anywhere from like a 25 to a 30% pressure rate on Baker Mayfield in week one.

Starting point is 00:14:34 And some of that's Baker holding the ball too long. And some of that's coverage, too. The Bengals had a few plays force Baker to hold the ball because the coverage was really good from that secondary. So in those ways, I thought there was some success on the defense. The other one that I want to just make sure I shout out here is that the offensive line against the defensive line that again had really high expectations for Tampa looked really good. And if they can approximate that performance this week against DeNeil Hunter and that Texan's defensive line that has some defensive player the year candidate and why am I blanking on his name? Will Anderson.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Well, I understand. The better of the two really good edge rushes for that team. Yeah, both of those guys are bananas. Like, if they can approximate their week one performance against another defensive line, that's really good. And they have to go on the road to do it. So it's a little bit tougher. You're feeling really good about this offensive line and the continuity they made sure they had in that department.

Starting point is 00:15:31 You know, that's a good call. We have a rough outline, give you people behind the scenes of like the things we want to hit on and the topics we want to talk about when we go to record this. you did not bring that up. And as soon as you set off, I'm like, yes, there's another like proof of concept moment for them. They said,

Starting point is 00:15:46 we want these five starters. They're going to take steps forward. And I didn't get to say this on yesterday's film review. But when I went back and watched, Dylan Fairchild was better than expected, number one. But two, I've been saying I think he's their best run blocker. I would double down after one week again.

Starting point is 00:16:01 He handled Vita Vaya on a couple of very nice blocks. I've already pulled the clips. I can't wait to post them to social media because they are pancake level blocks for Dylan Fairchild there at left guard. And that's awesome to see. So yeah, trenches. If they said this is our vision, this is our plan. I think after week one, we can say great, good vision, good plan.

Starting point is 00:16:22 That works. We got one more for you. They talked about getting more explosive and obviously containing explosives. They held Tampa Bay to just four explosive plays, according to the true media threshold for plays, which is 12 plus yard runs and 16 plus yard versus. which I know might sound like weird thresholds if you're looking at 15 plus or 20 plus elsewhere. But Tampa's four explosive plays, four chunk plays, ranked 24th in the NFL, 7.7% explosive play rate, just 23rd in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:16:52 So on the defensive side of the ball, keeping things underneath, Baker's average depth of completion very short. The bucks were not pushing the ball downfield. Some of that probably to target the linebackers, but also the Bengals kept the ball in front of them. And they contained a relatively diverse set of Tampa weapons. And Baker's obviously not afraid to push the ball downfield most of the time. Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the ball,

Starting point is 00:17:15 nine explosive plays, according to True Media's thresholds, was tied for seventh most in week one. That's a 14.3% explosive play rate that was tied for sixth in the NFL. 19.4% explosive pass rate was six. And 7.4% explosive rush rate was 17. So when you're getting more explosive compared to where they were last year, you're containing explosives on the other end. The success rate stuff can be massaged.

Starting point is 00:17:43 That's something that will need to see improve on the defensive side of the ball as we transition to the room for improvement for the Bengals, right? Because it wasn't perfect. They let the bucks back in a game when they're plus three and takeaways, plus four. They had four takeaways. Joe Burrow throws a pick six to let the bucks back. into the game.

Starting point is 00:18:05 And so there is some things that you would like to see the Bengals be a little bit better about, right? There are some ways that the Bengals can still improve on this week one performance where we got some proof of concept on several things. We'll talk about some of the areas where they can improve, but we expect them to improve where we will have some concerns until we see it for ourselves. Jake's excited about this segment coming up, guys. He really wants to talk about the things he doesn't like about week one.

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Starting point is 00:19:50 So one lasting or lingering in this case, I think that's what you opened with. Lingering thoughts I was having about this offense, especially after watching the tape, was the explosive rate was up, but we're talking 15, 16, 17, 17 yard plays, right? A couple of 20. There's a 24-yard area to Mike Keseki. I'm really missing, and they'll come. I'm personally struggling with the week one adjustment here of what is normal for week one versus what I think of this Benkel's offense when I think of it.

Starting point is 00:20:21 But I'm really missing those deep shots, vertical shots, the pushing the ball down the field, the really feeling like you're dictating to the defense. And we looked around the league, it seemed like offenses were winning week one, right? Around the league, offense was ahead. And this doesn't always happen. So I kind of felt behind. And maybe this is I shouldn't look at what other people have, right?

Starting point is 00:20:43 I should focus on what we got here. Things were successful week one. But I can't help it to look around and go, yeah, I want a few of those things. I want my running back ripping off 60s, something yard runs and breaking tackles. And I want vertical shots to be here. I want the play action to get the tight end out there and throw some jump balls and some contested situations.

Starting point is 00:21:02 What, we have one contested ball to Jamar and the opening drive or second drive on the left side there that it was a 50, 50 back shoulder. Probably two if you count the T. Higgins knock pedal. That's right. I don't take that should have been either. That was a miss, right? You could have led into a better tough catch though, I think, because the angles coming directly over you.

Starting point is 00:21:22 Either way, like, I want those. And we complain sometimes about, oh, they're just throwing jump balls to these guys and no one's actually open. So what do I? Am I ever happy? Probably not, Jake. Well, it's a vertical part of the offense that was missing, right? There wasn't a whole lot of vertical game from the Bengals in this one. They hit the scene to Gassiki.

Starting point is 00:21:41 They hit very few, you know, comebacks on the boundary, very few outbreaks in the game in general. You had the sale to Jamar on play action for what, his biggest catch of the game for sure, because it wasn't the negative screenplay. play. Yeah, finding ways to get Jamar Chase involved, I think is something that we'll see them figure out as things go. I think Tampa had a good game plan there. Joe turned it down a couple of times there. And other times, the picture was muddy enough that Joe didn't exactly have a clean idea of where the ball needed to go. And I'm talking mostly about that play at the end of the second quarter where Jamar's open on a slant. Because everybody that could have dropped into that slant window blitzed.

Starting point is 00:22:26 And I don't think there's any way for Joe to know that pre-stap. That's why it never reads out that side. But there are some misses for Joe in this game. That'll get better as the season goes on. But finding ways to actually push the air target depth downfield is something that we will need to see from this offense, I think. It's not an area where they've really pushed the envelope recently. Teams do a lot to try to cap the Bengals, especially outside the numbers.

Starting point is 00:22:54 And so can you find ways to attack inside the numbers? That'll be interesting to see. I did like on the other side of this, though, how much they did get to crossers in this game, much more than they typically have. There's some concepts that they got to in this game. We haven't seen them get to a ton in years past. So you are seeing these wrinkles and these other passing concepts

Starting point is 00:23:16 that you don't necessarily see a lot of in the Bengals offense, historically with Joe Burrow getting into the game plan. The other thing that we wanted to talk about here on the offensive side, it's a play action rate and the under center splits heavily skewed toward the run but like let's get not only some more play action under center some more play action shot plays under center but let's get like one or two straight dropbacks

Starting point is 00:23:39 for Joe Burrow under center every week right where he's under center but he still doesn't have to turn his back just get just a couple maybe one or two a week right just to keep the defense honest on those if they're getting ready for play action they're getting ready for the run and it's a straight drop back for Joe you should have opportunities there. So just thinking about the undercenter game and ways that they can continue to iterate on that as things go.

Starting point is 00:24:01 Yeah, that's a good call. Another thing from the offseason that we didn't get to see much was the 3-4 defense. And it's because the Bucks ran the highest rate of 11 personnel in the entire league. So the Bengals were a nickel, the entire game. So I'm waiting to see that. And I think that lends to where I want to go with the defensive nitpick is the D-Line rotations drove me nuts during the game. there was just times where you end up with Chris Jenkins and Cedric Johnson out there together, and it's a critical drive.

Starting point is 00:24:30 And I just, I need more than that. I need, it can't be Jenkins, Howell, Cedric Johnson, B.J. Hill. And that's just all you have. Who's your winner? Who's going to make a play? Who's going to be the disruptor? We love B.J.L. for what he's done. But is he right now the fourth best defensive tackle?

Starting point is 00:24:46 You know, with the offseason that was shortened because of injury, is Cassius Howell ready to make that impact right now as that win. winner at that spot. I wouldn't say so, but these are guys we like and want to see develop, but can I get Dexter Lawrence in there with them? Can I rotate somebody else? I can't wait to see Shamar come back, to be honest with you to take those reps because that's at least some upside and some chaos. Chaos is another part of the defensive end conversation. I think we'll have too that we don't have written here. But the rotations were getting me. And I think they need to iron them out and mix them up a little bit and maybe getting to the three, four will allow this to

Starting point is 00:25:20 happen. Yeah. And I think the heat is, a factor, obviously. It's the one mitigating thing that you can say there, but the defensive line rotation has also got me. Like, let's try to go maybe one or two guys out of time instead of these hockey shifts. I get the idea of four guys running on the field, poor guys running off the field should hypothetically mean that you have a bunch of fresh legs in there after you make that change. But if the fresh legs are just worse players than the somewhat tired legs, then how much better are you getting, if at all? So I like the idea of mixing things up a little bit more on a piecemeal basis, maybe one or two guys coming in and out on a given play, one defensive tackle and one end.

Starting point is 00:25:59 And I know Dexter Lawrence can't play every single snap. But like, let's mix up the package. He plays a lot of snaps though. They're on his group. He does. And they were trying to save him for like the critical third downs, I think, especially in the fourth quarter. I bet you're they at the 40. They're only in scoring position.

Starting point is 00:26:15 That's what was getting me. I'm like, you're giving up for six plays here. The problem that ended up happening is that you have T.J. Slayton and Chris Jenkins. or T.J. Slayton and name your second defensive tackle out there that wasn't John Allen on mixed downs or on passing downs. And you have B.J. Hill and Chris Jenkins out there, defensive tackle on, again, mixed downs where the run is a real threat. And so making sure that you have the right defensive tackle mix, especially out there on passing downs and on running

Starting point is 00:26:46 downs and on mixed downs, like you have the ability to be really, really good at that if you get these rotations, right? Something that they're going to need to fine tune, I think, something that I think they'll learn from in week one. The Texans also, they don't play the 11 personnel as much as the bucks. They were 17th of week one against the bills. Bills are strictly nickel and have been for a long time defense even with Jim Leonard. So it makes sense that they were out there 11 personnel, 57% of the time, which means there are two tight ends or three tight ends, 29% of the time. So at least a third or close to it, we should expect to see the Bengals in their three, four defense. Yeah. So we'll see a little bit

Starting point is 00:27:21 more of it this week. I'm excited to see how that looks because it has a potential to be a pretty exciting front pose some problems for the Houston front that we'll start to talk about a little bit more here in the next couple of days. The last thing for me, Joe, well, the last thing that I'll talk about anyway is Jordan Battle in this game I thought was just too slow to react in coverage. There's a drive where it's like three straight plays and it gets Houston into scoring range, gets Houston into a spot where I think they eventually score a touchdown, but is two straight cover three buzz where jordan battle isn't playing a deep safety so you end up with the corners playing the outside thirds you end up with brian cook playing the middle third the post safety

Starting point is 00:27:59 and jordan battle will then drop underneath and play one of those hook curls and and it is is buzzing down and it's playing that that underneath zone in the cover three and twice i think baker picks on him over the middle of the field he's just too late to react it leads to the 30 yard catch for i think it was a buco was it, the most explosive play of the day for Tampa. And this battles late to react, misses a tackle. Another time he's late to react. It's a 10-yard, 11-yard catch. And then they go after him again on a play-action boot.

Starting point is 00:28:31 And battles eyes are just stuck in the backfield, no awareness for way too long, just late to get out on the tight end, he into the flat. And then it's an 11-yard, 10-yard game for Tampa there. And so some of that stuff, some of the contain from John Allen on some of these plays, as well.

Starting point is 00:28:50 Just some stuff like that. Amoffay, just some stuff to clean up on the defensive front. And for Jordan Battle and coverage, not to mention the mistackle on the very first play of the game on a bad angle for Jordan Battle, need to see him play much, much better than he did in week one or teams are going to keep going after.

Starting point is 00:29:05 Yeah, no doubt. I don't want to have obvious issues or holes that teams are trying to exploit. And I believe Battle of all the starters had the lowest BFF grade. When I watched film, I also came away going like, yeah, he just did not make enough positively impact plays to go with his slow feet and slow reaction. Last thing for me, Al Golden, still one of my major question marks.

Starting point is 00:29:25 I want to see something that gets me excited about the scheme, right? I want to see some blitzes, some different looks, something more exotic. And maybe they didn't feel they had to right away. Maybe they felt like they had a lot of new people in positions on the defense and new guys they were relying on. Whatever the case may be, last year they started very vanilla, I felt like. and it beat them because they didn't have enough guys to make plays. This year they did.

Starting point is 00:29:50 So, okay. But now let's ramp it up through the rest of the year. I want to see this dial to continue to continue to go more to the aggressive side, more to the exotic side. You're going to need that. You will need that if this team makes the playoffs. So maybe it'll be a slow burn to week 18 and beyond. But it's one of my big question marks still with this team and with the defense.

Starting point is 00:30:10 Yeah, well, the blitz rate amp up. It was once again one of the lowest in the NFL, if not the lowest in the NFL. NFL in week one. And when you come up with those creative blitzes, I think it shows some cohesion on defense. It shows an identity on defense. And that's something that I'm still waiting to see from the Bengals, besides just we're going to rotate guys in on the defensive line,

Starting point is 00:30:30 rush for play cover six, play cover three, play man behind it, that that innovation and creativity that you can get with some of those exotic blitzes and exotic fronts that you can show to try to slow down some of these quarterbacks you're going to face in the NFL. That is something that I'm still waiting to see. how that develops for Al Golden this year. And we'll start to get more answers here. We're going to transition our attention to Houston

Starting point is 00:30:51 in week two here. Next episode from us will be crossover. We'll get a game preview after that. So until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Hoot it. And have a good one.

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