Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Film Takes: Why the Bengals' Defense is SO BAD

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Everyone could tell the Cincinnati Bengals defense is atrocious in their horrible showing against one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Jake Liscow and film analyst Mike Santagata dissect the Bengals' defensive woes in detail, from an ineffective pass rush to communication breakdowns in the secondary. We also highlight the bright spots in the Bengals' run game and offensive challenges when facing double coverage on stars Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLRugietReady to level up your confidence ? Head to https://rugiet.comand use promo code LOCKEDONNFLfor 15% off your first order.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

obvious to everyone that's watched the Cincinnati Bengals of the defense is a disaster, but we watch the film in detail, and Mike Santagina joins me to break down exactly why things are so miserable for the Bengals on defense. 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 Lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, Every day we continue our trail of misery as we investigate and discuss the Cincinnati Bengals 2020 defense.

If you missed yesterday's show, James and I talked about why it's one of the worst defenses we have seen, who's to blame, what conversations should be happening at Paycourt Stadium. But I'm Jake. Let's go joined today by Mike's Antaggart for our weekly film breakdown. And Mike has dug into the film. And we're going to talk about in detail, excruciating detail. This is not going to necessarily be the most pleasant conversation about the Cincinnati Bengals as we dive into things like why the past rush isn't working from an individual perspective, from a stunt perspective, and a blitz perspective, where there are issues in coverage, the multiple issues around tackling, which include athleticism, angles, processing, guys not understanding their jobs, not understanding how offenses are trying to attack them. that's especially true of the defensive front.

I would say a lot going wrong with this defense. A lot going right with the Bengals in the running game. We will get to that as the big positive to take away from the Bengals game against the Jets. That had been a good run defense this year legitimately a good run defense, and the Bengals made them look terrible. There are reasons for that, of course, which have to do specifically with the big criticism of the offense that we need to discuss today, which is that there is no answer or there was no answer against the Jets anyway.

when they went double-double and have double teams of both Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. There's no wide receiver three in this offense right now with Mike Kassiki's injury and Andre Yosevosh's level of play this year. Some of that also probably has to do with Joe Flacco's trust in timing with those down roster receiving options. But that was glaringly obvious for the Bengals in the second half when they couldn't get it going on offense in the fourth quarter. That will be where we go to finish the show, but we're starting, Mike,

with the biggest issue facing this team, and that is the continued struggles of the defense. And this episode brought to you by game time. So if you're looking for tickets on Sunday, maybe for something to do beside a Bengals game, you can check out all the events in the Cincinnati area using promo code, lockdown NFL in the GameTime app. You'll save $20 on your first purchase.

But Mike, let's start with the pass rush. We'll go front to back on this defense. The pass rush, one of the biggest problems for this team right now. Obviously run defense, a huge problem as well. But in the passing game against Justin Fields, who has been terrible all year, one of the most pressured quarterbacks, one of the most ineffective quarterbacks this year, just had his best game of the year by a huge margin.

And a big part of that was how bad the Bengals were in the pass rush. And that has been the case all year. What were the myriad issues in the pass rush that you saw when you watched the tape? I think we could start an individual level just that nobody wins as a pass rusher. And this was a time where a lot of these guys got their true one-on-one, two-way go opportunities and still can win. Because I think that's been an idea of just like, well, yeah, but you're giving Trey Hendrickson the two-way go. Like, he can go inside. Everybody else kind of has to work off that contain, like that defensive tackle's got to watch.

If he goes inside, he's now the contain guy. The other defensive end, he's trying to just push the pocket. And those tackle pushed the pot. And well, that argument falls apart when those guys get their one-on-one opportunities and they do nothing with them. NASCAR, it doesn't matter. Whatever they got into didn't make a difference. Just none of them win his pass rushers. It's, I guess, a product of getting so many guys who really weren't high-quality pass rushers in college and thinking you could develop them.

And then the development plan, they just don't have one. If they have one, it's not working. So guys that they've brought in Chris Jenkins, Shemar Stewart, it's one year for him. But Miles Murphy, even you could argue Joseph Osai, I guess, a third-round pick. and people had some hopes for him possibly developing into something, and he's developed a little bit. I think you could point to tiny bits of development with some of these guys, but nothing has developed into being, oh, that guy's a good pass rusher. That guy's an average pass rusher. I think most of these guys are playing below replacement level pass rushers that you could go out and

sign for vet minimum contracts, really. You go back through the history for the Cincinnati Bengals and look at their draft history, you're looking for like the last good pass rusher they had. Probably Carl Lawson. Carl Lawson. He had a pretty solid pass rush success rate with the Cincinnati Bengals. It didn't always translate to sacks, but at least he could string moves together. At least he could win.

At least he could get the quarterback off his spot. I know Sam Hubbard the next year in 2018 had 38 sacks in his career, but never was the strength of his game, right? He was a hustle sack, the cleanup sack guy and was productive in that way, had that high motor, really good run defender, occasionally would flash those. pass rush wins and have good clean sacks but before that you have to go all the way back to like the carlos dunlap deino ackins draft 2010 and i thought like they haven't been trying they spent all these picks on guys that are past rushers and they just haven't worked out and they have

their type of these big athletic guys and lately that's really not it for that for the point where you know we talked about miles murky in year three four and a half sacks in his career at this point doesn't look like there's any step coming there and in addition to that I feel like these guys are good run defenders. It's not like there is a Sam Hubbard out there, this elite run defender average a best half pressure. They just have a bunch of guys that are just kind of like okay-ish at things that aren't generating pressure

that aren't holding up in edge defense in the run game and can't execute even the things that are trying to manufacture pressure. We talked about the stunts throughout this year for Al Golden's defense, how slow they are, how uncreative they seem to be very like draw within the lines color by numbers do exactly what you're told to do on a play which leads to stuff like samar stewart running himself out of a player a few weeks ago logan wilson running himself out of a play why aren't the stuff working like yeah it was interesting you mentioned um sam hubbard and carlos dunlap because there's like this

weird thing they had i think it was in 2019 whatever year hubbard had 10 sacks or something Dunlap just created five or six of those by being a really good crasher and Hubbard was just able to loop around him. They don't have that right now. If one of these guys was a really good crasher, Murphy or Stewart, I think, is what I look at and just like, if that guy could just have the brain to just like love contact to the point that I would love to just go run into that guard

and do nothing else this play and free you up for a sack. Carlos Dunlap is able to do that and they've had guys do it before. But I think it's slow, like you said. I think they take, it feels like they take too many steps. I feel like when I watch other teams run a T.E. stunt, the creativity, you could be uncreative if you're good at it, but they're not good at it. But if they're, I watch another team run a T.E. stunt, it's one, two, to sell the rush from the end, tackle then hits the other offensive tackle, and he loops around him and just

change his direction quickly, quick burst to get through there. And it's weird because Stuart Murphy, if they've got burst, they could be that looper and they could be that crasher, but it's not working. And part of it, I think, is that they're taking three, four steps to sell the rush. You don't, you shouldn't have to do all that. Like, a lot of NFL offensive lines, bengals included at times, they struggle when you put those guys like side by side indicating like one in a five tech, one in a nine. And that should be like red alarm belt, stunt coming, stunt coming. They still struggle to pick it up. and there's like one step taken by the defensive end to sell it.

So you really need that good crash. That guy that just runs in there just screws up the offensive line and the other can go loop around him. And I feel like the loop's slow. The crash isn't really hitting guys hard. And when it does, it is what you talked about with Logan Wilson and Shemar Stewart. Shamar Stewart crashes into the guard. It's a screen.

He's chasing the guard down to hit him. It's a screen. Yeah. And that's what I meant by creativity, not as much in the designs, but in the execution. Like the awareness that is like, hey, I don't actually need to do exactly what this thing is like on paper. I can use my brain and be creative and transition into doing what the play actually requires me to do. And that is a tricky line, especially for young players. Like, where do I go off of what this is on the whiteboard and freelance a little bit?

Because you can get in trouble, obviously, if you do that. But there are a couple of stark examples this year when you watch a tape of guys just like running hemlong into. an offensive lineman instead of actually affecting a play that they have the chance to affect if they just are more aware perhaps of what's going on willing to break off of what was drawn up. We'll need to talk about the blitzes, Mike. We need to get to the linebacker play, the angles, the issues with tackling this team has, the awareness issues, the processing speed issues that I think exist, communication and coverage, more to talk about as we continue to pick apart this defense that just had a disaster day

against one of the worst offenses in the NFL coming up next. We're brought to you today by Mazda on Lockdown Bengals and Mazda craft cars for those who do more than simply move. I personally drive Amazza. This is a part of the show where I hold my Mazda key up to the camera because I do more than simply move with my Mazda. Mazda delivers confidence with every ride with more IAHS top safety pick plus awards than anyone else has of August of this year.

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Again, that's promo code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-L-C-E-O-N-FL-W. Swipe, tap, Ticket, Go. Download Game Time today. Mike, as we continue with this defense and i'm sorry i've warned you guys at the start this isn't the the most fun conversation as we're talking about a litany of things that have gone wrong with at least last week we could talk about the bright spot of dj turner and and the takeaways they had and doing just enough dj ivy batting down the hail married so you didn't get another erin rogers hail mary the bengals

managed to win last week this week against a much worse offense this year we're talking about it the way we are because it's the Jets. And that's what makes it so hard to stomach for me, Mike. But they blitzed a few more times in this game than normal. It was still, I think, one of the lower blitz percentages Justin Fields' face this year. And

they did manage a couple of disruptions from either showing blitz or bringing a blitz. They got Miles Murphy one-on-one with their running back on one play that led to a Justin Fields in complete pass to help the Bengals get off the field. They got Cam Taylor Britt free. And he actually ran through the quarterback in a way Jordan

battle did not when he was a free runner on a similar blitz idea, a DB blitz. What was the issue with the blitzes, Mike? And why do you think this team is so reluctant to go to that well? Yeah, it feels like this week was better than others, which is one of the few things that is that they actually did get those matchups. They did get those free runners. But if you look at the totality of the season, I think they've done a very poor job at getting free runners on blitzes in sending that extra heat and just,

it gets picked up. They show Blitz and guys don't fall for it. I think that actually helped them on the Murphy play where they showed Blitz. And I think they kind of went like, yeah, sure. And then Burfey's on a running back and is able to get a pressure and at least to an incomplete pass, like you said. Obviously, the Jordan Battle thing happened. Like that you can't slow down as you get to the quarterback.

It's not a, it's not a yellow light. You've got a green light. Go hit him. At least move off the spot. Including the preseason this year, we've seen Jordan Battle treat a quarterback like he's got a red jersey on. And, I mean, even Al Golden said, you've got to run through the quarterback there. Yeah, because at least you'll move him off a spot, make him play out of structure.

You're in the red zone, so a lot of the stuff is timed up. You want to move him off his first read. He can't throw that corner route if there's, if he's, even if he just has to take a step back to get out of the way and then immediately set his feet again to throw it. It's no longer viable because it's just not now that throw isn't there. It's such a timing short window throw. I think it's frustrating. to watch schematically a defense that is, one, not willing to blitz. And then when they do blitz, because, you know, everybody, I think, is thinking at home, like, send more guys.

They can't rush the passer. Then they send more guys, and those are just more guys to get stonewalled at the line of scrimmage. I think that's the frustrating thing is it just does not feel like Al Golden has his finger on these past protection. He doesn't have a good feel for this past protections that NFL offensive lines are using. against him in these scenarios. So I don't know what the answer is because blitzing more, it was a little bit affected this week. But I also,

I could think of a three deep three under fire zone. And they'd pick it up like nothing. Fields has a huge pocket on a five-man rush. Maybe it's just zeros. You can't live and die in zero. Like that is, I guess it'll be faster. There'll be points scored or taken away faster by this defense.

But you can't live in that. Greg Williams, he's tried. It hasn't worked because then you run up running cover zero on a Hail Mary and it gets completed. Everybody's looking at you like, what are we doing? What are we doing back there? But maybe you could cut that out just in like, maybe we don't blitz in that scenario.

But I just don't think they're not a team that could live in zero either. Like the Brian Flores hasn't lived in zero since he's moved. They all have more interesting ways to come up with pressures because there's too many answers to true cover zero. It depends on the quarterback you're facing too, the offensive line you're facing to some degree. They did get one solid play out of a zero look, I think, in this game. But Justin Fields when he was Blitz, according to PFF charting, which was 30% of his dropbacks, which I think for the Bengals is by far the highest number. This year, that's 11 of his 37 dropbacks.

He was 10 of 6. He had a scramble as well. 10 of 6, 60%, obviously. 71 yards, 7.1 yards per attempt. And his lone touchdown pass of the game, which was the play that we talked about with Jordan Battle, where look maybe if Jordan Battle runs through that one the game goes totally differently from that point right you get a stop you

maybe have a little bit of a confidence differential right that you don't end up getting the Bengals get pressure according to PFF on those blitzes on five of the 11 dropbacks so of their pressures they had seven pressures on the game according to PFF.

Seven. Five were on the blitz. So they didn't get pressure without blitzing, but like you said, it's tough to live where the only way you can get pressure is blitzing. And that's going to make everything look worse in past coverage.

We'll get to the secondary, the communication, obviously not up to stuff, the Daxhill touchdown that we just talked about on that Jordan Battle blitz. Like, yeah, he gets beat, but if there's, if the blitz gets home like it's supposed to get, at home. He's maintained inside leverage. He's forced

the harder throw outside. And if the blitz gets there, that timing is off. That throw isn't there, like you said. So, yeah, Dax does give up the outside, but kind of does his job, right? Like, he could do better on that play. But if the blitz works, he's done his job. The Bengals get off the field.

Beyond that, there's this issue with tackling that persists. This is a second straight week where we feel like the Bengals haven't tackled well, and the opponent has missed many more tackles, according to PFF charting anyway. PFF had the Jets with 17 missed tackles against the Bengals to the Bengals 7. But some of that at least is because of Bengals guys aren't athletic enough or

processing quickly enough to get in position to even attempt to tackle. Other times they're getting jukeed in the hole. There's a number of plays in this game where Barrett Carter, Demetriusite don't even affect the running back in the hole. They get that one-on-one in the hole near the line of scrimmage should be a three-to-four-yard gain at most. And they got guys just whiffing or bouncing off of running backs. And so you have this angle problem and this tackle technique problem, Mike.

What gives? Why can they not tackle now two years run it? Yeah, the angle problem, I think, is more persistent because it also feeds into another thing that they keep going under these blocks on the perimeter and taking themselves out of plays too. And I think it just all leads back to the angle. And do these guys have like a thought process in their head of like how fast they are? And it's just not registering with how fast they actually are?

Because a lot of times they take an angle and it's like, yeah, maybe Prime Thomas Davis could have made that play. It's the first fast lineback I could think of. Maybe Prime Thomas Davis is making that play from that angle. You're not him. Like, you need to take a little bit of a better angle. Understand your speed versus the back speed. Stay on the inside hip and work your way down the field. And you're not going to make that stop for a tackle for a loss, but you'll make the stop.

Instead, they take this bad angle. If they were extremely athletic, maybe they go and make the play, but they're not. And they're athletic. They're not unathletic. They're not slow. They're just taking these poor angles for what their speed is because they're not elite speed. There's a lot of way, a lot of area in between those two levels of athleticism. I just remember multiple plays, Demetrius Knight, too flat of an angle just thinking, I'm going to go make this play.

And then he can't even get a hand on the guy. And that happened with Jordan Battle. that happens with Barack Carter. I think it happens with legitimately everybody who plays at the second and third level of this defense just thinking, I don't know what goes through their head, but just like, I'm going to make a play. Maybe it's that they want to outperform because the defense is struggling to keep its head above bottom. Maybe they're trying to reach outside of what their role is to make those plays. But it is a big reason why as fans, you leave the game thinking, man, they couldn't tackle.

And then like you're saying, seven charted mistackles. It's because they didn't even get in position to make the tackles a lot of those times. Which is worse and translates in so many ways. I think there's also a processing issue that leads to some of these bad angles where guys are triggering downhill too slow. I think this is especially true of the safeties at times, specifically Jordan Battle. I feel like I notice it every week. But we'll finish up on the defense here, Mike. We'll get to the secondary and get to a couple of those topics on the offense that I wanted to get to that there's something going on in the run game for the Bengals.

I know the Steelers have had a tough time on defense, but it's two games now where the run game is looked really good. They're finding something there. And we'll talk about the second half passing game as well when the Jets really made a concerted effort to take away T. Higgins and Jemar Chase to finish the show coming up next. I'm Cody Roark. And this episode is brought to you by Peloton. Peloton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Peloton, cross-training tread plus powered by Peloton IQ. This is Peloton's most advanced equipment yet, giving you real-time guidance and endless ways to move, whether you're running, lifting, or you're cross-training with your favorite instructors like Alex Touss.

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discussing the secondary. I think there's a processing issue as well. Maybe we don't get there today. It's pretty simple. I think some guys are just not seeing things happening quickly enough understanding what they're seeing quickly enough, not triggering to get to where they need to be in the run game quickly enough. And that was noticeable to me a couple times. Like I said, most noticeable to me with the safeties, but I'm sure that has something to do with the angles we're seeing at the second level as well, where they're rookies and the game's going a little bit fast. And I think that's true for Samar Stewart as well, where, you know, you can occasionally see the physical tools, but doesn't really know exactly what's happening before it happens.

and is reacting a little bit too much. But in coverage, you mentioned communication in the secondary not good enough this week. And I think that this could be, you know, green dot changes. Maybe that has something to do with it. It could be confidence waning. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

But where there had been some somewhat steady play from some of the parts of the secondary, it feels like the hinges are kind of coming off the last couple weeks. Yeah, I, it feels to me frustrating at one end I think the only thing you can look at the second day that's playing coverage well as DJ Turner

I think at this point Dax Hill is almost kind of like the watermark of how this coverage is going because when he's been bad it's been bad and when he's been good it's been good he was bad this week so the coverage as a whole was also bad it's not obviously all on him

but you can point to several plays where the communication is concerned when you play against Mesh and man coverage, you can see Barrett Carter point to one of the underroutes. Nobody takes it. And it's a 20-yard gain. You can see another play, a stick flat on the left side, which is just like a guy stops at six yards, and the other guy just goes straight to the flat. Cam to the Britton DJ Turner, neither one points to where the other one should go, but they both take the stick route, the little in-rout. And it's just so easy. They're not even making guys work for these completions. I think it's the most frustrating part of when you have communication, breakdowns like this and you're in whatever week, you're almost halfway through the year, it's concerning and it was all true last year. So is it, I feel like Lou Anirumo got some blame

for that last year. Like a poorly coach unit is going to have bad communication. And it's still true. So is it just another same issue with the coach or is it's like some of these players are just poor communicators? I think that's where you're getting to. You've got Al Golden saying that he doesn't know how much simpler he can make things. On Munder, that's quite a remark to make about your struggling defense. But when you put all these things together just to put a bow on the defense, you have communication issues in the secondary. You have an ineffective pass rush. You have guys that aren't taking good angles.

And when they do take angles, it get to the running, to the ball carrier, rather, you can't make the tackle. You've got ends that can't hold the edge and run defense. And you don't have, like I said, there's no pass rush juice anywhere across the defensive front. you're not executing stunts. You're not blitzing much, perhaps because Golden doesn't have the confidence to ask guys to understand what they need to do on some of those witses, talking about how simple he's trying to keep things on defense and not trying to give guys more than they can handle. You got a bunch of rookies on the field. That's what leads to one of the worst defenses we have seen the Bengals ever field.

Certainly the worst, in my opinion, through eight games. And it could change that I've seen since I was really paying attention to the Bengals, the worst in the Duke Tobin era of the Cincinnati Bengals, and it comes off of a streak where Duke Tobin has spent 10 picks on top 100 players in the draft on the defensive side of the ball. So a lot going wrong on that defense. When you put all those things together, really easy to understand why. But at least there's a run game.

This is the one thing that's going markedly well for the Bengals in the last two weeks in particular, and the Jets were actually a good run D coming into this week by success rate, by run stuff rate, by all these different metrics that you can look at. And maybe this is just the answer when teams go double-double, which is what the Jets effectively did for the entire second half on Jamar and T. You just beat them with the run game. Smajorie P. Ryan and Chase Brown both looked excellent, both forced a bunch of missed tackles to run blocking,

had a lot of really, really positive reps. Mike, what's going right for the Bengals in the run game? I think one, they're setting it up better. It's like they're thinking about it a little bit more. I think we've talked about that a lot with Joe Burrow quarterback, where it just feels like the run game is such an afterthought. And now, I don't know if it's just like a necessity thing, but they're putting in tendency breakers that they, like,

when we normally run this tight end motion, we always run right at the tight end. And we talked about that with Joe Burrow and that power play a lot. They've run wide zone opposite of that tight end motion three times since then. All three of them have been 10 plus yard gains. Now, obviously, you're now building a tendency that way too. so now you need to have, you know, tendency breaker for your tendency breaker.

But I look at that. I look at that really interesting way they got to wide zone where the back does that little short motion and he's in the backfield, but he's like six, seven yards away from the quarterback. And they motion him back in. And he doesn't come to a stop. It's not a shift.

It's a full motion. And snap the ball, hand it off, and P. Ryan gets 10 yards on that play. Where it's just like interesting wrinkles in ways to present these pretty simple run concepts. They're not trying to run anything crazy like they did against the Vikings. I feel like that was throwing stuff at the wall that they hadn't run all year. Whereas this is like,

it's inside zone. It's wide zone. It's duo. It's the same stuff we've talked about for four years, five years with this team running the same concepts that they've been running. And different players up front, sure, but there's a reason. This is all, to me, this is a little bit simpler of what is your, you know, what is your assignment on this play? And they can play fast because of that. So they're putting in the wrinkles to get the defense a little bit slower while they continue to play fast because they know their assignments that can shoot off the ball. Also, Drew Sample's play has gotten better too. I think that has also helped them quite a bit. No doubt. Noah Fant with a really positive grade, particularly in zone blocking this week from Pro Football Focus, is out of line with

your viewing experience? Noah Fant with the 12 personnel stuff with Drew Sample out there? Yeah, I think he's been better than Brandy. And I think part of that is because they kind of respect the passing game with Noah Fantmore and you've seen all the big play action plays off of it too. So I don't know if he's like blocking extremely well like he's not out there panicking guys left and right and can put together a John Bates highlight type film. But I think what you're seeing is he's keeping the defense even more on their heels where when Grandy would be in there. I mean that's a run. You're wasting two guys that can't catch the ball. But you put Fant in there. It's no longer run and he's adequate enough good enough. as a blocker to provide you quality seven-person blocking type of concepts.

This week in particular, I thought Amarius Menn showed a little bit more than we've seen from him in run blocking as well. Ted Karris, I think, had maybe his best game of the year. We saw Dylan Fairchild get to second level blocks a couple of times. If you look at each individual player, even Orlando Brown, if you look at each individual player across, and Jaylon Rivers had one play, at least that early outside zone play that we were just talking about, you look at any individual player, there are highlights across the offensive line in the run game this week. So you have that and you have the advantage of if you can go to the run game effectively, when teams are double-double on T and Jammar, great.

But then when you need to pass the ball, when teams are going double-double on T and Jemar, which is where the Bengals got on that final drive, you need to have an answer beyond those two guys in the receiving game. Noah Phant has been mostly like a screen play action kind of target. in the last couple of weeks, especially in this offense. I wonder if they can get him a little bit more involved with, like, the straight passing game. He's like in the flats for the most part on those last couple of plays because he's check and release kind of pass protection responsibilities. But Andre Yosevash has struggled to separate this year,

has struggled to complete contested catches this year, has had some drop issues this year, really been a tough year for him in general. And I don't know where else they're going, but there is not really a good answer after their top two guys right now. That's kind of how the game finished, right? It was a lot of, we're going to bracket both those good receivers, and you're going to have to find somebody to beat us, and Joe Blacko could. Yeah, it feels like on one hand, this is a little bit of a Joe Flacco issue.

You could see in the second half of the game, where he's, despite the heavy attention, Jamar Chase Scott, he's still every play. I'm going to look at him, look at him, and hang on too long. I think the worst one was the Hosti Juke, second down, end of the game. You've got the seam because the line. backer doesn't move when Jamar Chase is running that juke route, which is like five yards, kind of do whatever you want type route in the middle of the field. Brady loved this with Edelman, but when you've got two guys on it, it's kind of dead. But that means two guys on him,

you've got an opening behind it. And that ball ends up behind Yosevas. It should have just been thrown earlier because it went to the same spot earlier. Yosevas could protect himself. There's no need to throw that to protect him. He'd catch it and get down or catch it and keep running, but probably get down in that scenario. And you get the first step. down. Also on that play, if he doesn't look at Jamar Chase's way at all and he looks to the left side of the field, the hitch from T. Higgins, I mean, 10 yards of space between him and the, and the nearest defender because they just all run with that seam route or they've got eyes on Jamar Chase in the field, but Flacko's got eyes for Jamar on that play. And I think that was kind of a little bit of the issue throughout where the jets are going, look, I know you'll beat us one-on-one, but a true inside, outside bracket here, it's going to, be tough for you to win that. And it felt like the Bengals' answer to that was Yosevas in these opportunities. And he didn't overcome the nickel court. Jarvis Brownlee. Jarvis Brownlee got the better of him, I think, in that matchup when it did become those two against each other.

I think on the other hand, too, just a coaching-wise thing, why make it easy for them? I think the Hossi Duke was the first play that was like, okay, so you're finally not putting them on opposite ends and just having them go, yep, you could bracket both these guys. pretty easy if you want to like why not just throw them in a stack same side of the field let's see you put four defenders four coverage guys over there and then how much room they'll have to work on the other side of the field I don't think they would so I think that becomes an issue too of just like it didn't again didn't feel like they were prepared for a team to actually just run double

double an entire half against them because there are a lot of issues I we talk about the run game makes it really easy to run the ball but when they need to pass they couldn't because they took away the only high-end Bengals receiving targets that were out there. The guys that Joe Flacco trusts, which in this game, you're right. Like Joe Flacco wasn't out his best, especially in the second half, definitely eyes hanging on Jamar chase too long. I noticed it early in the game.

I thought that it cost the offense a little bit early in the game where he's just hanging on Jamar a little bit too long or forcing the ball to Jamar in a couple spots, one of them in the red zone where the ball is late over the middle to Jamar chase and brings a linebacker into the play, ball goes incomplete. T. Higgins in this game? yeah everybody knows only got two targets one of them goes for an explosive that's great but also the lowest usage of t higgins in the snap that we've seen or in the slot that we've seen all year just six percent of his snaps in the slot in this game jemar chaste and there 36 percent

of the time which is like normal for him but in the absence of mike kisicki they do need to figure out where that third option is on this team joe flacco needs to be more comfortable with trusting throwing with anticipation to guys that aren't just jim rchase these to be more comfortable probably throwing the ball in general to T. Higgins, who has overall just had a relatively quiet year, 360 yards and four catches so far through eight games. That puts him on pace for what about 800 and eight and a half touchdowns, which is like a solid year, but easy to imagine that that could be better in a full season for T. Higgins would match

his productivity last year when he missed games. So, you know, could get more. I think out of T. Higgins in this offense like, you know, said. And so it's going to be a work in progress there. I think of the quarterback spot as well as Joe Flacco is working through a shoulder injury this week anyway, according to Zach Taylor on Monday, going to be quote unquote day to day. It was sore after the game. We all saw the shot he took, the sack he took late in that game. And we'll see how this running game is able to sustain. I think that's going to be pretty important if this offense is going to

keep it up. That's a big reason they've been successful in the last couple of weeks. Because the passing game, while it looks like functional now, that's a lot. lot of a lot of Jamar Chase, which is great. And that's going to be this offense, no matter who's a quarterback. But in terms of consistency, I think they need to find a little bit more in the passing game. And I know it's crazy to say that after they just scored 38 points. But like we're talking about, in the second half, the passing game looked a little defunct. It looked like the Jets kind of figured out how to take it away.

The Bengel still manages to score with the run game. And the passing game now needs to figure out some answers besides just throwing it to Jamar. chase on every place. Fun as that is when it works. But that's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Bengals get the Bears in week nine before the buy.

I wonder what the reaction even is if they managed to beat the Bears. The last game in the home stand. You can find Mike on Twitter at Bengals underscore Sands. You can hit the thumbs up and follow on YouTube. If you're still here at the end of the show,

that means you probably liked what we were talking about or you fell asleep. I hope you're awake. But that's going to do. do it. You can also find Mike's writing over at bengels talk.com for all of his film breakdowns with some clips if you want to see some of the plays that we've talked about. But until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. And have a good one.