Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film Takeaways: Unpacking an uneven Cincinnati Bengals offensive performance against the New York Giants

Starting point is 00:00:00 After watching the tape, let's break down why the Cincinnati Bengals offense had an uneven performance and how the return to form for the defensive line helped boost a defense that really needed it. 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. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe, joined today by Mike Santag. host of It's Always Game Day in Cincinnati and film analyst writer for Bengals S-I talk. We have Mike on most weeks, at least.

Starting point is 00:00:45 So far every week this season to talk about the biggest film takeaways from the Cincinnati Bengals games. And today's episode brought to you by Game Time where you can create an account and use code Lockedon NFL to save $20 on your first purchase of tickets. Again, that's promo code Lockdown NFL on the Game Time app. Welcome back to the everydayer. shout out to those of you who make lockdown Bengals your first listen. And we really appreciate those of you who have made us part of your routine. We're part of the lockdown podcast network covering your team every day. If you're new, you can find the show wherever you found us today on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:01:19 wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode. And Mike, we're going to start as we often do with Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense. That coming into this game was on a hot streak of scoring. what, 35 points a game over the last three games and high expectations against a Giants defense. It looked capable but flawed. Perhaps we underrated the Shane Bowen presence and his historical success with the Titans against the Cincinnati Bengals. But there were issues throughout the offense, as we and anyone who watched the game could have noted. There were times that Joe Burrow didn't look great. There were times that the play calls made you scratch your head.

Starting point is 00:02:04 There are times that the offensive line had issues holding up against Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, and O'Jolari. There were times that Jamar Chase dropped a pass or they had personnel on the field that made you scratch your head. Let's start with Joe Burrow, though. He was pretty self-critical after the game. He did not play the kind of game we've seen him play the last three weeks. And while the highlights were there in a couple of downfield passes on the left side outside of structure, it feels like when the Bengals play against Shane Bowen defenses, Joe Burrow really seems to struggle within the structure

Starting point is 00:02:38 and what they're trying to call more often than that. What did you see when you evaluate that kind of claim when you watch the way Burrow played on tape? Yeah, it felt like I think he said I didn't get into a rhythm and maybe didn't have a good sense of, well, what look at me is that he didn't have a good sense of the timing of everything. It didn't feel like he had a good internal clock. There are times where he's checking it down early.

Starting point is 00:03:03 We've seen that a lot, especially early in the year. It seems like he gets that kind of happy feed of just let's just check this down, live to play another day, which is okay thinking until it becomes stifling of your offense. Where that's just a once-and-a-while thing, okay. But when you're punting the ball because you keep checking it down, that's not ideal. And it's a balance, right? Because in years past, we've talked about how when he's playing with an excellent sense of timing, those checkdowns are coming in a perfect spot and they're leading a player to space and you're not checking it down to Chase Brown getting drilled as he tries to catch the ball and then he ends up dropping it.

Starting point is 00:03:37 It's a different kind of checkdown when Joe Burroughs playing at a high level within structure. And it was weird though because he also had plays where it felt like he thought he had a little bit more superhero to him than I think he does within without, I think he moves well in the pocket. but you could think of that boot play with O'Jolari. And respect to Ojolari's length, that was pretty insane for him to make that tackle. But he makes the play and then gets sacked. And that's on him. Think of the play against Dexter Lawrence. He's trying to stiff arm Dexter Lawrence instead of getting the ball out.

Starting point is 00:04:12 That's not a winning business model to have your quarterback trying to stiff arm the 360-pound monster. And just a few other turn downs. They ran that play with Trent Irwin on. the field, Trent Irwin's only target. That wasn't to Irwin. That was supposed to go to Chase Brown, but I feel like Burrow thought he had something if he didn't just take the easy first down, thought went going for the kill shot instead, just a few times, something like that happens. And then there was a turn down to T. Higgins of the play action that ended up in the intentional grounding. And that's just, you got your guy one-on-one and he's got a step against the corner.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Yeah, that corner is really fast, and he's probably faster than T. But I trust T with a guy that's out of phase trying to chase him to make a contested catch, or at least the ability to try to make that contested catch, especially if he's one-on-one without safety help. So I felt like it was a very up and down game for Burrow. I think when it mattered most, he was really good. You talk about the out of structure, that third and 12. That was an awesome roll to his left, throw the ball down the field. There was also the one to chase, and he just kind of put it up there. And that was actually, what I'm talking about with T is like when that corner's out of phase his head's turned, and it's a little easier for those wide receivers to make that play,

Starting point is 00:05:25 just like the chase play there. He made some plays in-structure to T, but it just felt overall like things weren't coming out on time and rhythm. It felt like the eyes were a little messy. He had that awesome scramble very early, but other than that, it didn't feel like he had a sense for the game. It didn't seem like he was seeing the field that well, really.

Starting point is 00:05:47 And he was still able to come over the wind, put enough on the field to get out. out of there. And it wasn't all on him. I'm not trying to say that either, but he wasn't able to take the team and let them rise above when other factors were letting him down, where we've seen that the past couple of weeks where a guy could miss a block or something and makes him miss, throws a ball down the field, or takes the shot from that defensive lineman like we saw in the Ravens game a couple times. It still throws the ball down the field to an open receiver. Yeah. He did make some plays. So this isn't meant to be a disparaging to Burrow segment,

Starting point is 00:06:20 but it wasn't the kind of game that we've grown accustomed to from him in the last few weeks where the Bengals offense has been rolling. And, I mean, that's obvious to anyone who watch, like I said. One of the things that kind of stands out when Joe Burrow doesn't have a game that we've grown accustomed to from Joe Burrow is the intermediate part of the field usually has a letdown stat line. When this sort of thing happens, Joe Burrow won for three on those attempts in the 10 to 20-yard range of the football field for 14 yards. So not only not attempting throws in that part of the field, but also only completing one of them. He did have the Jamar Chase drop there. Those numbers will look very different if Jamar Chase catches the ball. The other thing that really stands out to me, and this is a PFF split, is Joe Burrow on play action in this game was not effective.

Starting point is 00:07:06 The play action game in general not effective. On non-play action plays in this game, Joe Burrow was 14 for 18 on 24 dropbacks, which means, yes, they face some pressure, but that's also where his long touchdown run came from. he did have two scrambles on non-play action plays, obviously, both of those successful scrambles. On play action plays, though, instead of 141 yards on 18 attempts for 7.8 yards per attempt, Joe Burrow was 5 for 10 on play action plays for just 6.7 yards per attempt on 11 dropbacks. So the play action game also not effective in something that's supposed to be an easy button for quarterbacks, quote-unquote, was not that for the Bengals against the Giants. Yeah, and that includes the plate of Brown that I mentioned, is like, your easy button.

Starting point is 00:07:49 and just take it. Sometimes you just take the easy first down. You don't need to go make the superhero. And it's not just Burrow to be abundantly clear. There are other issues for this offense to talk about. Jamar Chase generally was good in this game, but he had a drop on what could have been a critical play. T. Higgins was awesome in this game.

Starting point is 00:08:09 He deserves plenty of credit. And honestly, the offensive line while up and down, and they had their share of struggles, it probably did enough that the offense could have performed better overall. We will make sure we discuss how the offensive line played. We'll get into play calling a lot of people. I know we're very frustrated with Zach Taylor,

Starting point is 00:08:29 both during the game and today as we're recording this the day after the game, that frustration I think still exists, Mike. So we will hit those topics as well as making sure we shout out the positive performances on the offensive side of the ball coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Fan Duel. And believe it or not, The Bengals after being three and a half point road favorites in New York and covering our four and a half point favorites against the Cleveland Browns on the road for their first AFC North road game according to Fandul. And you can start the season with a big return on Fandul, America's number one sports book.

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Starting point is 00:10:38 Mike, let's talk play calling. A lot of folks, pretty upset with Zach Taylor. And this game will get to the offensive line after we discuss play calling. But this is a relatively hot button issue. and a topic that has drawn a lot of consternation from fans this year, what were your thoughts when you reviewed play calling in this game? The one that stands out to me the most upon reflection is the Mike Gaseki blocking Brian Burns play. Was there anything else that kind of had you scratch in your head?

Starting point is 00:11:07 I think when you got to the four-minute drill, what I really scratched my head on was then trying to run your draw and windback plays where the Giants are selling out to stop run there. Like those plays are great when they're getting upfield trying to rush the passer, but you need to kind of get some downhill stuff to work when you're trying to run four minute drill and choose some clock and run when they know you're running. Other than that, I think the – some of that is like the play calling looks worse when the quarterback's turning down some of the stuff that's open to. It's not like the play calling was great, but I felt like it could have looked better

Starting point is 00:11:42 and it was okay. It wasn't terrible. It was okay enough that it should have been all right when it ended up being pretty bad. Most of this game, the offense in general. So it's a two-pronged attack there where the quarterback's kind of turned some of the stuff down that's open, but also maybe they're not running the stuff that the quarterback is that comfortable with. They didn't get to a lot of the stuff that worked against the Ravens, but it's a different defense, too. So they're not playing it the exact same way.

Starting point is 00:12:11 Then you get a drop here and a fumble there and everything looks worse. But yeah, I didn't love the play calling. I felt like there were some issues. I also felt like early on so many quick possessions that they were, when you have one bad play in that group, it kind of stinks the whole thing up. And I don't know. I didn't love the play calling. I don't think it's a crutch that you can just say the entire offense falls on Zach Taylor because I thought I saw some stuff that was open in the structure of the play. I think the run game up and down, like the two plays.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Like you talk about the Gisiki, but that's a huge misuse of your resources. Not only just to use Gisiki there, but if you're going to run power from that situation or tackle trap or whatever, they're doing long trap, I think there with the tackle, doesn't matter. That tight end should be on the ball in a tighter split because his whole goal there is just to cut that guy off. When he's off the ball and a little widen his split, and who knows, maybe it's Gisiki that's just lining up a little bit wider than he's. supposed to, but that could also lead back to the coach of like, why is Gisicke the guy in there?

Starting point is 00:13:16 He has to get in the way. And they've tried this a few times with Gisiki where they have him trying to block the backside end. And it doesn't work. He cannot block a defensive end. That's just put in either Drew Sample or Eric all in that situation. You'll get better results. But especially just put him on the ball and put him down into the three points. They just let him come off the ball and get in that guy's way because he couldn't even get in his way because of the distance. There was a gap already between the two, and he's not particularly strong, long blocker that's going to be able to overcome that. So that was frustrating. I feel like there are plenty of frustrating moments within the game. But I also think you probably could

Starting point is 00:13:56 have done more to get Jamar Chase the ball, at least early. It felt like he had the drop for sure. But T. Higgins running that speedout RPO. I thought I saw access for Chase on some of those too, but it didn't seem like he was the one running the route on it. So those are just quick hitters. I like that they got to some RPO's. They haven't done that a long time. Those are high floor plays, not high ceiling plays to me, but high floor plays that will get seven yards when you need seven yards because you have those awesome talents

Starting point is 00:14:24 out there. But just find a way not from the backfield to get Jamar Chase, the ball in space. I actually like that they went to some Chase Brown screenwork. I know the one play gets kind of talked about a lot, but they also ran a play that was pony personnel 21 look there are two running backs on the field not a fullback and throwing him a screen out wide with Zach Moss in the backfield and it went for a pretty good game so I think there's blame for the play calling I think there's some credit I think they just need to it really feels like Zach Taylor to me his worst flag in play calling is that he has these plays in his mind

Starting point is 00:15:00 that are like part of the script or part of like this is going to work and he doesn't think as much about the situation involved in there as well, where it's like the first play didn't work, you can't then go to whatever. Like the screen call on second and 12 is kind of a whatever play when you have a good quarterback. Really just,

Starting point is 00:15:17 why don't you let him cook a little bit there instead of trying to call a screen? That just feels like you don't, you're not playing to your quarterback's strength. Yeah, and it's hard as well when maybe your feel for the game as a head coach as Burrow is turning things down in structure and isn't seeing things as well,

Starting point is 00:15:33 and that is always a balance. I do want to take this moment to shout out T. Higgins, who was unambiguously awesome in this game, some really tough concentration catches over the middle of the field where he's taking hits, really good run-after catch on the right side line when they're backed up in their own territory. It didn't lead to anything specifically on that play,

Starting point is 00:15:53 but T. Higgins was the reliable T. Higgins that you need him to be in this game. And it's just another point for the P.T. Higgins argument, I think, because he showed his consistent importance to this offense. And if teams are going to spend as much resources as they did at times the New York Giants to take away Jamar Chase. And one of the flaws, I think, when you're talking about play calling, is finding ways to get the ball to Jamar Chase earlier in the game is another one that, like, when you don't manufacture those touches for Jamar until the second half,

Starting point is 00:16:24 don't love that when you have those guys. You got to use them earlier, put some fear into the Giants, especially when you're not punishing them with the ground game when they try to take those guys away. So that's another bit there, but just wanted to shout out T. Higgins. Last question from a schematic perspective before we talk about the offensive line,

Starting point is 00:16:44 what were the Giants doing defensively? Was it a matter of not getting to the right route concepts at times to try to beat what the Giants were doing defensively? Or was it just turning down some stuff within structure and trying to, at times get too cute is the other thing. with Taylor. Like the Gaseki play, what I was thinking about

Starting point is 00:17:03 when you're saying that is the Goseki play and the Irwin play. You have two plays where your personnel would tell you, we're doing the opposite thing and they're trying to zig

Starting point is 00:17:11 when they're thinking the Giants are going to expect to Zagrin. When you have Goseki on the field, you're expecting that the Giants are going to play pass because that's what Gaseki does. When you have Trent and Irwin

Starting point is 00:17:21 and Andre Yosevash on the field and Jammar Chase is off the field and T. Higgins has to get some trainers to look at his shoulder because he just took a big hit. You got 12 personnel. Well, defense is probably expecting run and they try to throw a pass out of it, out of play action. So there's a couple of plays there where they try to do some tendency breakers.

Starting point is 00:17:40 But overall, is it just calling the wrong things at the wrong times where they're having issues? Or was that much of an issue in this game? I think it's both. Like there are times the defense just had them where they ran some stuff right into defenders. And I mean, that just happens over the course of a game sometimes. But it does feel like Bowen has a little bit of a beat on this offense and be able to put his guys in a position to make those plays and just recognize the route concepts that the Bengals like to run. It seemed like the sucker play, the rap, the bow, whatever.

Starting point is 00:18:10 They had a better feel for that than the last couple of teams, that little sit route from the underneath, and then the wrap in behind it felt like they did a better job of defending that other than one play where Jamar Chase ran the sit route and T. Higgins wrapped behind it. Was that a little bit open that window? Was that the play where Jamar's coming out of the backfield? Yes. Yeah. So his gravity and Joe Burrow used his shoulders and a pump fake to move that underneath defender to open up that window to T. Higgins.

Starting point is 00:18:36 But overall, it does feel like they need to find not a tendency breaker in terms of like personnel and where they can go, but they need a tendency breaker of like, they need to just run some different route concepts against this team. And I've seen some. So I think they have those opportunities. Like they ran that big post and whatever else against the Ravens. I think it was available in this game too. But they ran some man coverage early. I feel like Joe Burroughs answer to that was just running. And then they kind of stopped.

Starting point is 00:19:03 They were like, okay, no can't run man coverage, just disrespect and entirely running the ball. And then they moved to playing a lot more zone. And, you know, changing the safety shell over the top, just things Bowen's done before. Not a ton of blitzing either from what I remember a little bit at the beginning. And then it felt like they just played coverage and rallied and tackled underneath. They stopped the explosive plate playing over the top.

Starting point is 00:19:28 Burrow didn't want to throw the ball over the top when he had the opportunity and that leads to a disappointing offensive performance. Yeah, it's a recipe that has stopped the Bengals in the past. And it's giving me flashbacks to other conversations we've had where if teams can rush four and play coverage and keep the ball in front of them and bracket chase every play essentially, which is roughly the plan if you can get that going, it makes things difficult for the Bengals' offense,

Starting point is 00:19:57 especially if Joe Burroughs hesitating. We saw that against Mike McDonald with the Ravens a little bit last year, and I think that we've seen that against the Shane Bowen defenses over the years as well. So another thing for the Bengals in this offense to improve upon, we do need to talk about this offensive line, however, a tricky performance, let's say, against a really good defensive front. And then we need to get to this defense as well, Mike, because the defense did help the Bengals in this game to get a win.

Starting point is 00:20:27 And Joe Burrow, very cognizant of that as well in his postgame. We'll finish the show with those topics coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by GameTime, which is the best way to buy tickets. They've got a new feature even that makes it easier to buy tickets. It's called Game Time Picks. It filters out all the fluff to just show you the most incredible deals on the greatest seats so you don't have to waste time searching through

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Starting point is 00:21:48 Game Time. Mike, we have talked about the offense or trodorf. 20 minutes without getting to the offensive line, which had a bit of a letdown performance, I would say, compared to the last few weeks. They weren't as solid as in general. We've seen them. The pockets were a little messier. Joe Borough taking more hits, I think, than we've seen him take this year under more pressure than we've seen him take this year more effective by that pressure than we've seen this year. And it's pretty simple.

Starting point is 00:22:17 Dexter Lawrence exists. And they have the secondary guys to punish you when you. when you dedicate extra resources to Dexter Lawrence, and that is essentially what happened. Those extra guys, those ancillary guys, Brian Burns and Oja Lari, they did punish the Bengals for sending those extra resources to Dexter Lawrence. Yeah, it's an interesting game because some of it was Burrow invited.

Starting point is 00:22:39 We talked about the sack that came from his rollout thinking you could avoid Ojo Lari, and he kind of did, but then got tripped up. But also you had the miss snap count where only they know if that snap was early or not, but the left side moved on time, the right side didn't move at all, and Ojo Lari ends up getting a hit on Burrow. Ball gets thrown away, not a sack, but still a big play, and Burrow takes a shot unnecessarily. But it's also not an indicator of Mims' talent either,

Starting point is 00:23:04 because most of the game, Mims is fine. Mim's is taking on his guy, and you can talk about the big part to me was that they knew the Bengals protection on basically every play, was they're going to take the center, and actually the center would sometimes start sliding left, and if Lawrence was on the right, he's going to help Lawrence.

Starting point is 00:23:21 No matter what, he is going to 97. 97 is going to pool Ted Carus on every play against whatever guard that Lawrence is facing. To go with that, on the opposite side, it wasn't just that those guys won

Starting point is 00:23:32 because they had one-on-one opportunities. And I actually thought that the Brian Burns had a sack on Orlando Brown. Other than that, Orlando was actually pretty good against him, but hey, you bat 90% or whatever in this game.

Starting point is 00:23:46 And that's not good because you end up giving a sack. And I actually, you know, it's the only position group that kind of stinks, You have one bad play, that determines your night, too. But it wasn't like he was getting beaten nonstop and Burrow had to run for his life.

Starting point is 00:23:57 And that sack was just a cause of that. It was the one real good pass rush that Burns had. He got him. But what they kept doing was when Caris would go to help Lawrence, they would run a stunt on the other side. And they ran both kinds of stunts, either the end coming first and the tackle looping around, the tackle coming first, the end looping around. The Bengals did a good job passing off the end coming first and the tackle looping around. but they could not pass off until that third and 12, the tackle coming down,

Starting point is 00:24:23 trying to pick the inside hip of the offensive tackle and the end looping around right down the middle. That's where Burrow took the big shot from Brian Burns. He got the ball out but had to go to the medical 10 after. That's where he took a sack from O'Donji Lari as well. It felt like, one, those are hard to pick up as offensive linemen because you need to be on the same level. when you don't have center help it's just you two against those two you're on an island at times they got a chip but mostly it was five out in the protection scheme whether you're playing scat protection jet protection whatever you don't have anybody on the line to help you that running back isn't there to help the stunt pick up so that tackle comes and he gets a pick can't they can't pass it and they tried to man it they tried to pass it they had a couple that were passed off but in general they didn't do a good job of it that was a good plan from

Starting point is 00:25:16 the giant side to stress the communication of the Bengals offensive line rather than just try to beat them straight up when they know the protection scheme when you only have one way to beat the star you kind of leave yourself a little vulnerable they know how your resources are being managed here but I do think that the tackle one is frustrating because it feels like it's just we have talked about this for years the guards set back kind of far and it was an issue with that too where they were they were able to pass off those end first tackle stunts the ETs the ETs because the tackle is setting out, and he's still at an okay level to then pass the end off and then take the defensive tackle looping around. But when the tackle would come first, the guard is set too deep.

Starting point is 00:25:56 It's not like the offensive tackles for the Bengals are jump setting out there or setting horizontally. They both set pretty vertical, but when the guard's getting more depth than them, they don't have neither Volson or Kappa seem to have the strength to then push that guy forward and pass him off. So if you can't do that and you're not on the same level because you're setting so deep as a guard, that's tough. And you're only setting deep as a guard, I think, to pass these stunts. So just just a little too deep. They need to be a little bit more flat when they're taking on these stunts. But that also leads you susceptible whenever you jump set. You talk about Carmen all the time, jump set and then lose immediately. And that's also a bad way to live. So got to find a way to mix it up. Got to find a way to pass those stunts off because any team that has a star defensive tackle

Starting point is 00:26:39 that knows what's going on, Chiefs, they could probably take this game plan. If the Bengals don't improve upon their tech stunt passoffs. They were better against the Chiefs. I thought from an offensive line perspective, perhaps didn't have the performances from the edge guys to punish as much as the Giants. They were Oji Lari and Brian Burns both have like four or five pressure nights with multiple hits between the two of them on the quarterback,

Starting point is 00:27:05 sacks piling up. But the Giants lead to NFL and sacks. So perhaps they are just really good at that. And this is something that we should have expected. and it was five on four for most of the night. The Bengals not providing much in the way of chip help to the offensive line because the primary challenge is the defensive tackle. So the way that they game plan for that was we're just going to double the defensive tackle

Starting point is 00:27:29 and let our other guys live on islands and deal with it. They did deal with it, not always well. Mike, we need to get to the defense here as we've covered the offensive line, which, again, to be clear, like on the whole, there were opportunities there that the offensive line did allow for. It wasn't all an offensive line issue. There were offensive line issues. We're trying to be nuanced there in that conversation, right?

Starting point is 00:27:53 Where Burroughs turning some things down where he had an opportunity to throw the ball and was able to stand in there and throw the ball against Baltimore last week, even on some offensive line losses where this week those throws didn't happen, but then the offensive line did also have issues. Just so you're aware that we don't think this is fundamentally like only an offensive line issue. There's a little bit of blame as you've noticed to go around. This doesn't even mention the running back fumbles. We talked about the Jamar Chase drop.

Starting point is 00:28:19 Things still need to be better everywhere. And that includes on the defensive side of the ball. But the return of those veteran defensive linemen, B.J. Hill, certainly in a revenge game, Mike Hilton getting back this week, those additions and getting healthier on defense outside of Dax Hill, who's unfortunately got the ACL, have made a big difference to this team, especially on the defensive front, Mike. Yeah, and it was run support. I thought Sheldon Rangis had a little bit of an up-and-down game,

Starting point is 00:28:50 but one thing I noticed when he's in there is that he's a professional, and he's able to at least hold up in these looks rather than get pushed way back into the linebackers. I felt like the linebackers probably enjoyed having a guy that took on two blocks and didn't just let them go get cleaned up in the run game. BJ Hill was incredible in this game. with the pressures, with the run defending, and with his ability to get his hands up and knocks and passes down. You mentioned Mike Hilton.

Starting point is 00:29:17 I also think Jordan Battle, two defensive backs that provide really good run support in the game. And what the Giants did against the Seahawks was run all over them. And they had moments in this game were they able to run the ball well, or at least okay enough to keep drives sustained. But it never felt like the Giants run game was really taking over, and it was unstoppable for the Bengals. And I give a lot of credit to that to the defensive linemen that stepped up. And also I give some credit to that to the defensive backs, providing good run support.

Starting point is 00:29:47 We haven't seen a lot of good defensive back run support this year. And most of the time you see them come down and mistackles to take a bad angle. So seeing Hilton and Battle come down there and play sound football was a welcome change. I think that was a big reason why the defense had a nice day was just they're able to stop the run a little bit. it. They're able to force the Giants into some passing situations. The Giants, you know, quarterback bailed them out at times in those passing situations. They got a little bit more pressure, too. I felt like it wasn't, like against the commanders, it felt like Jane Daniels could do

Starting point is 00:30:21 whatever he wanted back there. It didn't feel like Daniel Jones could do whatever he wanted, whether that was Ray Hendrickson beating Andrew Thomas on the left side at times, or it was BJ Hill, whoever else in the interior getting some pressure. and forcing him off of his spot. Yeah, the pressure much more effective in this game against Daniel Jones, where they got roughly the same pressure rate, according to PFF, on Jada Daniels and on Daniel Jones, with Daniel Jones completing just five of his 12 passes

Starting point is 00:30:51 when under pressure in this game for 3.8 yards per attempt. And a lot of those coming at critical moments between the Trey Hendrickson sack, BJ Hill, creating an interception in the red zone on a true bozo play, and I'll keep calling it that from Daniel Jones. Jones getting hit as he's trying to force the ball over the middle and the ball predictably just floats up into the air. Daniel Jones also missing a number of deep shots where it looked like receivers were behind corners. So certainly you mentioned Daniel Jones helping to bail them out a little bit, that being the Bengals defense, that was part of the story.

Starting point is 00:31:23 But I think in general, they needed this kind of performance from the defense where, yeah, they had a couple breaks go their way in missed field goals and in Daniel Jones' interception in the red zone. And it could have been worse from a success rate perspective, from a down-to-down perspective, from a Giants running the ball on fourth downs, which I should have stuck with more than they did when they turned to Daniel Jones in those situations. As you pointed out, it was not good for the Giants on fourth downs. But their aggressiveness and willingness to go for it on fourth down was largely because they get to fourth and one the entire game or fourth and two. And they're in these short-yarded situations because they're staying ahead of the chains quite often. but despite that, they got the plays from BJ Hill. They got an important pass deflection from Sam Hubbard at one point.

Starting point is 00:32:10 They're getting plays in the clutch from some of these guys where they needed them, where in the past, in weeks past, you know, Camp Taylor, Brett getting a pass break up on fourth down, or DJ Turner getting a pass break up on fourth down, those are instead completed passes in the last few weeks. And getting those couple of extra plays from BJ Hill, from Jordan Battle, from Mike Hilton, from DJ Turner, from Camp Taylor, who I thought had largely a pretty solid bounce back game outside of a couple of issues. Those are winning kind of plays for this defense, at least right now. And something that I mentioned this last night, the Bengals might need a similar kind of game. The offense could just play better and make this a non-talking point,

Starting point is 00:32:52 but against the Cleveland Browns team that has a very clear strength on the defensive side of the ball, led by Miles Garrett and a very clear deficiency on the offensive side of the ball, where they have been the worst offense through six weeks in Cleveland Brown's history, which is a pretty low bar to somehow limbo beneath for the Cleveland Browns so far. Mike appreciate it. As always, you can find his work on It's Always Game Day in Cincinnati and Bengals Talk, where he will have a film piece up weekly. We'll also make sure we continue to keep in touch with Mike over the course of the season here on Lockdown Bengals,

Starting point is 00:33:26 and that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Ho-Day and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film Takeaways: Unpacking an uneven Cincinnati Bengals offensive performance against the New York Giants

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