Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - GOOD GAMEPLANNING? | Joe Burrow Leads Bengals Offense In TE-Heavy, Shotgun Shift

Starting point is 00:00:00 We're not going to sit here and tell you that the Bengals win over the Miami Dolphins was perfect. But the offensive game plan was smart and it worked and it was flexible. And we like that about the Bengals win in week five. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans. And welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. We're going to talk film takeaways today as we always do on.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Monday after the game. We get a victory Monday here, Joe. So we're going to skew to the things that we liked, especially on the offensive side of the ball. And we're going to get to a mixed bag on the defensive side of the ball. If you're new to the show, he's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake. Let's go. We're your everyday Cincinnati Bengals podcast here on the Lockdown podcast network. And the Mondays after games, like I said, are film review days. Tuesdays are usually going to be our lasting thoughts. And then we transition to next week's game. And there is no next week's game this week. So we've got some biweek content. coming for you this week, like reflecting on the Bengals offseason moves now that we're at the

Starting point is 00:01:09 biweek, which feels very early this year because it is the earliest has been in the Joe Burrow era. But today, we're going to dive into the film and for some extra film content, if you're into that, you can check out the everydayer club at block on bengals. At supercast.com, we'll get into some extra film reviews, the rewatch that we're doing on Sundays right after the game where we're immediately revisiting what happened on Sundays or whatever day the Bengals play is they've eventually got some primetime games this year. Today's film review is brought to you by Cali.

Starting point is 00:01:41 For a limited time when you download the Calci app and use code locked on, you'll get $25 when you trade $25. Calci trade what's next. Joe, let's get started today with the offensive game plan in a week where T. Higgins and Jamar Chase were working through injuries and the concussion protocol. The Bengals were the heaviest 12 personnel game they have ever had in the Zach Taylor era. That means two tight ends were on the field with two wide receivers and one running back. They also ran quite a bit of two running backs, two receivers, one tight end in this game.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Historically in the exactile era, this has been a three wide receiver team. That was not the case this week, which speaks to how they were preparing for this game. And I think that the preparations largely led them to a great deal of success offensively, Joe. Yeah, that's right. If you think about the week and the uncertainty of T. Higgins and Jemar Chase coming off that Jaguars game with a concussion and an abductor groin injury for T. Higgins, while they felt good about it, they probably even feeling good that they could play. You're not 100% sure. Plus, I need to still create a game plan and work on something throughout practices when those guys couldn't

Starting point is 00:02:50 participate or were limited participants. And so it made sense to me that, you know, in review afterwards, we're like, oh, yeah, look, look at this play here in the red zone, this touchdown to Tanner Hudson, they're out there in 13 personnel with a jumbo offensive lineman, and then they go empty. So like you show these things all game. The first snap of the game is 12 personnel, but it's Tanner Hudson and Mike Keseki, and they're split out into the slot on each side. And then you go, okay, yeah, come cover these guys. Yes, they're tight ends in name, but both of those guys have right. They have, they can run routes. They can beat you. They can beat you in man coverage, especially for Tanner Hudson with his route running in his hands.

Starting point is 00:03:29 Mike Asak, he's having a great start to the year. So the Bengals immediately were going to have this heavy game with the tight end usage, especially these guys that can run routes. But also they got the ball to Eric All finally off of some play action and some boots and things that they've been showing, having a block and getting them to release. And yes, he had the fumble. But he also picked up a couple nice gains as well. I just think in review, yes, this makes sense that they wanted to go tight end heavy,

Starting point is 00:03:55 running back heavy, running the ball more than ever, getting a good split between the two of them. getting old Chase Brown, Smodgety, Piron out there. And we don't have too many opportunities, Jake, to say, hey, good game playing, Bengals. This, this is smart. This makes sense on paper. And then afterwards, good execution. I liked Zach Taylor mentioning after the game that he just needs to know how defenses are going to treat Mike Kaseki so he knows if he's going to get Nicola base when he puts

Starting point is 00:04:20 Kaseki on the field in those 12 personnel looks. Because before that Tanner Hudson touchdown, the Bengals went out there with that, 13 personnel package. Same group of tight ends. Drew sample, Eric, and Tanner Hudson to see how Miami would match it.

Starting point is 00:04:35 And on that, I don't think that was jumbo, but they got a feel for how they were going to treat Tanner Hudson in that grouping of three tight ends instead of Mike Keseki out there. And that leads to a,

Starting point is 00:04:47 I think, good catch for Tanner Hudson. Similar idea. He's on the right side and it's a little outbreaker that Burrow gets over to him. Then they go back to that in the red zone.

Starting point is 00:04:57 So you can see that they're testing tendencies, testing personnel matching, what kind of matchups are we going to get here, and then later they come back to it in the red zone for a big play, for a big touchdown, right? The other one that I think we talked about on the postgame show is that there's two great red zone calls here, maybe even three if you want to count the Somagio P. Ryan angle, route and read and processing for Joe Burrow, but the other one, the first touchdown of the game to Mike Keseki is very clearly. And Joe Burrow, after the game, credited Justin Rascati for the red zone plan here is taking advantage of the way Miami is using Jacob Rodriguez in this

Starting point is 00:05:35 spot. And the other thing that's really interesting about this, I think we notice on the rewatch Joe for the everydayer club is you get Tanner Hudson in motion here. So you end up with quads on the left side with the Tanner Hudson motion. It's a pretty rare look in the NFL to get a quads look and the Bengals get it there and Jacob Rodriguez trying to cut the crosser playing hard inside leverage. Mike is actually just runs up into his face and then breaks it to the outside. That's wide open stuff. And so you have two really nicely schemed up plays in the end zone that are, and I think you made this point on your stream when you were watching the film. Like these are some of the easy button things in the Bengals offense, like dragon lion.

Starting point is 00:06:11 These are the easy button concepts for Joe Burrow where he's hitting his back foot and he's wrapped this stuff so many times. He knows where that ball needs to go. He's getting it out on time. They also had some great concepts to beat what Miami was doing to try to match them on some of these packages in the red zone for those two touchdowns I just talked about. Yeah, that's right. Jacob Rodriguez had such a great start to the year, right? It's a guy that we all liked in the draft process and to say we're going to go down there and we're going to target him early with the Mike Keseki touchdown. And then the angle, Texas route from Sima JPM Ryan, which I think that's been on film all season that because the Bengals run these running backs to the flats so much for checkdowns that these outside, these linebackers, I shouldn't call them outside linebackers are taking the outside leverage to try and help themselves in coverage. And the Bengals running backs are just cutting off on that.

Starting point is 00:06:58 And Chase Brown had a nice conversion versus the Jaguars. Obviously, they lost the game on that final play. Same route concept for Chase Brown where he gets tackled short versus the Jags. But then you come right back to it. And again, Rodriguez too far outside. P. Ryan snaps it off. That ball is put perfectly by Joe Burrow. The end zone angle makes that throw.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Oh, yeah. Jacob Rodriguez covered a lot of ground and looks like he has 36 inch arms trying to get his hand into that window. You couldn't place it any better to Samajay. And that's just Joe Burrow being, I mean, I think he had that kind of day. I think as other analysts are watching the film or as the data rolls out on Monday, everyone's going, oh, Joe Burrow was great. Everything was in 10 yards other than the touchdown to Gaseki, which is just barely over 10 yards, including the end zone.

Starting point is 00:07:44 And then the deep balls to Chimar, the one that fell incomplete. And then the amazing touchdown that he did have. But that brings me to the game. game plan again that we're going to keep everything short. We're going to make a timing based. We know how to beat this defense. We said the dolphins were the number one team in quarters coverage. I think the Bengals attacked that a couple of times and got looks they wanted and got what they expected the dolphins were going to play many times in this game. That's why the ball was coming out quick, crisp, and accurate from Joe. And when it looks like that, I just feel like this offense

Starting point is 00:08:18 can do anything, especially aided by a good plan at running back to switch it up a little bit, gives Samadip Ryan his first carries from under center. And really, I thought the old line had their best, maybe not full, but Karras, Reisner, and Mims had their best days, those three run blocking. And that goes a long way in getting that run game off the ground and amplifying everything else. Razner really stood out in the first half. So did Amarious Mims.

Starting point is 00:08:45 I think the offensive line on the whole, I would agree, had his best game in run blocking like collectively as a unit. Some guys might have had better individual games. before this one. I just think it's a great sign that this offense is starting to put the pieces together. There are still some things that need to be cleaned up, right? You have a massive mistake turning the ball over in the red zone in this game. We've had turnovers in the last couple of weeks at inopportune times for Joe Burrow in those games.

Starting point is 00:09:12 And this game, Burrow, very clean with the football, right? Zero pressure to sack rate for him. Never a time that he puts a ball in danger in this game. So great ball security game for Joe Burrow, even though we had the Eric Gull. and Chase Brown fumbles of differing severity, right? Sometimes the perfect peanut punches just really hard to beat. Eric Al needs to not just drop the ball in the ground, different plays. So that ball security kind of thing is looming over this.

Starting point is 00:09:38 That's taking points off the board for the Bengals, right? That should be 34, if not 38 points for the Bengals in this game. And so you lose some points there. So that needs to be cleaned up. But the direction they're going where they can do different things in different weeks, right? Lowest rate of 11 personnel in the Joe Burrow era, the lowest shotgun rate or sorry, lowest under center rate for the Bengals this year in this game.

Starting point is 00:09:58 So we're seeing them be like, how you know what? We're just going to get more out of the shotgun game, especially here. We talked about this going into this game, Joe. We talked about all this talk about under center. This might be a game to get into the shotgun and take advantage of those tendencies against Miami.

Starting point is 00:10:11 And they ran the ball better than I think most teams have against this Dolphins team, although I wonder how much garbage time is a factor there. Coming up next, I have one knit to pick with this Bengals offense in this game, Joe. and then we'll get to the defense as we continue the film review next. Today's episode of Lockdown Bengals was brought to you by Kalshi, and a new football season brings big questions like, will the Bengals overcome the two straight losses at the beginning of the season and make it to the playoffs?

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Starting point is 00:12:39 Again, create an account and use code locked on for $20 off game time. Jake, I had very few nits to pick with the Bengals offense for this game and the plan for this game. I know what you're going to bring up. I'm going to let you kick that off and tell you why. That's not this game thing for me. It's a full season, maybe a full picture. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:12:58 it maybe is just a broader thing because this is something that I want to look into for the whole season. And it is something that I will eventually look at for the whole season. But it was very noticeable in this game. And that's why I brought this up in our post game show. And that's the approach for the Bengals on second and long playing for third and short. And to their credit, they've been really good in third and short. So I understand the approach here.

Starting point is 00:13:21 But this is putting them and playing toward that idea of being a more efficient than explosive offense. We're trying to just stay on schedule on second down and just convert those certain and short opportunities where instead you could take a more maybe bills-like approach where you're avoiding those third downs or Baltimore before last night when Lamar Jackson was playing like approach and avoid those third downs. So on eight of nine plays for the Bengals on second and long, second and seven plus against Miami. They have four runs. They have four passes. all of those passes were short of the sticks, they converted one first down on second and seven plus. Now, on that ninth play,

Starting point is 00:13:58 it's a Jamar Chase bomb. So you can't ignore that entirely. But on the other eight plays, telling you about their down-to-down approach when they're in these second and long situations, they're just trying to stay on schedule. They're trying to pick up six of the seven, six of the eight yards,

Starting point is 00:14:10 get to a third and one, third and two, try to convert and keep going. And to the Bengals credit, they are one of the best offenses in the NFL, 0.1% behind the Dallas Cowboys and converting a set of downs into a first down at some point in that series. So they've been really good in that category,

Starting point is 00:14:26 making sure they get at least one first down per drive most of the time. They're not going three and out very often. But this approach on second down really makes me feel like we're leaving something on the tree here. Like we're not getting as much as we can out of the offense. And this is one of those areas. And it's a bit of a nit to pick because they're 9 to 13 on third down in this game. They've been good on third and short all year.

Starting point is 00:14:49 But the second and long approach. All year, to be honest. Yeah, the second and long approach has been a little frustrating with how much you're throwing short of the six stationary targets and we're running the ball on these spots. Yeah, and for people listening, that maybe don't understand why that's such a big issue, right? If you're getting a third and manageable, that's great.

Starting point is 00:15:06 It's manageable. And you even hear this every broadcast crew during the game. They must be talking to the team during the correction meetings and Zach must be saying, we just want to get the third and manageable. Fine. Here's why it's bad. because even the Bengals that are really good on third downs and fourth downs this year, if you want to combine them together, but they're converting 50% of third downs.

Starting point is 00:15:26 And that's really good, which means the other 50% they're not converting. They're not getting first downs on those third downs. So you want to avoid third downs at all cost. You want to go first down, second down, first down, second down. Ideally, if you look at the Ravens, they don't get to third down that often. But they've got a long, when they get there, it's third and long usually. Mangles get the third down as much they're in the top of the league for having third down opportunities, but they're third and shorts mostly. And those are convertible. And they're converting 75% of them,

Starting point is 00:15:59 which is great. It's awesome. Their explosive play rate on third and short is 5%. They're getting 4.1 yards for play because they're playing just to convert, right? And so there's all this discussion around this team and explosiveness, but the way they're playing on second and long and third and short is really trying to be efficient, which is a balance to be fair. And that's why it's a knit to pick, right? It's not like a huge, you know, five alarm fire, but that's why we're pointing it out. It is worth pointing out. And I agree with you. But this is something I've thought all season and I've been talking about on Twitter a lot because I try to monitor second downs because that's something I believed in for a long time. You don't even want to get the third. So what are you doing

Starting point is 00:16:35 on second? A lot of teams are creating explosives from that time. I think the Bengals are looking at it like, hey, we get our explosive on first down. We're either running or going for an explosive on first down. and then we're converting. And okay, they're a little more explosive this year than they were in previous years. So that's good. It's good to see on offense. But I don't think it takes, and some people,

Starting point is 00:16:54 you know, I can hear a listener right now in the back of my mind. Well, those eight plays set up that shot play to Jamar. I don't think it takes eight of them, right? To throw short of the sticks eight times to hit that one afterwards. And I don't think it went exactly in that chronological order. But you could see when you're watching the tape, I did feel like the dolphins didn't think the Bengals were going to throw it deep until they did. And maybe that's because they don't throw it deep that often, but bro has been pretty good when

Starting point is 00:17:19 he has. And I just kind of, even though this offense is good. And I think it's going to be a top five offense again, Jake, I don't know if you looked at the numbers Monday morning. They're trending in the right direction, guys. They're, they're looking like the Bengals like they always do. And they start getting better after week four. But at the same time, it still feels like they are leaving something out there. I think it's interesting that the Bengals are hitting explosives on third and longs. I'm going to look at this after we're done recording. But I'm, want to look at the second and third down and even first now most first sounds are first and 10 right but like second and third down and distance to go where are they actually taking the shots they have 27%

Starting point is 00:17:54 explosive play rate on third and one this year and you're not supposed to get it and a 40% success rate right so like most of their successful plays on these third and longs are explosive plays so i think that's pretty interesting to look at as well but it's it's just go go watch the bills i think would be i think they're the best offense in the NFL by a lot of metrics right now. Efficiency, explosive plays. Other than the Niners now. After the Niners last couple weeks,

Starting point is 00:18:21 I think they may have jumped the bills. Avoiding third downs, really succeeding on third downs because I was looking at third down specifically earlier today and the bills have the fewest third downs in the NFL and also the best EPA per play on third downs in the NFL. So that to me is a sign of an offense that's really clicking. It's just a small approach thing, right, that I think we'll see if we get it massaged out.

Starting point is 00:18:44 as we go. This is kind of the identity of the Zach Taylor offense. And maybe this is the way Joe Burrow prefers to play as well. I wonder if you're leaving a little meat on the bone. That's what I was looking for, not fruit on the tree. Meat on the bone. When you take this kind of approach, yeah, I was thinking of low hanging fruit. And so that's why I went to fruit on the tree. But meat on the bone is probably the more accurate aphorism to apply there. Yeah, I think you're right. But it does. This is probably a conversation we should have during the biweek. It's at some point during the this week here. And there is some angst and frustration. And even I posted some numbers today. And people are like, wow, doesn't feel like it. Wow, I can't believe the Bengals are that good

Starting point is 00:19:26 right now at whatever number you put up there. And I don't know how we can, if we should even combat it. But I think it's worth a discussion at some point. I think that right there, those second downs go to a lot of the feeling that I do have as well. I think this offense, there were expectations who's coming into this year, right, compete for the one seed, Joe Burrow talked about LSU, talk about being a top three offense in the NFL, and they haven't been that. It's trying to get the right direction.

Starting point is 00:19:52 It's still a bit of the slow start thing going on. I was also interested by your poll that you posted, almost 7,000 votes in your poll asking how Bengals fans are feeling. 1% couldn't be happier. That's about as expected. You should be able to be happier than you are at 3 and 2, I think. I'm good, 3 and 2 at the by week, 55% roughly of the respond. It's still very frustrated, though,

Starting point is 00:20:13 40% and this team sucks, which I wonder how many of these are opposing fans, but four and a half percent. So 45% are either very frustrated or think the team is really bad. So I think that's interesting too. And maybe that comes up with the nature of the defense a little bit here, the Adam Dunn defense, a strikeout or home run defense. Let's talk about that. To finish shown, that's emblematic against Miami coming up next. We're brought to you here today on Lockdown Bengals by Odu.

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Starting point is 00:21:49 How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than Jamar Chase adding another catch of the year candidate to the pile. Maybe more rewarding than Joe Burrow, having his highest QBR of the season or of any season than through five games. That's pretty rewarding. More rewarding than seeing the Browns lose to the Jets. That's pretty rewarding as well. This season, Fandu is making that excitement go beyond.

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Starting point is 00:22:47 And then Miami tries to attack you on the outside. And they're running for 20 yards or 18 yards or eventually Malik Willis is moving the dolphins right down the field. I know you're going to say eventually he has this long run on 3rd and 18. A certain 13. And that was one of the two plays that drove me crazy in this game. But we're not going to talk about officiating except for this play because that play doesn't happen.

Starting point is 00:23:13 Well, Lee-Willis Scramble doesn't happen if Dexter Lawrence isn't being egregiously held to the significant advantage of the offense. But I digress. The nature of this offense is much like a three true outcomes player in baseball. Adam Dunn, home runs or strikeouts. I don't know if the Bengals are walking very much like Adam Dunn did or the three true outcomes players do in baseball. But there's a sense of feast and famine. And I think that can lead to some irritation when you watch this team where there are explosive, especially explosive runs, I think more than anything. that they're giving up.

Starting point is 00:23:44 And that's pretty frustrating to watch after last year especially. The Bengals defense right now is number one in the league, the best in the league, at run stuff rate. There's stuff in teams against run, especially when they try to go up the middle. At 30% of runs, one out of every three, they're stopping them. That is great. It's a tremendous number. They're also number one, as in worst team in the league,

Starting point is 00:24:09 at allowing explosive runs of 10 plus more. that's inexcusable, right? That's not always mistackles, although that has played a part in it. That's home run or strike out, right? That's, I don't know what a walk would be in the equivalent. You had my mind racing. You shouldn't even have brought up walks, but that is home run or strike out.

Starting point is 00:24:27 And they got to fix that part because you can see talent-wise, when they defend the run, think of the goal line play that the dolphins had where everyone up front wins. And then Demetri Snight comes over and finishes the play as like everyone is collapsing on that thing. Shout out loud Murphy for that play. Yes, that too. You're right.

Starting point is 00:24:48 Good call. He got reduced inside too and was down and beat the right tackle across his face. Very good play by Miles. And then you think of the plays where Barrett Carter on the first drive and it's third and 10 and they're in their light defense. They're a NASCAR package. They're dime. There's only one linebacker on the field.

Starting point is 00:25:06 It's being Barrett Carter. And he just kind of over pursues and goes for the home run. and he ends up striking out on that play as Ollie Gordon cuts it back and there's nobody on the backside at all and a third and 10 run goes for 20. You just can't have plays like that because it's directly putting points on the board for the other team. You know what a walk might be.

Starting point is 00:25:26 It's a walk that turns into a home run because there's like six wild pitches after it because the miscommunications in the secondary are big part of the issues that the Bengals have had in the last few weeks as well. That was also on display in this game where generally speaking, I thought the first phase comes,

Starting point is 00:25:41 coverage for the Bengals was great. Part of all, Malik Wilson was holding the ball, wasn't just because he's bad at quarterback and can't see the field. That's part of it. But part of it is also that DJ Turner, Dax Hill, these guys were holding up in coverage in the design part of the play. They were not scheming guys open in Miami for the better part of this game. But there are also plays where Jordan Battle right before the snap is trying to communicate to DJ Ivy and they're both ended up in the same spot in cover three or cover two. And one of those, maybe even two of those, lead to Jordan battle interceptions eventually. So that's where it's a walk in the wild pitches

Starting point is 00:26:16 because you end up getting a positive outcome from a mistake a little bit. So not really a perfect analogy. But you get what I'm saying here, I hope. Those miscommunications in the secondary. So the run game is one thing, something that needs to be fully investigated and fleshed out. We need a solution there that's more sustainable than like the gambling.

Starting point is 00:26:36 Because remember last year was like either gambling to get a run stop or they were sending everyone. Yeah. Now they're doing out of light boxes. And that's part of it to some degree. Some of us the edge defenders need to be better. Some of us the linebackers need to be better. Some of it's the corners need to be better.

Starting point is 00:26:54 I think the corners have had a rough year in run defense. But these miscommunications in the secondary in zone, like talking about how good Jordan Battle is communicating, got them coming down right before the snap, pointing, talking to DJ Avi, and they both end up in the same spot in the zone. And this is, I think, three times that I noticed at least. And it's probably more than that in this game where there's a miscommunication in zone. You have multiple guys in the same spot.

Starting point is 00:27:19 You're spacing for the rest of the underneath zones or really messed up because you have two guys in the same spot. And so a little bit of luck for the Bengals here in the way Malik Willis played. And at the same time, boy, Maffei was awesome. And coverage in the first phase of play was awesome. So homerunner strike out. It's a bit of both in this game for the Bengals. and that's kind of been the story for the last three weeks. If you're listening late on yesterday's episode,

Starting point is 00:27:43 I snuck in BJ Hill as somebody that flashed a couple times on the TV copy when we were watching live. On film, he was very good. And I was happy to have him back. And in that rotation, it was less Chris Jenkins. It was more BJ Hill. There was a run defense three, four, where it was T.J. Slayton, Dexter Lawrence, B.J. Hill.

Starting point is 00:28:00 I thought they were very good there. He's just a welcomed edition. And there are at times, if we look at like last year Jonathan Allen and BJ Hill, there are times where I think BJ Hill could be a better player than Alan. Now, Allen's been good and I'm very happy to have them. I'm just saying that's the level of impact that a healthy BJ can have on this defense. So it is very nice to get that back going again.

Starting point is 00:28:24 I agree because this question, I agree with you, Jay, because this question comes up a lot about how and what can they do better and why are they getting attacked on the outside. And I think it starts with the D-Ns and then it gets to the, the corners in a lot of ways. And then of course for the last two years now, we've got linebackers trying to undercut blocks and taking themselves out of the play. They're really struggling to get off blocks on the edge, whether it's the slot corner, whether it's the boundary corner, whether it's defensive ends or linebackers getting picked up by the center that's, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:53 screaming to the second level and taking them out. It's just these things can't happen at this rate. It just feels like they continue to be outmanned on these outside runs. And you're just waiting for someone to make a play. Wait for someone to break through that. that block and great chaos. It's kind of thing that like when Sam Hubbard was in his prime, he's chucking that tight end. Like maybe George Kettle will get him every now and then, right? Like the elite blocking tight ends in this league.

Starting point is 00:29:17 But it's too often for too many players, be it secondary players or defensive ends that are getting blocked too effectively by tight ends. Miles Murphy has reps of this boy, Maffei for as great of a game as he had, seven pressures a sack leads to two turnovers. And there's some very near sacks that Malik Willis just gets rid of the ball before Maffa gets home, it was a big game for him.

Starting point is 00:29:40 And he's also redirecting runs. Like it's not like he's been a bad run defender. He's just not necessarily getting the ball production that he's had in the past where he's actually getting the run stops. But even he has had plays where he's getting blocked by tight end too effectively. And I really like that boy in Maffa signing right now, which is a bit of a spoiler for some of our bi-week content coming later this week. But did you know, Cedric Johnson does not have a tackle versus the run this year?

Starting point is 00:30:03 Like when I looked at that and I saw this today because I was looking at run defense stats and I was like, man, that means he's been invisible. Like you've got to get off these blocks and make these tackles. And he has been a welcome pass rushing piece for depth at times this year. But yeah, I mean, you need somebody to make some plays in the run game for you. Demetrius I did. So let's credit him in this game. Demetriusite had a really nice game in run defense four stops, some thumps that were visible like meeting the ball carrier with violence. And that's what you like to see on the year. He's as the seventh highest run defense grade of all linebackers from PFF and the 12th highest run stop rate of all linebackers.

Starting point is 00:30:38 So against the run. If that can be a strength, great. And then you got to figure out what else we're doing well at that level because it's, it is like this entire defense issue too, like going under blocks is a chronic issue. We've talked about for a couple of years now, a year and a half now. So things like this do need to get cleaned up. Hopefully some of this is improved over the biweek. We'll talk about our priorities for the by week.

Starting point is 00:31:01 Like what are the things we think the Bengals need to spend the most time on to try to correct in the couple extra days they get here to spend their focus on the rest of the season. And we'll have some other bi-week content for you as well, like looking back on the off-season acquisitions through a few weeks. That'll be coming your way this week on lockdown Bengals. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Hoodey and have a good one.

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