Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Joe Flacco and Bengals' Offense Quick Game Finds LIFE in Second Half | Is Hope Alive?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bengals made a bunch of changes on both sides of the ball against the Green Bay Packers, and some things seem to work for Joe Flacco and the offense. Let's break down what changed and what worked on film. 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 Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake. Let's go.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Join today by our weekly film guest, Mike Santagana, at Bengals underscore Sands on Twitter. And we're going to dive into the tail of the tape as the Bengals dropped their four straight. But obviously, it looked different. It was a somewhat competitive football game in the second half, even if the first half was set on fire by this offense. We're going to dive into what the Bengals did a little bit differently. And that was true on both sides of the ball, seemed to work on one side. The change on the defensive side is leaving us scratching our heads a little bit. We'll get there a little bit later in the show.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Today's episode is brought to you by Bandul, where if your first $5 bet with Van Duel wins, you'll get $300 in bonus vets to use across the app. And Mike, obviously you have seen everything the Bengals did against the Packers. The offense worked in the second half for the first time in a non-garbage time situation since week two for the, for the Cincinnati Bengals where they're able to make it a one-scored game.

Starting point is 00:01:38 Numerous times in the second half, they were one third and eight, third and nine stop away from getting the ball back with a chance to get a potential game-winning drive or a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers after Zach Taylor correctly went for two and made it, which we didn't credit him for in yesterday's episode. But as Mike Tomlin is questioning, Andrew Barry is doing in Cleveland by training a quarterback to a division rival that's hurting in that area,

Starting point is 00:02:09 we're going to dive into what Joe Flacco did. It was a rocky start for Flacko in this Bengals offense. Obviously, the first two play calls of the game left some fans frustrated, for lack of a better word. But what did they start with in the game plan for Joe Flacco before they figured out that, oh, this guy can actually execute in the quick game and it's working because we have these wide receivers that can win. We'll get to how they got to that transition as well. But what did they start with that wasn't working in your mind before they settled in? Some of that run stuff, obviously the first two plays, in my head, sudden change, interception, let's push the ball down the field, but it felt like one of those scenarios where the coach and play caller is also thinking, oh, I've got these

Starting point is 00:02:51 scripted plays. I've got to go through like these because this is what should work against the Packers. And then another issue of when the jet sweep goes for negative three, I think you've got to get out of the script here. You can't just move to, okay, well, the next play was supposed to be inside zone with an RPO. What are you getting that best on that five? So you get back into like third and eight. I think you've got to move to your past call sheet, your third down maybe call sheet,

Starting point is 00:03:23 because that's not second 13 to me, no longer a mixed down, especially for this Bengals offense because longest run of the year, like we talked about the one time, was I think 11 yards. So it wouldn't even be a first down. Then it felt like when they settled in, they realized Joe Flacco's throwing the ball with a little anticipation, at least on these outroutes. He's throwing the ball correctly in quick game. I think there were some scenarios where he had a couple of early turn downs too. He just kind of like, I don't want to try to fit the ball here. Whereas later, you could see him giving his guy's chances, obviously. Look at the two Jamar Chase plays, especially that touchdown, where he's just like, I'm going to go. Oh yeah, Jamar

Starting point is 00:04:00 chase is awesome. Let me go give him a chance to go make a play on the ball. So I think early on he was hampered a little bit by the play calling. I think the pass protection was worse early on, but it's also deeper dropbacks compared to the quick game, one step, maybe a quick three step dropback versus him trying to run five step dropbacks to push the ball down the field a little bit and then not pushing the balls instead turning and throwing dump offs. That happened on the play action place too. I feel like the Packers weren't really biting too much on those. So he looked, look, it almost looks like it's a play designed for Drew Sample. But Drew Sample is the checkdown on the play.

Starting point is 00:04:36 It's not designed for him. It just happened to, he doesn't feel comfortable pushing the ball down the field in those plays. So he's just got to check it down. That guy's going to take a hit, having the running backs too. But I feel like as the game went on, they started settling into like what Flacco is able to bring to the offense. And really, that seemed like opportunities for wide receivers.

Starting point is 00:04:57 down the field and then also some anticipation outrots like I mentioned and in the quick game. I think the quick game was big because that's something Browning wasn't executing too well. And it feels like something that Flacco is executing well. And that's also why you got such a long drive to start the third quarter. A lot of quick game, a lot of short passes and some runs to keep pushing the wall down the field. Yeah, I think the idea with Flacco in the quick game and why that makes sense to me that it works is what we talked about after they acquired him, not you and I, what we talked about on the show last week is that Blacko can process a defense quickly. He's seen enough defense as that, yeah, he's going to make mistakes sometimes.

Starting point is 00:05:36 He's not Joe Burrow as a processor, but he's also not Jake Browning as a processor. He's somewhere in between, which means he can figure out where the ball should go and get the ball there on time. And he mentioned the out-mouse, but he also hit a couple in breakers with good accuracy and anticipation where we talked about the anticipation lacking in Jake Browning's game. And it's not, again, it's not like Flacco's the best anticipatory thrower. on the planet and Joe Burrow might be, or certainly one of them, but he's good enough in that area. He's a good enough processor.

Starting point is 00:06:05 He's a good enough anticipatory throw. The accuracy for the most part is good enough. There are a couple balls that are obviously a little bit inaccurate, but he's giving guys chances for the most part. And one of the other things that was really entertaining to me that you mentioned, him eventually figuring out, oh, yeah, these guys are really good. He described in his presser the way, a couple of individual plays that impressed him about Jemar Chase.

Starting point is 00:06:31 And one of them, and T. Higgins. One of them was an out route that he threw. He said he threw a quickout to Jumar. It was a terrible spiral. Hardly had a grip on the ball. And Jemar just plucked it out of the air. Didn't have to use his body at all, just hands catch. And then he mentioned T. Higgins, same thing, on a slant, hands catch,

Starting point is 00:06:44 away from his body extending, away from the defensive back. Instead of, lack of described as, you know, he sees a lot of guys in his career, slide and try to catch that against their bodies. And the comical thing about it to me is that, and I, I mentioned this after they acquired Flacco, this might be the best pair of receivers that he's ever thrown to? Like, he threw to Ankhorn Bolden back the day, and Bolden was obviously really good. That was a long time ago, obviously. But he's definitely experiencing something now in terms of receiver quality that I don't think he's experiencing quite a while. And it was just funny to see him

Starting point is 00:07:19 point that out. But you mentioned that they got to Quick game quite a bit. The one game also started to work in the second half. And I want to make sure we talk about that as well. Is that transition to quick game something that we think is sustainable in terms of can you live like that? If you have to live like that, because you mentioned the protection was better in the second half. To me, it sounds like a lot of that is because they went to quick game. Is that one, accurate and two, how sustainable is that style of offense if that's really all you can get to with Joe Black. Yeah, I don't know how sustainable it is just because the Bengals have done this before with Joe Bracken. Burrow where it's a lot of quick game because Burrow can process the feel really quickly.

Starting point is 00:08:00 It's just to get the ball of these playmakers. And I remember multiple times against the Steelers, well, I think there's twice in one game that T.J. Watch just jumps up and picks the ball off somehow. So that's going to become the issue is if you run this much quick game, the pass rush will be better. They're going to be getting their hands up instead and trying to force turnovers instead of coming after you when you're getting the ball out that quick. So you have to be able to kind of put some of the other stuff in there.

Starting point is 00:08:26 They have to be able to get to it. I don't think it's sustainable to just run a quick game the entire way down the field, especially this week coming up on Thursday. But I think it's also important to have it in there. There has to be some type of marriage with this. And it doesn't even have to be plays that are really pushing them all down the field. We talked about some of those middle of the field vertical stretch concepts like levels and drive that Browning just wasn't able to read. Flago's been in a long time. He should be able to read that.

Starting point is 00:08:49 I think those plays work. The wrap in stuff, they weren't really getting to it too much with Browning. I think they ran it once this past week. I think that would be something they can get to a little bit more. Just some stuff that's not complicated reads. Guy comes up, throw behind him, guy stays back, throw underneath. Yeah, it's pretty simple. Crazy concept to high low and defense in the NFL, Mike.

Starting point is 00:09:12 What do you mean? Yeah. So you high low, the middle of the field, or the outside, whatever he's more comfortable with. But I think then you get the ball. The reason I like the middle of the field is because you get the ball to like Jim R Chase running in the open field. that's a pretty nice scenario.

Starting point is 00:09:28 And it hasn't happened too much, but one of the reasons you bring Noah Fantin, especially with Gisiki, maybe missing some time, is you can run after the catch. So if he's the guy running the rap in, we saw Gisiki, the guy has the wrap in a few times, and Gisiki's not going to make much after the catch. He's probably going to catch the ball really well,

Starting point is 00:09:45 and then just step forward until a guy hits him. Noah Fann stays on his feet a little bit better. So step forward, maybe run over somebody, maybe just stay on his feet through contact, contact. So I like the idea of adding in some more dropback passes in there. I think that's when it gets really tricky on the offensive line. That's the part of the coaching stuff here is you have to be able to make a quick game and standard pass drop back pass because too much quick game, you're going to see balls batted. I also want to talk a little bit about the ineffectiveness. This is the play action game,

Starting point is 00:10:15 the screen game for the Bengals. And a question I have that sort of a take there. We'll get to what worked in the run game, how the offensive line played as well as we wrap up our thoughts from film on the offense that at least showed some signs of life in the second half, even though they set the first half on fire. That's coming up next. Nobody likes paying rent, but if you have to pay rent, you might as well get something for it, and that's where Built comes in. Built is changing the game by turning your rent payment into real rewards you can actually

Starting point is 00:10:49 use. When you pay your rent through built, you'll earn flexible points that can be redeemed toward hundreds of hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next lift. ride and more, but it's not just about rent with built. It's about rewarding you around your entire neighborhood. I love that it makes your rent work for you. You're earning points with every month on something you already have to pay. It's made everyday life feel more rewarding from your neighborhood to your travel plates. Turn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to joinbilt.com slash lockdown NFL. That's

Starting point is 00:11:26 J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash lockdown NFL. Make sure to use our lake so they know we said. We're also brought to you today by Ruggiet when you have a bald eagle standing on top of a silverbacked rila riding at Tyrannosaurus Rex. What do you get? Confidence. Pure confidence. And if you're looking for something beyond the usual pill, it's time to meet Ruggiet Goulon. Go-Long combines two doctor-trust and medications and one dual action.

Starting point is 00:11:56 formula so you can go the distance is not just another ED pill. It's a total game changer for confidence with effects lasting up to 36 hours. That's all day, all night, and even into the next day. If you're ready to level up your confidence, head to rougiette.com, RUGIET.com, and use promo code locked on NFL for 15% off your first order. That's Ruggie at RUGIET.com promo code locked on NFL. shirt, use our code so they know we sent you. Mike, let's talk a little bit about what was happening on a couple of plays in particular that makes me think the Bengals just actually don't know how to put

Starting point is 00:12:39 this stuff in. And play action screen game. The play action game, this has been a consistent issue, I feel, for a couple of years now where teams just aren't buying the Bengals play action screen game in this game and in some other games. It's not the worst screen game in the NFL, but it's certainly in the bottom half, I would say, in terms of the way the Bengals actually execute the screens. And the reason this thought came to me is because somebody tweeted at me during the game like, this is the most predictable offense I've ever seen. The Packers were running that screen before the Bengals even released a running back to the screen area on one particular running back screen. And my take there is that they don't have

Starting point is 00:13:22 the personnel to do this, but also don't install and run some of these plays in a way that confuses the defensive keys at all. I think the way they run play action and screen game makes it really easy to process quickly and really easy for defenses to react to. What are your thoughts? I kind of agree with this. There's not much window dressing on the screen game. Think about the Packers running some of their jet sweeps and end around handoff type stuff. You've got a jet sweep coming across and then you have a play off of that where the jet sweep comes across and then to somebody else going the other way. When I'm thinking of the Bengals trying to mess with the keys, I'm thinking of a play Jalen Rivers, pools, and

Starting point is 00:13:58 and runs with the direction of Flacco away from the running back? And do you have a run call that has that look? Probably not. Probably do not have a guard pulling across to go lead Joe Flacco to the edge. So I think there is an issue with both the window dressing and with how they are marrying their play action concepts with their run concepts. I think they can do duo.

Starting point is 00:14:23 They can make something look like duo because that's easy. But that also doesn't mess with the keys too much. What's the linebacker do on duo? What's the best job? Kind of sit there. So on the run and the pass. So that's the part where if you can get a guy fast behind them, maybe. But it's not going to get guys pulled up field. I kind of agree with this idea. The running back screen game has been terrible this year for them. And it has been good in the years past. I think part of that is just you've got the Jamar Chase jet sweep in there. I would like that more if they ran that on first down.

Starting point is 00:14:58 the first play of the game and you kind of have the Kyle Shanahan thing of we run plays sometimes just because we want to run something off of it later I don't see the Bengals running stuff off of that play they jet sweep Jamar chase they kind of hand it off a lot of the time not every time there's weeks past that they've run something off of it but if you're going to run that first play of the game you might as well bring it back for a screen just have him go the opposite way of the screen I think they do run some run plays off of it I think they did in this game. I feel like there's at least one play where Jamar was in motion and it looked like a jump motion and it was kind of a misdirection for a running play. But in general, I think

Starting point is 00:15:38 when you say they don't sequence or don't build things off of the marriage, we've been talking about this for years too, the marriage of the play action game versus a running game and the marriage of the entirety of the offense so that you can do things that look like each other, but actually try to generate some explosives off of it. It's just not something this team has done well. And I think that continues. So maybe a little bit of a broken record on that topic and maybe a little bit of a broken record spending another week talking about the offensive line play. I thought that Dalton Reisler was what we thought Dalton Reisner would be in this game, adequate or better pass blocker given against a defensive line, a defensive interior from Green Bay that

Starting point is 00:16:22 didn't test them very much. And Michael Parsons went and found Jailen Rivers a bunch in this game. tough game for Jaylen Rivers and pass protection in particular. Orlando Brown got beat that one time pretty bad by Lucas Van Ness, where Van Ness just got off the ball much better than him. But what were your overall thoughts with the offensive line in this game? Was it kind of a quick game, made them look better kind of thing? Or do you think there was legitimate improvement in the second half? Because the pressure rate in the first half for Flacco was like 50%.

Starting point is 00:16:49 It was like, oh no, everyone that said Flacco is going to dive behind this line is right. And then the second half, and by the end of the game, it was 27%. So the second half, between quick game and potentially guys playing better, protection was a lot better. Yeah, I think guys played better, but I also think it was the quick game really helped them. Now, it's, you know, both is a coward answer, but it's also often true. So guys play a little better because you didn't see like it was quick game. Jail Rivers is on the ground and Michael Parsons is running right out, but the ball's out. But you didn't see that too much.

Starting point is 00:17:21 But I also think, well, when you only got to hold up two, two and a quarter seconds, just compared to two and a half to three, you're going to look a little better knowing that you don't have to hold up forever either. So I think the quick game helped them out. That's always been their best help because they don't really have a run game. But I also think guys played a little bit better in that second half, too. So I don't want to take too much credit away from them either. A couple things.

Starting point is 00:17:48 First, Flacco's average time to throw on his clean staff was 2.13 seconds, so 2.5 seconds, a little bit generous for how long. long the offensive line actually had to hold up on average on the plays where he got the ball out and wasn't pressured. His splits obviously fantastic when he was kept clean, 70% completion rate, both of his touchdowns, a passer rating of 105 when he was pressured, passer rating about half of that. Actually, no, yeah, about half of that. 52.5 was the passer rating when he was pressured, completing just 45% of his passes, 1.5 yards per attempt, 16 yards on his 12 pressure dropbacks for Joe Flacco. So obviously, and this is something we talked about leading into the

Starting point is 00:18:29 game, keep Flacco clean, he's going to be better. When he has to move off his spot, not great. Not great moving and throwing at this stage in his career, especially, and I don't think it was ever a particular strength of this game. The thing that remains for Flacco is pushing the ball down field was excellent in the intermediate part of the field, six of eight on those throws to the intermediate part of the field, 10 to 19 yards down field for 80 yards, both his touchdowns. And if that's a part of the field, they can exploit more. That was the most effective part of the Bengals offense. Last thing here before we transition to the defense, Mike,

Starting point is 00:19:02 quick question on what you thought about Dalton Reisner in this game? Did you do enough to you to say he should stay at left guard if Fairchild gets healthy? Or do you think it was more of a product of the matchup? Or what was your takeaway from watching Reiser? Because I think the PFF grade is going to garner some attention this week. Oh, I didn't see it. I thought he played pretty well, especially in past protection. It was kind of what the Reisner were expecting.

Starting point is 00:19:24 run game. It was also the Risenner we were expecting, but we've talked every week about like the Bengals offensive line just doesn't run block. Nobody on this team really run block. So it's kind of hard to fault them too much. But yeah, I personally, I'd probably still play Fairchild. I think what you're looking at would be does Reisner take back over right guard? I think because Rivers was an issue this week, no other way around it. And he was being targeted like he was an issue too. So if it continues that way, I think. that's where risner would have the opportunity hopefully it's not a left guard right guard thing where he's just not very good at left guard i haven't watched his career to know that but he did play probably his best game as a bangle this week didn't really give it much pressure also didn't think the quality of competition was extremely high either so i would he didn't do enough to me to say like oh you've got to get him on the field you like there's no way he's left off of the field but i also thought he was better than the other guard yeah the other guard was getting picked on by

Starting point is 00:20:24 Mike or Parsons. So, you know, there's some cause and effect there. Like Parsons identified that as a weak link, but also when Parsons has picked you as a weak link, you're probably going to look worse. So a little bit of a chicken and an egg issue there. Let's get to the defense, Mike. Big changes at the linebacker position for the Cincinnati Bengals. DJ Turner, awesome game. We'll finish up with thoughts on this defense that it's a bit of a mystery, I think, that there's a split opinion, at least publicly, about how this defense is playing. And we'll get to the tail of the tape there to finish the show next. We're brought to you today by Fandul here on Lockdown Bengals,

Starting point is 00:21:01 and well, FanDuel has an awesome offer for you if you're new to the platform that you don't want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you hit that bet, $300 in bonus bets are coming your way. You just pick a bet. You put $5 on it. And if you hit that bet, you'll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Starting point is 00:21:19 So for example, if last week you thought 14 points is too many points. There's no way the Cincinnati Bengals are going to go lose another game. by 14 plus points. And you make that bet between the Bengals and the Green Bay Packers. Well, you could have got $300 in bonus bets

Starting point is 00:21:34 to use across the app. It makes it easy to play. It makes watching football more exciting when you have those player props on the line. Drew Sample, anytime touchdown score. Are you that sicko?

Starting point is 00:21:44 Well, then you'll be sweating out, Drew Sample, when the Bengals get to the red zone. Whether you're casual or you love diving into the stats, Fandul, makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fandul.com.

Starting point is 00:21:56 Download the Fandul app today to get started. Mike, let's start with the linebacker change. Green Dot goes from Logan Wilson to Barrett Carter. Barrett Carter plays every defensive snap for the Cincinnati Bengals. Logan Wilson plays 12 defensive snaps for the Cincinnati Bengals. He's the third linebacker when the Bengals go to base, which they stop doing essentially after the first couple drives of the game.

Starting point is 00:22:19 Don't think the young guys played particularly well at linebacker. There's obviously the viral clip of the Bengals parting the Red Sea on the Josh Jacob's touchdown run. there are way too many mistackles. The mistackle low light, unfortunately, for the Bengals rookie linebackers in this game, is at least six plays. What were your thoughts watching those guys? And why? What are we doing?

Starting point is 00:22:43 Why is Logan Wilson gone to the bencher? Yeah, it's a little bit surprising for me because I didn't really see a play that could have incinerated it. I didn't hear chatter all week about Logan Wilson's running with the twos in practice. Maybe I'm just not plugged in for that. But a little surprising when I'm out there, I don't see 55. And I just didn't see the entire second half either. And they didn't bring in Birx either. So it's not like they replaced 50, you know, Logan Wilson with Orrin Burks in those scenarios.

Starting point is 00:23:14 Felt like they just wanted to get to the young guys. Maybe this is the first white flag you kind of see on the year where they're not completely tossing it in. Obviously, they just traded for Joe Flacko. They just traded pieces for Joe Flacco. But at the same time, I think they can be a little bit honest about how things are going and wanting to see the young guys out there felt like it wasn't a particular play that knocked him out because of how early this happened. Instead, it was just the plan all week. It's a little surprising, and I do not think that Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight really played to a level that makes you think they made the right call to win this game. but if that's the plan to try to get the young guys experience,

Starting point is 00:23:57 how can they get better sitting on the bench too is another way to look at it. You look at the guys that played every defensive staff for the Cincinnati Bengals in this game. Barrett Carter talked about him being the green dot, so he's on the field every play. DJ Turner, who is awesome. We'll get to his great game. Jordan Battle, who is battling right now, hasn't been good for battle for a bit. Dax Hill on the field every play. Dax and DJ Turner, the every down.

Starting point is 00:24:22 corners for this team right now. Gino Stone. Those are the guys who played every single defensive staff for the Cincinnati Bengals that the next two guys, Demetrius Knight and Cam Taylor Britt. Of those guys, you're confident right now in DJ Turner. DJ Turner's put together a couple nice weeks in a row. You're reasonably competent in Dax Hill. I think that we think Dax is a competent NFL player at this point. Gino Stone this year, playing much better. And the role has changed for him a little bit. We saw him blitzing a lot in training camp. He blitzed twice in this game had a sack. The Bengals only sack of the game also had another

Starting point is 00:24:56 hit on Jordan Love on his two blitzes. But of those guys, you got a couple of guys that, like, Gino Stone, I think this year you can feel reasonable about. Like, he's not great, but he's okay. Dax, I think you feel pretty good about. DJ Turner, right now you feel great about. Barrett Carter, one of the worst PFF grades

Starting point is 00:25:15 on the team for the Bengals. And Jordan Battle, one of the worst PFF grades for the Bengals. And PFF isn't the BLendall. but Demetrius Knight, another one of those bottom PFF grades, those guys are on the field for you the most on defense. And when that package is giving you problems, that's not so great. A lot of it's just mistackles.

Starting point is 00:25:36 You have eight mistackles in that group. What else do you think needs to get better with that group of guys? It seem to be every down players right now and need to be better if they're going to be every down players. They either have to stop putting Demetrius Knight on the line of scrimmage as the end in one of their base packages, or he's got to get better at it, or maybe you try Carter there, or maybe that's going to be a Burke's role or something. He ended up on the strong side this week, and I mean, the double team that he didn't

Starting point is 00:26:07 withstand it at all. And it was a tight end, tight end double. It wasn't like this was an offensive lineman double and just driven way back into Logan Wilson's lap. I think that's got to get better. I think the run keys in general have to get better because there's a lot of missed, I mean, talk about the duo play, the part of the Red Sea. Parting of the parting of the Red Sea was both linebackers just left.

Starting point is 00:26:29 They just went outside. I thought Jordan Battle also got lost on that play. Yeah. Kind of slow, hesitant to get involved physically. Yeah. And Stone, too. But Battle is supposed to be a little bit more of the physical safety of the two of them, where Stone's kind of more of a playmaker.

Starting point is 00:26:47 Do you want one of them to make a tackle? Somebody. Somebody shoot the alley there. Somebody get in between the Red Sea where it is part of it. And go contact the running back. Do not wait for him to hit you. Yeah. When he's five yards down field, you should be moving forward.

Starting point is 00:27:04 One of those situations where you no longer think this could be a pass. Let's go make a play. Let's go get down there and be physical. But part of that issue is also linebackers and just parting the Red Sea themselves and making it hit that so fast that maybe they felt like they couldn't. I mean, that's a processing issue. but maybe that's part of it too. The linebackers gave it up really easy.

Starting point is 00:27:25 So I think they've just got to be better at seeing run keys, pass keys too, and there's a play Barrett Carter makes where Jordan Love has nowhere to run, but he takes a couple steps forward. Yeah, the Josh Jacobs catching run. Love scrambled a couple times already, so you can kind of understand the idea, but you are the only guy within like 25 yards of the running back. It's preferable to let Jordan Love try to run his way through the defensive line where there was no real opening, he'd have to probably run through a BJ Hill arm tackle or something.

Starting point is 00:27:55 And maybe he does, but look, there's an athleticism, a ball skill, a ball carrier ability difference between the two of them, where Josh Jacobs get that ball instead with nobody around. One, Carter can't chase him down, even if he is athletic because Jacobs is faster. And two, that's way more dangerous. So I think that's just a situational awareness type of thing of, yes, love has been scrambling and it's been killing the team a little. bit, but what would kill this team a lot more is Josh Jacobs getting that ball with nobody within a zip code of him. So I think that play sticks out in my mind. I think there's the missed tackles do too because they're bad angles. They're tough looks like it's not like they a lot of

Starting point is 00:28:37 them are he goes and hits Josh Jacobs and Josh Jacobs lowers his shoulder and hits him too and they're both kind of stumbling, you know, the linebacker fall. It's more so that he's just whiffed. They just try to go and hit them just completely missed. So they're not big physical mistackles. They're more so just missed opportunities because they took bad angles because they're diving at legs instead of trying to make a form tackle, you know, shoulder pad right onto the ball type of issue. And some of it was Jordan Love making the miss.

Starting point is 00:29:07 Jordan loved twice jukeing Bengals defenders in this game. He had two missed forced tackles, two mistackles force of his own. Josh Jacobs, we know we knew what. He's really good after contact. He's really good at making guys mess. He will dribble you off the ground sometimes. Didn't dribble anybody off the ground quite, but had some comparable plays.

Starting point is 00:29:26 Five missed tackles for us for Josh Jacobs. And that's going to happen to some degree, but tackling was not good from the linebackers, who was good on the Cincinnati defense and really the star of the day on defense, DJ Turner, at least four pass breakups, one of which led to the interception, targeted eight times, only gave up three catches for 22.

Starting point is 00:29:46 yards. At some point, the thought in my head was like, yeah, please, like, if you're going to target, please keep throwing the ball at DJ Turner. Like, it's going great for you. He's gotten his hands on more of your passes, Jordan Love, than your intended receivers on those plays. And, you know, Barrick Carter targeted seven times, gave up seven catches for 86 yards. Jordan Battle charged with four catches on five targets for 94 yards, including the backbreaker, which was probably his responsibility on Golden coming across the field on the crosser into his zone. But DJ Turner, awesome game for him. What were your thoughts as you watched what was working for DJ Turner?

Starting point is 00:30:24 Because it feels like it's been a couple weeks where DJ's been good. In man situations specifically, but sticky coverage for DJ. Yeah, man. And also, do we go to plastering guys in his zone when Jordan Love tried to escape? Because that's how he got the interception, too. The man coverage really stuck out in my eyes. because you could really see the movement ability. Movementability that I feel like we talked about with him for his entire career,

Starting point is 00:30:49 but there's a stop route. And I think it was Matthew Golden. It could have been somebody else, but a pretty effort. It was a dub. Was it Dobbs? It might have been Dobbs. If it's a play, I'm thinking of. There's a couple of stop routes that they made stops on, but they made PBIUs on.

Starting point is 00:31:03 But one of them is like 15 yards down the field and really pushes vertical. Myers seeer was pretty quick to hit the brakes, turn around, and DG turns right with him, Even though he doesn't know the route, obviously, unless, you know, Dobbs is doing the, doing the Chad Johnson, letting him know a run a 15-yard stop trying to keep up. He doesn't know. So he's trying to react and use his athleticism to stay there, and he does. And he did that all game where kept trying to target him on curl route, stop route type stuff, and just none of it worked because he's just so athletic, such great movement ability, good hips, good deceleration, which is huge, too. Because I think that's something you see with Cam Taylor Britt against these type of plays where he doesn't stop quick. He's like slowing himself down, takes about four steps for Turner.

Starting point is 00:31:49 There's times it's like one, two. And he's at a complete stop after being in a sprint, which is an insane ability to have as a player. I don't think we talk about deceleration. I was talking about acceleration. I cannot do that. You cannot do that. You're watching this podcast right. You cannot do that.

Starting point is 00:32:06 You go try to run a full sprint and see how fast you can stop. It is not two steps. No, it's not. So that's one of the things that's really impressive athletically. And obviously the lateral agility is well moving side to side. But I thought the lateral agility, the deceleration, the acceleration and speed to keep up with guys down the field, it all really stuck out. Because that play that he makes the tip as the interception for Stone, he jumps it a little bit because the guy's running another curl route, it seemed. So he kind of jumps it in a bad position.

Starting point is 00:32:35 But he's got the recovery speed with that four, two, whatever that he ran to get back in position. and get into on the wide receiver's hip. Don't know why I love through that ball, but still makes a play on it. And I think the biggest improvement you see, because he's always had this movement ability. We've talked before about, man, DJ Turner gets into the right spot a lot, but then it's still a completed pass. And I feel like the biggest change this week was that he was starting to hit the ball with his hands. He was starting to make plays on the ball with his hands because he's always been able to do,

Starting point is 00:33:05 I marvel at the athletic ability a lot, but it's hard to marvel at the athletic ability, and he's right there and then the ball's still completed. Now he's breaking the ball up. And if that can continue, I mean, I think this is a really high ceiling corner. I know it's year three and this isn't his rookie year. You wish this was happening earlier that he was making these leaps. But if he's able to continue and be a consistent player that's able to knock the ball away, he's not going to do it every time, but he starts breaking up those passes more and more.

Starting point is 00:33:30 I think it's the highest ceiling corner on the team. And right now, a couple weeks in a row, he's stacking good weeks. he really they really need that too and four pass breakups in one game it's pretty insane four pass breakups on eight targets she'll give up three catches pretty good day one of those past breakups came against matthew golden in coverage three of them against romeo dobbs according to pff charting in case you're wondering who the receivers were that were targeted matthew golden uh doing his damage largely against cam taylor brit actually entirely against cam taylor brit and jordan battle in this game tucker craft also

Starting point is 00:34:05 I've had a couple plays that PFF ascribed to Jordan Battle's coverage, although one of them at least I think was a zone play. But regardless, nice to see that DJ Turner is stacking games. And now it's can he stay healthy because he started to do this last year, started to play ball last year, now they need him to stay healthy, they need Dax to stay healthy. And if you can have a couple of guys there in your secondary that you can build this thing around in Dax and D.J. Turner,

Starting point is 00:34:32 both of those guys potentially looking for second contracts here soon, then at least you have something on defense because they really need those building blocks. And we'll see if Shamar Stewart can get back and start to be one of those, Miles Murphy in relief for Trey Hendrickson this week after Trey went out with the back injury. Not good.

Starting point is 00:34:49 Miss tackles, not generating much in the way of a pass rush. So that's a bit disappointing. Joseph Osai, obviously not a building block. Although he had a couple of really nice plays early in this game. It wasn't consistent throughout the game. More of a mixed bag after that. But they got to find ways to be more consistent

Starting point is 00:35:04 with these every down guys that are not DJ Turner in this defense because it wasn't very good against the Packers. And I don't think it's the story unless you want to argue they got Gash from playing so much in the first half. It's not like they were on the field that much more than the Packers defense by the time this game is over because of the way the Bengals offense started to move the ball in the second half. So we'll see how it is this week.

Starting point is 00:35:27 Pittsburgh offense shouldn't be as good. But Aaron Rogers is still Aaron Rogers is in some capacity over there for this dealers and we're going to have to shift gears quickly here on lockdown bengals short week bengals playing on thursday you can find mike's writing over at bengelstok.com you can find them on twitter at bengels underscoress make sure you're following for the coaches clinic of the week which i still don't think he's posting and a variety of great film takes and cut-ups of what the cincinnati bengals are doing until next time thanks for listening to this episode of the lockdown bengals podcast whoday and have a good one

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Joe Flacco and Bengals' Offense Quick Game Finds LIFE in Second Half | Is Hope Alive?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.