Bengals Week 4 Film Review: GLARING Issues EVERYWHERE, What Can Be Fixed?

Bengals Week 4 Film Review: GLARING Issues EVERYWHERE, What Can Be Fixed?

After laying another egg, this one in front of a national audience. What’s going on with the Cincinnati Bengals on tape? Is it as bad as it looks? We break it down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I’m Jake Lusco joined today by Mike Santaga, our weekly film analyst guest, where when he’s not watching coaching clinics or performing his other life duties, he is with us here on Locked on Bengals. In this case, breaking down the second straight week of film that looks just terrible. And I think it is just as bad as it looked on TV in most ways. We’ll break down what our takeaways are from the tape. Welcome back to the everyday or shout out to you if you make Locked on Bengals your first list and your one-stop shop for all things Cincinnati Bengals in a short week at least for this one where we move right on to week five in our next episode. But today, we have to take a look back at what was and why this team continues to look like one of the worst, if not the worst teams in the NFL. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel, where if you win your first $5 bet, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And Mike, we’re going to start today with Jake Browning and whether and how much is attributable to the change at quarterback for this team and get to what adjustments the coaching staff is trying and why essentially nothing seems to be working. as we get into how the tape looked as it compared to how it felt watching live on Monday night. But let’s start with with Browning because Tony Pike, as he does the day after after film, breaks down a number of plays that he feels like the Bengals are leaving opportunities out there on the field. Most of that coming on to Jake Browning’s decision-making. Jake Browning said after the game he didn’t really regret any of the throws he made, but when you watched Browning’s tape, was it a lot of uncatchable balls and conservative decision-m? Was it as as it felt when we watched it live? What were your thoughts? I think it’s just a big mess really. Like I wish there was one answer, but yeah, there’s uncatchable balls down the sideline when he gets those one-on-one opportunities, but it also feels like some of it’s the conservative I don’t want to try to force this, but instead of being able to find another receiver, I’m thinking of a play down the right sideline. He’s got about 20 yard outbreaker, but he doesn’t want to try to fit it over Patrick Pat Certan. I get that. But you should quickly if like you’re killing that immediately, you should quickly be moving to the backside where he has Jamar Chase wide open on 12 yard inbreaker and we praised two weeks ago what he read on drive the he threw it to Gaseiki and that was a really good read because he he hit the 12- yard instead of the shallow route. I don’t know if he’s really reading that play because last week he threw a pick trying to force the 12 yard in and then this week’s gets one of the most clear reads you can get of throwing the 12 yard in and he throws the shallow route and for five yards when he had 12 plus he had nobody near him so he could have been going for 20 maybe he just had the safeties beyond that who had to go make the tackle so it’s just a big mess really and then he tries they run a bootleg get Jamar Chase wide open over across the middle of the field. Nobody on him. This is some type of coverage bust and he tries a trick shot to Mitch Tinsley rolling to his to the opposite side of his throwing arm. So rolling left, throwing the ball across his body down the field and shortarms it. And it it’s just you had Jamar Chase, you had time to set your feet. Like there’s a lot of issues here where you could have fixed this. It just feels like a disaster right now with him. And I I get some of this is play calling, too. I I don’t know if he’s always being put in the best spot, but also not he’s not executing anything well except a couple of times he was able to get T. Higgins in opportunity to dunk on Riley Moss. Like that’s about the entire good part of the offense from yesterday. He had one play where he got to the backside dig where he hit Andre Yosvage after actually appearing to progress. uh the game’s over by then, so I guess it’s immaterial. But for for the most part of the game, when the game was not quite over yet, when the Bengals had some opportunities early to try to stay with the Broncos is after the Broncos first three and out, they scored touchdowns on three of their next four drives and were very close to doing it on four out of their next four drives going into the half. Was it if you were trying to guess why it looked like it did for Jake Browning? A lot of people suggesting things like ah he’s he’s predetermining pre- snap where he’s going with the ball, which it felt like when we were watching if he had single high, he’s trying to throw it outside to the Riley Moss matchup essentially and take his one-on-one with whatever receivers on Riley Moss. And it worked a couple times. They got a pass interference call. They got the one D. Higgins reminding Riley Moss about how it went last year, but then it didn’t work after that and a lot of those balls aren’t even catchable. Was it a lot of predetermining? Was it I mean, I know you’re saying it’s a lot, but if you had to try to pinpoint why, could we summarize it as like predetermining reads on some plays? the conservatism after the interceptions and and Dan Pitcher’s comments about crossing the threshold from aggressive to reckless and a quarterback who maybe just isn’t adept at at reading things out and and finding the answers and progressing based on the information he has from the defense. Yeah, he’s never really felt like a guy that reads one to two to three to check down. He’s more like one maybe to two, oh crap, I gotta I gotta run. I gotta I don’t know what where to go with this ball. So, yeah, I think those all play a part into it. And I think the conservatism really hampers the offense, too, because he rolls out, extends the play, but doesn’t push the ball down the like he just throws the ball away on third down. And when you’re the underdog, you kind of gota you kind of got to make plays in those situations. You have to give your guys an opportunity to make a play, and that’s not happening. Um, I think the entirety of the offense also looks a bit broken where the run game is still it was better, but it’s it went from worst I’ve seen to just bad again. And then the offensive line and getting the play call in on time. And I I don’t know, maybe Browning is doing a lot of checks at the line that are getting them to better spots. It doesn’t feel like it, but they’re still winding that clock all the way down and giving these pass rushers an opportunity to tee off. So, I think those play a part into it as well. Just like the play calls are late. They’re getting a lot of procedural penalties right now when in the past they’ve been a team that doesn’t do that. So, now you’re getting behind the sticks. He had a couple of first and 20s in this situation in this game. And that’s a tough way to play. If you can’t throw a wide receiver screen and pick up seven yards or something, you’re gonna have to drop back on first and 20 with the guys pinning their ears back coming to kill you. And second and 18, second and 20, you’re getting the same thing. Third and 20, you’re probably just going to hand that thing off. But it’s it’s a tough way to live with the penalties, the way he’s playing conservatively. Like I said, the only thing that looked like a NFL offense was just the go balls, just attempting to try to dunk on guys down the field. Yeah, you mentioned Yeah, there was a wide cross play that Yosi Vos when they’re down 25. I guess I guess I guess but like one play one play where it looks like he’s progressing and making the right throw. I don’t know about that. That that just it feels like he’s really holding back the offense and the offense is holding him back as well. So it just leads to these performances where they’re scoring three points because neither side is actually pushing to score points. They’re both they’re both playing very bad. They’re being It’s tough. It’s It’s real tough. It look There’s a reason it looks this bad. It looks abysmal because everything’s bad. It doesn’t look remotely professional quality. We’ll get into the scheme a little bit here, I think, in a minute because part of it is like how much can a quarterback do, but when you have the anti-inergy or whatever the the phrasing should be of a quarterback that seems to be holding back the offense and an offense that doesn’t seem to be helping its quarterback, you end up with results like this. But I I think that the scheme element here does bear conversation and and is worth talking about what the Bengals are trying to do, how the adjustments are are trying to be implemented to to figure out really like what’s the trajectory here, where might answers come from because it’s really hard to come up with an answer to that question. Now, we’ll go to that topic coming up next. We’re brought to you today by Mazda on locked on Bengals. Mazda crash cars for those who do more than simply move. And it feels like the Bengals are just going through the motions right now. So, I think they should join me and pick up a Mazda. As I’ve mentioned on this show before, I love my Mazda 3. Been driving it for a few years now. And what attracted me to the Mazda in the first place was the attenderness to detail and the feel of driving the vehicle. The feel of being connected to the road when I drive. You can feel the Japanese craftsmanship in every detail from the accents to the available Napa leather upholstery. And really, driving the Mazda makes everyday drives feel like anything but. From smooth handling to intuitive controls, they’ve got all-wheel drive standard in every crossover SUV, so you can drive with confidence through any season. And like NFL players, and maybe we wish the Bengals did a little bit better, Mazda sweats every detail. Because when you make every move count, impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. Mike, as we talk about the trajectory of the scheme a little bit here, one thing that stood out to me when I was looking at just like where Jake Browning’s passes went last night was it’s a lot of outside the numbers stuff. And I know the defense dictates a lot of this, but we’ve talked about a number of plays that felt like he had opportunities in the middle of the field to take bigger gains in some cases than he collected. And Troy Aman pointed this out on the broadcast last night as well, so everybody who watched it saw some of these plays. But was it the defense pushing the ball outside where it was six out of Jake Browning’s passes aimed 10 or more passes downfield were outside the numbers? Only one pass aimed 10 or more yards downfield between the numbers. Was it something the Bengals were doing schematically where they were really targeting that part of the field? And what are the Bengals doing differently this week to try to help the offense? I mean, I I feel like it was Browning on some of it, too. Um, I I don’t think the Broncos specifically were playing coverages that made it feel like they wanted to try to funnel that ball to the middle of the field. Um, it seemed more like they wanted to kind of give help after the first drive or two, give some help to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins in that assignment. Um, so the Bengals did try some stuff that did work towards the outside of the field. Like I mentioned that Outbreaker, that’s on like a flood concept, three-level flood. So you’ve got the deep outbreaker, the medium outbreaker, and then a shallow route that he can also hit. The Certan matches the medium, and the shallows covered, which means like in your progression, you want to throw the deep out. Issue being that’s Pat Certan. So that’s where some of my scheme complaints come where why are you running it that side? Why are you running it to that side? If you see Pat Sertan there, I feel like you need to have something else because Browning just doesn’t feel comfortable. understandably making a throw that’s high lowing the last defensive player of the year. So then that ends up being a scramble for nothing. He had an inbreaker too on that play. That’s the issue is on the backside. He’s got the inbreaker. So some of this is Browning. He’s just not feeling comfortable enough to throw that inbreaker. And you mentioned that Thiosi watch. I believe that was on a Y cross type play and they ran that a few times and he didn’t throw either the cross or the dig at all until that play. So it it’s does he read it well or did he just finally see it? It feels like there’s opportunities. Also, I remember them running levels and drive just middle of the field high low concepts where linebacker come down, throw it behind him, linebacker stays back, throw it underneath. And there were a couple times he didn’t even read that out. He just decided I’m just going to throw it outside the numbers because I have a one-on-one route on the outside. I’ll just try that instead because I I don’t Is it he doesn’t feel comfortable reading it out? Is it because when you ever you get those opportunities, you have to take them? I don’t know. But it didn’t feel like this was like a schematically both sides were the Broncos were funneling it there and the Bengals were trying to attack the outsides. It feels like that’s where you’re going to get one-on-one opportunities because you’re so far away from the safety help, but it it felt like it was a lot of Browning, too. Just not feeling comfortable throwing the ball over the middle of the field. outside of Browning, the offensive line was uh scrutinized, let’s say, last night. There there’s uh the the one play that goes, I think, more viral than others, where Nick Bonito and Jonathan Cooper both time the snap like almost a full second. Obviously, that’s hyperbole. Better than the tackles, who don’t look like they’re ready for the ball to be snapped. Denver rushes three. They get one-on- ones for both of their ends, who both time the snap beautifully and run right around to Mario Sims and Orlando Brown. Beyond just that play, when you looked at the way the offensive line played in this game, both in the run game and the pass game, what were your thoughts there as far as the the disaster we’ve really seen from that unit through the last two weeks now? Yeah, it’s more of the same it’s been for the year where it’s a lot of disappointing performances. Amarius Mims. I think key among them just that was maybe his worst game as a pro where it just felt like he could not hang with what the Broncos were doing. And that includes a play that I think also people have looked at where he gets two to his side and Rivers is occupied. He tries to step down and take the close path guy and ends up taking neither because he set out and then he wasn’t able to redirect in time. So then two guys go free. I get how that happens. Like you’re in a bad spot, but you have to play better, too. You have to I don’t think playing next to Rivers helped him particularly. I don’t think it hurt him that much, but I don’t think they had good communication either. He didn’t have good communication with Risyner either, though. So, there’s something there. They’re just not building continuity. It’s River’s first start, so I get that. Um, also feels like the snap count was Denver had a good beat on it. I I haven’t confirmed this by going to NextGen stats, but I would think you look at that you go like those are some pretty good get offs for those edge rushers, huh? And that actually all starts with I think getting the false start call when you try to run a silent count, too. But that all that’s not the only issue. The issue is also the players are coming in late. Browning is making all these adjustments on the road and it takes a while to make those adjustments because they can’t hear each other and then by the time you’re snapping the ball, you have six seconds. So, can you actually run as uh run this on two? They tried that’s the play that they tried and those guys got a full like half second jump on the tackles and ended up crushing Browning. So, they tried to go on two. Nobody jumped on one. Well, that ball’s going to have to be snapped on two. There’s no three when you have six seconds when you start doing that stuff. And I don’t remember them doing any of uh cheetah count or quick counts or just trying to mess with that at all where you see sometimes guys on the silent count the center drops his head and snaps the ball at the same time versus drop a head pick it up and then snap or drop head pick up way to beat snap. I I don’t think they messed with that too much. It felt like they were kind of telegraphing it a little bit of like it is drop head pickup snap and those ends for Denver both excel in timing the snap in the first place. When you give him a little bit of help it’s going to look like it looked. What did you think of Jaylen Rivers and his first start this season? Overall fine up and down. Uh the run blocking is so hard to figure out because I think he tries, but this whole team’s a disaster run blocking from the offensive line to the tight ends to whenever they try a fullback, the wide receivers, it just doesn’t feel like it’s emphasized. So, he didn’t come in and become a great run blocker. So, but Risner was a terrible run blocker. It was probably a boost in that area to be honest, just by being normal bad. Uh Chase Brown wasn’t contacted in the back field nearly as much this week. It’s true. They they don’t run as many crazy fronts and and twists and stunts and stuff. They ran a couple, but it’s not like the Flores that just really boggles the mind of the offensive line. So, at least they’re able to get in the way more often than not. There weren’t a lot of nose tackle unblocked coming through the A gap plays which they had against Flores and the Vikings. So, I thought he was solid or fine overall. like it it wasn’t a great performance. Like if this if if this was just playing for a guy who was playing decent, I don’t I wouldn’t think about like Yeah, I don’t know about giving him the job. But because Risner has been kind of the weak link of the group, I’m fine rolling Rivers out there again and getting him more continuity. Maybe by working more and getting better communication with Mims and Caris, he plays better. I didn’t see any major screw-ups in pass protection. He had a couple of plays. I don’t think the sack is all on him. Probably concedes a little bit too much ground to John Franklin Myers, but he’s still in position until Browning holds the ball, holds the ball, holds the ball, and then eventually he loses. But that ball’s got to be out, too. So, he also kind of walks into the sack or that he does he does come up and keep getting closer and closer to it. It’s like he gave up ground, yes, but you’re also kind of giving giving that ground to him as well. Let’s make that a little easier on you. Um it so I thought he was okay. Like I didn’t think it was a disaster. I didn’t think he looked particularly bad, but I also didn’t go the other way where I thought there were a bunch of plays where like oh he’s he’s got a secret good game in this game. It felt like he kind of flowed with like how Ted Carris was doing or neither one’s playing particularly well. But you also probably wouldn’t point to them as being the weak link on this team on this in this game. He did manage to avoid penalties. and Orlando Brown, the only Bengals offensive lineman not to be penalized in this game. Ty Carris had two, including one that was probably bogus. Dylan Fairchild had two. Amarius had two. Jake Browning, uh, of course, attributable for the delay of game. Pre- snap penalties in this game, as we mentioned, just brutal. And and that’s one of the one of the signs we’re watching, I think, because this team has generally been disciplined in the past. And and for what it’s worth and the reason we do this show is because we get the direct film conversation and the film takeaways. PF did not like Jaylen Peppers game in pass protection. Gave him a 17 in pass pro out of 100. So uh just a note, let’s talk about this defense as well where there’s just a lot of aggression all over the place. Are there adjustments happening on the defensive side of the ball? Are players finally being put in position to succeed? Unfortunately, I don’t think those answers are yes. We’ll finish on the defense here coming up next. Locked on Bengals is brought to you today by FanDuel. FanDuel has an awesome offer for you if you’re looking to get in on some sports betting this NFL season. Maybe the Bengals are disappointing, but you want to stay engaged with the NFL season and you like sports betting. Well, that’s where FanDuel comes in. And they’ve got an awesome offer for new customers right now. 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And Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes and see clear data visuals that give you smart categorization of your spending, so you can finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. This will help you catch, for example, potentially some subscriptions you’re not even using. Help you cancel those and save a little bit of money every month. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NFL at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year with Monarch Money with code locked on NFL. Mike, we’ve been trying to figure out where the adjustments are coming from. This is a coaching staff that in the past, we’ve seen them find answers. We’ve seen them find adjustments, but instead this year, it feels slow, I think, generously. And I think there are a lot of players where earlier in an episode of Lockdown Bengals this year, I talked about all the coin flips for the Bengals this year. Miles Murphy coin flips. Jamar Stewart coin flip the corners. All of them essentially coin flips. Jordan Battle coin flip. A lot of the offensive line coin flips. It feels like all of those coin flips except maybe Dax Hill, DJ Turner’s probably playing okay. Like they’re coming up tails or if they’ve come up heads, it’s kind of a weak heads where it’s kind of maybe yeah, they’re fine but they’re not elevating things. So, we have this this issue where it seems like players have taken a step back, but also the the scheme on defense to me doesn’t look like it’s putting players in position to succeed where we’re seeing replacement pressures run a ton, which leads to Trey Hendrickson having five drop backs into coverage in a game despite being your only viable pass rusher. Really, that’s what he’s been this year. And the replacement pressure is not working. and all these really slow stunts that we’ve been critical of throughout this season. Did you see any steps in the right direction from this defense schematically this week? Do we think that there’s any progress in putting players in a better position? Um, don’t like that silence. I can’t think of too many where yeah, these guys got put in a position to succeed and they just didn’t do it. It it feels like they kind of got asked to do similar things. The corners were being asked to cover a long time because there’s no pass rush. Uh I it after four weeks, it feels like Al Golden doesn’t have a good feel for how to dictate offensive line u movement where let’s look at that play we talked about where the two edge rushers get the great jump. Even if they don’t get the great jump, the Broncos waste four blockers for the Bengals on one guy because they lined up in that double mug, knew the Bengals would respond. And this is an issue of only responding with one answer where they would slide one way, have a running back pick up the other linebacker, and have them sort it out on the other side. So, they know that. So, they drop almost everybody inside. Now, with three guys dropping inside, there were three guys that were looking at those to pick up that as a block. Like, that’s my guy. He dropped out. Where do I go? And they’re doing that with not just with guys lined up mugged in the A gap, but they’re also dropping guys with their hand in the dirt, too. So, that’s And you end up rushing three and the Bengals end up keeping six in the block and they get the sack because they still got one-on- ones on the outside. You don’t see that as much from the Bengals defense where they’re going to dictate something. So Trey Hendrickson gets a one-on-one with their weak rusher. I And I think the replacement pressures are another example of this where the point of getting these creepers, simulated pressures, replacement pressures is to force the offensive line to slide one way and then be able to attack the running back, their weakest pass protector when they slide that you want them to slide away from you. You bring a guy opposite and you pick him against the running back and you’re hoping that that you win that matchup. They get that matchup sometimes and they’ve won it a couple of times, but it feels like a lot of the time they’re running this replacement pressure and the offensive line still slid into it and now it’s a disaster because you’ve got offensive linemen blocking defensive backs trying to rush the passer or maybe a linebacker. That’s not going to go well. That guy was supposed to get against a a running back so that he or if if you’re really good free completely free back there. So, I’m I’m feeling like he doesn’t have the replacement pressure stuff. He keeps trying to run it. He didn’t run a ton of those at Notre Dame either, though. So, it feels like he’s trying to adjust for the NFL and run these things. And it it it looks like it to me. It looks like he doesn’t have that much experience doing this type of stuff. when you watch a lot of teams run these replacement pressures, they’re getting guys against the running backs. You see it against the Bengals. So, I think that part is really tough to watch because that’s part of the reason that they’re struggling so much with rushing the passer is that one, they don’t have the horses outside of Hendrickson, but two, they’re not getting free runners when they do bring guys, non-traditional rushers. Yeah. And they are also seemingly getting got at a higher rate than you would hope them to get got. Like I think of the wide receiver screen that Denver calls into the slot blitz last night that Troy Aman made a point of pointing out how Bon Knicks bailed on the play action fake to get the ball out quicker because he recognized that the slot corner was coming. They did try to blitz a little bit more in this game, but for the most part, the plan was still fourman pressures with dropping guys into coverage where, like I said, you know, you end up with Trey Hendrickson dropping into coverage five times in a game, which just seems crazy to me. I don’t know. You had as many coverage refs in this game as Barrett Carter, who by the time Barrett Carter was in the game and playing a lot, the game was out of hand. So, it was a lot of run defense snaps for Barrett Carter. But dropping Trey Henderson into coverage 10% of the time doesn’t feel like a plan that I want to live with when he’s your only guy with a pass rush win rate above like 10% in this game because Shamar Stewart would be the other one and he’s not playing. Joseph Osai not winning as a pass rusher. Chris Jenkins not winning as a pass rusher. BJ Hill is fine. He’s still BJ Hill but you know missed his one opportunity for a sack in this game. TJ Sllayton is is getting some wins, but as a nose tackle, those wins are coming a little bit slow, not necessarily impacting the passer as much as you would like. Miles Murphy still not winning as a pass rusher, even in his increased playing time this week. So, like I I don’t know where the pass rush is coming from. And it could be as simple as that. So much of your defense in the NFL is is predicated on your pass rush. And if you just don’t get home, and Denver has one of the better pass protecting offensive lines in the league, fine. But if you don’t get home and you can’t pressure a quarterback, it’s going to look really bad most of the time. And it it looks like that for the Bengals right now. And and most comically, I think is a a little linebacker end stunt they try to run for Trey Hendrickson where Logan Wilson has a free path to the quarterback or maybe the running back gets there to get a shoulder on him and instead, you know, it looks like they actually do fold the the Denver offensive line on this one play. Logan colors color colors inside lines does what he’s asked to do on the play and goes tries to pick the tackle for Trey Hendrickson to work the loop and ends up with no pressure. He still ends up getting to the quarterback faster than Trey because he’s that unblocked on the play and that’s kind of emblematic of this defense right now where even when they do get a call that should work that they’re just not playing fast I think as as a whole on this defense outside of a few players maybe. Yeah. Yeah, the stunts were feeling weird because that’s part of the reason you’re not getting past rush win rates as well as like it’s a little lower than it probably should be. Not that those guys would be crushing it if these stunts weren’t called, but like your job for a lot of these guys is go free up somebody else, but like on that play when Garrett Bulls keeps setting out to Hendrickson, I think they finally got the linebacker on the running back. This is what the replacement pressures are supposed to be doing. Like you’ve got the play. I I think maybe the idea here was, oh, he’s gonna stay tight. I don’t know. Is Trey selling it too much? Does Trey even know this is happening? Because the way he’s chasing after him and Trey keeps pushing to the outside to win. Usually that’s like a one-two step to set up the offensive tackle so he doesn’t see it coming. Then he gets blasted by the linebacker. Then he got twoon-one to the quarterback. Instead, it felt like Freers kept pushing to the outside and then Bulls just kept following him. And you’re at that point like at some point turn and just go get the quarterback because the running back’s on the opposite side of this. He’s trying to do a cross a cross scan pickup here and then they run another stunt where they let Osai spy in the middle of the field. It’s like why why even run the stunt and situation too, right? Like there’s 30 seconds left in the half. 30 seconds left in the half. Third and 10. And the idea maybe is that bad, like a very bad quarterback would see Murphy win to the outside on this stunt and and free up OSAI and start to push around his outside and go, “Oh, I’ve got room up the middle.” And they just go run into the sack. But these are NFL quarterbacks. This is the best of the best college guys. So, I don’t know if he picked that one up in college where he just had Osai stop there and and spy or was that Osai just thinking like he looks like he’s going to run, so I’m not going to do this. But they freed it up. It’s the fastest stunt that I think they’ve run. And he doesn’t he doesn’t loop. He doesn’t loop for the pressure. It’s there. But it seemed like he was coached to stop and spy instead. And at that point, I’m thinking, why are you running level 301 stunts when you can’t execute the level 101 stunts? Like, can can we get really good can they get really good at running like a normal TE or an ET and flush the quarterback that way and free up guys that way? because it’s just not working. And when the stunts aren’t working and the blitzes aren’t working, one, you’re going to slant a lot on blitzes, too. And when you do that, a lot of these guys are wasted. A lot of these guys are wasted in their pass rush. I understand they’re not big pass rushers anyway, but you’re taking what are, you know, middling or worse pass rushers, and now they don’t even have a chance to win. So, you put all your eggs in the tray basket. And Trey is sometimes also being asked to slant and stunt like we just talked about with the Logan Wilson play, which hurts his pass rush ability if they’re not working. So something has to give here. You can’t play defense giving up this much time to the quarterback. In that play that I talked about with OSI spying, Nick’s just sat there. He sat there and after three, four seconds threw the ball and got a 30 yard gain. Yeah. So that’s becoming really frustrating if they can’t figure this out at all. I don’t think Al’s doing a good job dictating the offensive line protections or knowing what the offensive line likes to protect with, but also I I think the stunts at some point they have to be able to run something that gets them pressure that isn’t just relying on Trey one-on ones. And so far through four games, they haven’t had anything do that. They need to find those answers. We didn’t even talk about the run game where JK Dobbins went for over six yards per carry in this game. The run defense looking much like it did last year. Honestly, the defense, the results, the the scheme is different, but the results are are largely the same between this year and last year. Maybe it’s just the same root cause. They they can’t get after the passer, and I I don’t think they’re being put in great positions again this year. And look, a lot of people are talking about Lanna Rumo, you know, talking about him being scapegoed maybe or or saying that, you know, but we were told that it was Lou and they needed to replace him. I do think that Lou is a good coach when he has veterans who can do the things that he’s trying to do. I still don’t think the Bengals have that this year, but the the way that it’s going right now on defense, really the entire team, so much needs to change in such significant ways. And it’s really continues to be hard to see where those changes come from until you actually see them take a step in the right direction. And doing that with Jake Browning and doing that when you’re getting outpossessed by 15 minutes, you’re running 40 plays to the opposing team’s 80. I mean, that’s a tough place to be playing defense, too, when when you’re getting outpossessed like that, especially in the mile high city in Denver. But that’s going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. You can find Mike’s writing at benglesalk.com where he writes with our uh the esteemed co-host of Lockdown Bengals, James Rene. And of course, uh, make sure you’re following Mike on Twitter at Bengals Sands, where you might catch a coach’s clinic of the week if you’re interested in diving into the film. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast, and have a good one.

The Cincinnati Bengals might be beyond repair, as their performance against the Denver Broncos was just as bad as Week 3’s debacle in Minnesota. Jake Liscow and film analyst Mike Santagata break down the game tape, exposing glaring issues on both sides of the ball. From Jake Browning’s conservative play to the offensive line’s communication breakdowns, no stone is left unturned. Plus, Al Golden’s defensive scheme has been far from effective and hasn’t found adjustments.

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