Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film Takes: Bengals Offense SOARS Behind Joe Flacco & Tee Higgins—Defensive Troubles Somehow DEEPEN

Starting point is 00:00:01 The Cincinnati Bengals stayed rolling on offense against the Chicago Bears, but the defense continues its downward spiral. Let's break down what the film tells us about each side of the ball against the bears. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What on Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liscoe, joined today by Mike Santagena, our weekly film guest for the first of a couple film episodes that we've got for you over the course of this by week. This one, we're going back to the Chicago Bears game talking about why the offense is still working and why the defense continues to look the same and miserable every week. Welcome back to everyone who makes Lockdown Bengals part of their everyday routine.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And those of you who make Lockdown Bengals your first list and we appreciate those of you who are sticking with us who are part of that every day. your club and well lockdown bengals is your one-stop shop online five days a week of coverage on youtube anywhere you get your podcast all things bengals all the time here's we're revisiting the film today like i said and an episode abroad to you by game time maybe you're looking for something to do on sundays that is to distract yourself from the bengals maybe you're just looking for tickets to the bengals game you can save $20 on your first purchase of tickets in the game time app with promo code locked on nfl and mike while there is a lot of negative that we can talk about in the game against the Chicago Bears for the

Starting point is 00:01:41 Cincinnati Bengals. Most of that on the defensive side of the ball, to be sure, there's a lot going right for the Bengals' offense in recent weeks on offense. And I know nobody really likes to hear people be terribly positive or there's very few people that are here for positivity at this time of year. But I can't help but be a little bit poetic about Joe Flacko. What T. Higgins did against the Chicago Bears was. Pretty phenomenal.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And, you know, Dylan Fairchild had what could be a breakout game. He had a really nice game that we'll talk about over the course of the next couple of episodes. And the offense in general, when Joe Flacco has been running the show for the Bengals, has been one of, if not the best, depending on the metric you look at in the NFL, as the Bengals once again scored 42 points and once again lost, despite scoring an oversized number of points. But they're doing it in different ways. And that's interesting. The big difference between this week and last week,

Starting point is 00:02:39 between the Bears game and the game that preceded it against the Jets is run-game passing. This week, Joe Flacco, bulky shoulder and all, flinging that thing and finding huge success in the passing game. Yeah, it's one of those situations where this old dog seen all the tricks. I mean, the Bears were trying to throw a cover to it because, I mean, in theory, good idea. Let's say if Jamar on one side and T on the other, let's, you know, let's get a guy underneath that's physical, can jam them. We'll play a safety over the top, so we're safe there.

Starting point is 00:03:13 And that didn't work because you got high, low, don't have inside, outside in this scenario. So they're able to win in those ways. And also, well, sometimes they went away from that. And when they got solo opportunities, T. Higgins especially, I feel like made good on those. But also they tried some fire zones. They're trying to throw some stuff at him, some a little bit exotic stuff, and the ball is just out quick. Like, he's seen this before. And I think back to, I mean, early in his career, you think about some of the stuff that gets thrown at him, and he probably saw it from like a different look personnel-wise.

Starting point is 00:03:52 Maybe this like old Steelers defense, the early 2010s type of Steelers. He was like Firezone. Yeah, Dick LeBow was the fire zone guy. He's seen all those. It's just accumulating all this experience over time makes it so that just it feels like nothing is really fooling him. And the only time that the past game has really struggled is when a team will commit full resources of a safety and a corner locked in on Jamar Chase and T. Higgins like the Jets did and try to force him to win through anybody else. Because right now he's playing, it's no everybody's got to eat with Joe Flacko. I've got two top dogs, especially at some points.

Starting point is 00:04:34 He's like, I've got Jamar Chase, and I'm just going to throw it to that guy if I have any opportunity I can. And you know his confidence in T. Higgins is growing after watching a couple of the catches that T. Higgins made in ridiculous coverage, one of which is like an absolute Yolo ball from Joe Flacco down the left sideline. I still don't think T. Higgins actually had eyes on the football when he caught it. There's a miced up going around. I thought it was T saying he couldn't even see it, but I think it was actually Tanner Hudson, who you can hear in the background of the Jamar Chase, Mike Duff saying you couldn't even see that expletive was the folk vote. But I mean, just incredible game from T that we'll get to as well.

Starting point is 00:05:15 The other thing to slow down the Bengals in the passing game is when Joe Flacco has been pressured on the upside, he hasn't been pressured a ton with the Bengals, both because he's getting rid of the ball very quickly. His time to throw is up there, but I think they are protecting. better. The offensive line has pretty things out in the last couple of weeks, and some of that is a quality of the opponent and not facing a giant for his defense.

Starting point is 00:05:39 Some of that is, some guys are just playing better when Joe Flacko has been pressured, though. The production really isn't there, the bad interception that he threw targeting Chase Brown on the checkdown, a little bit hurried there to try to get rid of that ball,

Starting point is 00:05:55 not finding a ton of production when he's pressured and against the jets just 2.9 yards per attempt when he is pressured. But on the other side when he was clean completing 75% of his passes for 12 yards per attempt you absolutely take that level of productivity from Joe Flacco

Starting point is 00:06:10 who like you said has seen it all still has the armed talent even if he just like doesn't really have the mobility or ability to create at all it was always pretty limited for Flacco that just was never his game and whatever ability was there certainly diminished at this

Starting point is 00:06:26 point with the Bengals but it wasn't just Jemar and T in this game either and that's kind of of the beautiful thing about this game where against the Jets, when the Jets were dedicating all those resources to Jemar and T, they found success in the run game. In this game, it was Andre Yosevash has a bit of a bounceback game, collecting five catches on seven targets for 66 yards.

Starting point is 00:06:46 So had, you know, a contested ball that he doesn't end up coming down with. But it also had the play where he stepped out of bounds, of course, that could have been a touchdown. Had a Chase Brown drop in this game. But Chase Brown led the team in targets with 13 and went for 9.4 yards per catch, which is pretty good despite having that drop in there. And the other big plays to Noah fan to Tanner Hudson, like this was, and Mitch Tinsley, like this was a game where, like you said, he doesn't have to spread the wealth,

Starting point is 00:07:15 but the Bengals had seven players catch a ball and seven players with the catch that went for 20 plus yards. Yeah, I think the offense starts with the two on the outside. And like you're saying, when the resources do get committed there, I mentioned it got stopped against the Jets. and the Bears rightfully also did commit the resources to try to stop this. And yes, Yosefos won against Tyreek Stevenson, who was having a pretty good year for them, smoked him on that one release outside go, caught it down the field, thinking of the fan up the seam.

Starting point is 00:07:46 And I think the reason Chase Brown got so much work was also in part of why the run game worked, is if you're going to play over the top and stop these two receivers on the outside, It ends up kind of creating a lot of room underneath in the coverage if you're going to be trying to stop the explosive plays to the two big guys. And even Andre Yosevaas and Mitch Chinsley were able to get some of those. So it creates a bit of room underneath for those checkdowns. And it's not even all checkdowns. The play he dropped that might have been a huge gain, if not a touchdown, was like a mesh concept. Which they haven't run a ton of with Burrow.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And I don't know if that's Burrough's comfortability with Meadow. or maybe he just maybe also look I don't care about running mesh if he's got other ways to beat those coverages because they're also not getting man coverage that much and when he gets man coverage he likes to go to jimar and t like most people probably would but resources are getting committed against them so you need to find another man winner and mesh is a good one gets the break in the coverage drop the ball but it's just these opportunities are provided for them because of what's happening to the two big targets on the the outside. I didn't, I did think that the Bengals run game was fine in this game, wasn't it?

Starting point is 00:09:05 You'd say so? It wasn't terribly productive, but they didn't go to it much either. They were having so much success throwing the ball. They were down in the second half for a lot of the game. And so, I mean, it wasn't particularly effective, especially when Somaget P. Ryan went down with injury. I think that losing that bit of the one-two punch actually did diminish. the running game a little bit and probably the coach's willingness to go to it. But on that topic of coaches, and we'll get to the run game here against the Bears as well, which is a lower volume game for sure. But how much credit do we give the offensive coaching staff here for finding these solutions, finding ways to keep this offense going with Joe Flacco taking over and finding different

Starting point is 00:09:48 ways to attack defenses and finding ways to adapt and evolve this offense again where we're sick of talking about slow starts, but this offensive staff every year seems to find answers. We'll talk about those answers that they found in the run game coming up next. We're brought to you this week by Mint Mobile. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. At Mitt Mobile, their favorite word is no, no contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. I said yes to making the switch and got premium wireless for just $15 a month.

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Starting point is 00:12:12 Swipe, tap, Ticket, go, download GameTime today. Mike, how much credit do the coaches get here for finding ways to find what by EPA per play has been the best offense in the NFL since Joe Flacco took over between the running game and finding answers in the passing game, finding ways to get Joe Flacco going, getting him up to speed on time? It's been a pretty big achievement, at least from the outside looking at. Yeah, I think what it seems like with Flacko is one, you've got competent level quarter. back play, which they didn't have with Browning. So they're able to, I mean, you're able to at least get the ball to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins every game. I think that's important, which was something that wasn't happening with Browning. To go with that, I do give the coaching staff a bit of credit because it feels like they're breaking their own tendencies.

Starting point is 00:13:10 It feels like they get into formations and motions and shifts that, at least with Joe Burrow and previously with the team were tells. They were, if we motion the wide receiver, the slot wide receiver right behind the tight end, they're going to run duo. And in this game, they motion the slot right receiver right behind the tight end. And then they run a jet sweep without using any motion for the jet sweep, which is interesting. It goes for like four yards. So it's interesting, right? Like those four yard plays end up being tendency breakers. Now you have to think about like, okay, so when they motioned there, they actually have a concept that can work to the weak side of this formation, quickly and outside.

Starting point is 00:13:51 And then you can build play action off it. And I think of this too with the play where they motion a tight end all the way across the formation from one side to the other, stays in motion. And then when Joe Burrow was that quarterback and when Jake Browning was that quarterback, that play was always a run right behind that tight end, some type of gap run that way. And then against the Steelers specifically, but even against the Jets too, they changed it into we're going to run that motion to run wide zone the opposite way. which now we've got a play that grows the complete opposite direction.

Starting point is 00:14:22 So they can't slant, stunt, blitz, whatever to that strong side and create a pile up and make it difficult to run. So I think there's more thought and care into in the run game right now than there has been in the past. Because it just feels like they're looking at what are our tendencies and how can we break them when teams are going to cheat against them. And I think that along with that you have the play action game, which with Joe Flacco has been pretty successful. It's only 28 dropbacks. It's 15% of Joe Flacco's dropbacks with the Bengals on play action plays. 6% of Joe Flacco's dropbacks with the Bengals have been screen plays. And they've obviously had a lot more success with package plays, run pass options, where Flacco is pulling the ball on run plays, getting it quick to Jamar Chase on the perimeter where he might have a

Starting point is 00:15:15 numbers advantage, but what about the play action game, Mike? That feels like it's one of the more successful bits of the transition with Joe Flacco taking over at quarterback. Yeah, well, one, he's good at it. He grew up in an era from under center. That's where the package plays come into play where a lot of current quarterbacks don't run those. You see Aaron Rogers throw those, you see Joe Flacco throw those. And I'm hard pressed to find other guys that get under center. Maybe Jared Gough, but get under center. get the ball. It's clearly a run play, and they just flip it out to the wide receiver before ever having a chance to get back there and hand it off. So that plays into it. But also,

Starting point is 00:15:55 I think he come from an era of play action, not having my eyes on the defense, finding little ways to cheat that. Like, okay, take a long look at the defense on a play action play when I get the snap and then go back, just so I can maybe see if the safety rotate? Can I watch that weak safety? Does he go back? Does he rotate down? Do they stay flat-footed? And then I'm going to have a good idea in my head to map the field and know where guys will most likely be when I flip my head back around on a play action, play from under center. There has been plenty of play action as well from shotgun, I think, in this offense. It's still, to me, been quite a bit of shotgun in the offense. Because I think if you get really reductive with the analysis, I think some people just say, oh, yeah, they're going under center more.

Starting point is 00:16:40 But the shotgun stuff's interesting too, right? they're doing stuff from shotgun that's working as well. The run game's working really well from shotgun. And because of that, the play action game's working a bit. They're pooling guys in this play action game as well to try to give false reads to the linebackers. It just feels like there is, now that Burroughs not at quarterback, they're putting more thought, not just in the run game, like I was talking about thought and care in the run game, but also to the play action game.

Starting point is 00:17:09 And also let's know your personnel, AYP, of what does Joe Flacco do well and what does he not do extremely well. So they're not asking him to do things he's not as good at. And you do see concepts that we haven't seen. We talked about Mesh, but when burrows in there, it feels like you get more sale. You get more sale concept. You get more of like flood, three level flood concepts and drive a two level intermediate field concept. And I haven't seen those as much with Joe Flacco, but Joe Flacco has other concepts.

Starting point is 00:17:39 He's more adept at running. They're both really good, and it could be testament to the barrow series, both like running dragon and lion and slant concepts. You just get those guys the ball on slants or on go routes. It feels like Joe Flacco kind of likes an outside receiver running out routes a little bit more. I think Joe Burrow throws those too, but it just feels like that's a major part, especially against the Steelers, a major part of the Jamar Chase game was, yeah, just running out. Just go beat that guy. And it's isolation.

Starting point is 00:18:10 And you see Joe Burrow run those plays. But it's just what is the frequency? And it feels like they do a good job of tailoring the offense to Joe Flacco specifically and not asking him to run the Joe Burrow offense. Even if he is in the shotgun, even if it is still a spread football team, they are able to put a little more thought and care on the run game and the play action. And then knowing Flacko and like, what do you really like to run past concept-wise and implementing those for him?

Starting point is 00:18:36 I wonder how much of this is stuff that they would have gotten to with Joe Burrow at quarterback. I don't think that there's any way to know that. Maybe if we see Joe return later this year, we'll see how the offense changes or doesn't change significantly, depending on what's working, what's not working. I think another thing has really been impressive with Joe Flacco as a touch on some of the passes that he's thrown, especially last week, the ball to Tanner Hudson on the left side line,

Starting point is 00:19:00 the goal line fade ball to Jamar Chase, which Jamar wasn't able to bring down, should have been a touchdown, wasn't a touchdown. And the ball to Andre Yosevash on the right side, Even the ball to tea, which is very tight to the sideline, the amount of touch that he's putting on some of his deep passes has been really impressive. In the last note that I have, I mentioned the 15% play action rate with Joe Flacco. Before Joe Burrow stopped playing quarterback for the Bengals this year, they were at 18% for him through a game and a half or so. So it's not like they weren't using it at all with Joe Burrow.

Starting point is 00:19:37 It's not like this is a new thing entirely with Joe. No Flacco with Jake Browning. They were 22% play action, but he was just terrible in those situations, putting the ball in harm's way, only six yards for attempt on those plays, which is the same as the no play action plays. For Flacco, you see a slight uptick in overall yards for attempt and taking care of the ball much better on play action plays. And like you said, it's just like there's more thought and care that seems to be put into it.

Starting point is 00:20:03 And so as a result, you get better results. And I do wonder how much of that would still be the case with Joe Burrow out there. how many of these things we would be seeing if Joe were still a quarterback because there's all invariably when the offense performs well when Joe Burrow is out we saw this is Jake Browning a couple years ago people start talking about well what's Joe Burrow doing like why can't Joe Burrow do the things that Joe Flacco is doing and the answer is that he probably can and he does get rid of the ball very quickly and we just don't know how different it would look with Joe Burrow out there unfortunately the defense makes all of this kind of moot as they continue their downward

Starting point is 00:20:38 spiral, everything continues to get worse. And there's not a whole lot new to say. And that's maybe the most frustrating thing about this defense. We'll finish the show there coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is brought to you by prize picks. You and I make decisions every day. The Bengals made decisions at the trade deadline. But on prize picks, being right can get you paid.

Starting point is 00:21:01 I'd say that's also true for the Bengals in terms of ticket sales. But let's put that behind us. You don't have to miss any of the excitement on sports, whether you're following the NFL or whether you're checked out of the NFL, you need the NBA or any other sport. No better time to get in on the action. If you haven't tried it yet, prize picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats. And if you get them right, you win.

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Starting point is 00:22:17 place at the right time. You've got slow processing from individual players in terms of reacting to where a run is going or what angle they should be taking or how they should take on a block or when the quarterback is getting ready to throw the ball and you need to stick your foot in the ground and break down hill or finding the ball in the air at times or not really knowing how the offense is trying to attack you or just simply missing tackles or being out of position to even attempt a tackle at times. And you've got Al Golden saying he couldn't make it any simpler. Yet the defense continues, as you would expect,

Starting point is 00:22:54 after they did what they did against the Jets, who were one of the worst offenses in the NFL. To get worse, the Bears, while they have their strengths on offense, were not entering this game as an offensive powerhouse. They were down to running backs three and four, and it didn't matter. I don't think it matters at all who's playing running back for the Bengals opponent, the way they're playing right now. Why is it the same thing, Mike?

Starting point is 00:23:18 Why is it the same every single week? Why? I guess that's my basic question. Why can't anything seem to improve on that side of the ball? It's never going to improve while guys aren't going to do fundamental things right and comes down to tackling. And you see the way they try to tackle. None of it's teach tape. None of it is the effort required to make those tackles.

Starting point is 00:23:45 It's leaving their feet, diving at guys, and praying for the most part. And that's how you end up with like five different guys in the top 10 of mistackles on the entire season. But it shows up in this game. And every week it shows up. It's not like there was one bad game that you can point to for these guys. It's like, well, that's why the mistackle rate's so high. It's every week. They go out there and miss three or four.

Starting point is 00:24:08 and they also can, it seems like some of them are going to have a few plays where they're going to take a terrible angle and not even have a chance to miss the tackle. I think to go with that, they're not physical. It's just a defense that's not very physical, too, where if they were a physical defense that tackled well and they just lost because, you know, they're just not as good. It wouldn't be historically bad, right? Like, we've seen plenty of defenses not have the talent on paper, but be able to put up at least something that looks like an NFL defense. because this to me, especially in like the fourth quarter of this game, felt like what I imagine a college defense would look like against an NFL offense where they get the ball back with a minute left to win the game and like, yeah, we'll win the game.

Starting point is 00:24:56 And we'll have time to spare. It's tough. It just felt like the Bears could score at will. It feels like when other teams run against this Bengals defense, I mean, I think it's above five yards of carry. You're not seeing third down by virtue of just running the ball. And that should never be the case. So they can't stop the run.

Starting point is 00:25:20 They're a bend but don't break defense philosophy right now, I feel like, which is part of like, well, we can't make things simpler as well. It's like, well, let's just spot drop into split field and try to keep everything in front of us or maybe cover three. They're not playing like tight man coverage, you're getting beat that way. They still give up. They don't have guys in the right place. Processing awareness-wise, understanding that in spot-drop zone coverages, you still have other things you have to do, such as reroute guys, get physical, get hands-on guys as they go up the

Starting point is 00:25:56 seam so that you can disrupt route timings and distribution and try to move guys, funnel them to each other and into your help. It doesn't feel like they understand that too well. It feels like when you watch a great defense. You know, it's 22 eyes, but with one brain. They're all moving as a collective hive mind. The Bengals feel very individually brain to me. It feels like every defender is doing their own thing. And it doesn't feel like they're playing team defense very well.

Starting point is 00:26:26 It feels like the second level, and they try to avoid blocks more than take them on because they don't really want to go take on that block. they'd rather, well, I'm just going to cut around the backside and go make the play. As an offensive lineman, you cut around the backside of my block while I'm on a crack toss or something. You took yourself out of the play, and I just had to take a jog and get a plus one. Good job. You took your defender out of the play because he just ran around you the wrong way.

Starting point is 00:26:55 And that's not Patrick Willis, so he's not going to go make the play. It's bizarre. And it feels like there's just no help for it because they're not, what can you do as a coach? It feels like at this point, it's players need to be held accountable for how they're playing. And if you're going to do things like not make the, not make tackles, take bad angles, just not do little things, right? It feels like they, you need to be held accountable. And there's plenty of guys that you could look at and go, if you're not going to be physical, I've got a guy on the roster that can be physical.

Starting point is 00:27:33 Do they? I don't know. Maybe. Well, hey, that guy's probably hungrier, right? Like, is that an empty threat? I mean, you got Dejan Anthony tweeting about, you know, I'll do anything to play. That's right. That's what I'm thinking.

Starting point is 00:27:48 Those two will hit somebody. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Those two will hit somebody. Orrin Berks will go play the run. You'll at least be physical. It's, they've got guys, I feel like that might at least be physical. Because these guys aren't playing so well with anything else that they're going like, well, I know he's not physical, but look at the coverage that these guys are bringing.

Starting point is 00:28:07 It's like, that's not there either. Well, what gets me is the consistent, I mean, you talk about guys playing individual in these spot-drop coverages, like consistently guys not getting enough depth in the second level or too much depth in the third level passing off routes that shouldn't be passed off that should be carried. It's just like stuff that seems so simple. So when I hear Al Golden, and I start to be a little bit sympathetic, to Al Golden as we talk about it and we think about how this defense is played week to week. Like if this is truly as simple as he can make it and they can't handle anything more than this,

Starting point is 00:28:43 and they can't even execute this stuff when you're calling a ton of six and three in the back end, and there's nothing in front of a guy holding coverage and you're still not carrying a seam. And that's how you get beat by Colston-Level-Dip. And at the same time that you don't carry the seam, you also don't rerout it as you're talking about. And at the same time that the second level defender, the primary defender who's on that tight end closer to the line of scrimmage, doesn't reroute him, doesn't get hands on him,

Starting point is 00:29:12 just lets them run by him and is parallel to the line of scrimmage and it's flat-footed, your deep safety on that half of the field is five yards deeper than the safeties on the other, the two deep on the other side of the field because you're in cover six. You've got two quarters defenders on one side and a half on the other side. And yeah, you're trying not to get beat over the top, but when you're ending up with a 15-yard void between your second level and your third level, and we've seen this against Pittsburgh with those couple of seam routes,

Starting point is 00:29:42 one that got dropped, one that's just free running because Gino Stone is too wide. It's just like this consistent issue week to week where if you can't execute these basic coverages correctly, while you don't have a pass rush, which we're not going to get to in this episode, nothing really new there. Nobody's winning in the pass rush, and they're still having a hard time manufacturing a of free runners. And even when they do, it's sporadic. And they got quite a bit of pressure to Caleb Williams, actually, in this game with their terrible left tackle for Chicago. But they couldn't get them to the ground. So there's no contain. There's maybe one guy winning. And so

Starting point is 00:30:14 it's still the same problem that is. But when you can't do the basic stuff right in coverage, and all the other things we're talking about, yeah, I mean, it's going to take a massive change for this defense to be anything other than continuing its trajectory to being one of the worst in the NFL. That being said, there are some players ascending. on this team in general. And I think that's where we go with our next episode, Mike, because we're going to take a focus on the young players on this team, the players on rookie contracts on this team.

Starting point is 00:30:42 Dylan Fairchild turned in a great game against the Chicago Bears. Didn't get there in a ton of detail today. DJ Turner continues to show that he is more than worthy of a contract extension coming up this offseason when he will be eligible to be extended, assuming that he continues the season the way he started of it. So we'll get to our young player progress report at the midway point of the 2025 season as the Bengals desperately need some players to build around for the future. You can find Mike's work at bengalstalk.com and on Twitter at Bengals underscore sands.

Starting point is 00:31:15 Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho day and have a good book.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film Takes: Bengals Offense SOARS Behind Joe Flacco & Tee Higgins—Defensive Troubles Somehow DEEPEN

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