Goodberry Bengals Film Breakdown: Is Zac Taylor’s Scheme or Jake Browning the Problem?

Goodberry Bengals Film Breakdown: Is Zac Taylor’s Scheme or Jake Browning the Problem?

[Music] [Music] Welcome back, Mr. Goodberry. The first star logistics studio is fully equipped and ready to record. [Music] Welcome back to Bengals on the Brain presented by First Star Logistics. I’m your host Joe Goodberry and the Cincinnati Bengals have lost two in a row in two of their worst losses in franchise h history. Two of the most embarrassing losses back to back ever. It’s the first time they’ve lost in such fashion back toback since 2008 when Carson Palmer I think it was week four was lost for the season with a UCL injury to his elbow and we didn’t know he was going to be gone for the season at the time and ended up being the entire season as they strung us along all year and watched terrible football for the rest of the season. Sound familiar? We might be into the 2008 stage of the Carson Palmer era slash Joe Burrow era. And God, I hope not, but this franchise drives me insane with how bad they look. Ah, I don’t know where I want to go with this. I know what I want to watch for the film review today. I want to watch the offense. Do I want to go with ranting and raving? I think that’s what the pre preview show and definitely the postgame show has been about with Jake and I on the First Star Media YouTube page. Uh but you know, for here I feel like I should sometimes because some people don’t watch the pre and postgame show and you guys look forward to this, but then some people just want to watch the the film review. If you need more from me and want to ever talk about it, jump in the preview show, postgame show, but also hit me up on Twitter, Joe Goodberry. Today we’re going to watch the offensive film, especially the passing offense, and focus on Zack Taylor’s scheme, play calling, and Jake Browning. And if you can tell by the way I’m saying that, Jake Browning has not looked good this year. It has not looked like 2023. And you’re going to see a lot of that. And there’s going to be some scheme issues as well. And there’s going to be some play calling issues as well. And we’re going to talk about all that. And I don’t want to wait too long because we got enough plays to get through before we get to the uncompetitive phase of the game which is in the fourth quarter. So if we can get through the first three quarters here where it was still like all right Jake Browning and the Bengals offense do something other than throw go balls down the sideline. Well, we waited a long time and never got that after the first drive. So let’s jump into that film and get an idea of what’s going on on the offense right now. Okay, first play here. The Bengals are in shotgun. Andrea Svas short motion here, but it’s going to be a quick pass to Jamar Chase as we see off coverage, which all right. So, if we want to see something like this and we have a run play call, this is a package play. You can run this or if you see just two defenders out here and one of them is completely off like this, then flip it out to Jamar Chase and let him do something. Easy completion to one of your best run after the catch players on the team, if not your best. problem is we really need to block that corner and Tiggins is unable to do that. That ball slowly gets out. Everyone looks like they’re kind of in half speed right now, right? Like that’s got to be quick. The ball’s got to come out, turn, flip, fire it to your number one receiver there. And uh and and Te’s got to block that so Jamar can maybe cut back inside, do something. Uh unable to do it. So, first pass of the game by Browning and we’re only looking at the pass plays to be clear. We have a probably a run game conversation. We did a lot of that last week, but we’ve got a screen pass set up and I like this. We’re getting the ball out of Browning’s hands quickly on the first two plays here and there’s a lot of room set up. And Jamar, what I like about this, I don’t know if you noticed Jamar and T here, they’re both running down the field. So, they’re both running this way and they’re taking their defenders with them and all that does is create so much space for the screen game and for Chase Brown. You get this and you got a kind of a wall here. I love that for Chase Brown. Let’s get the ball in our playmakaker hands and let him work and make plays. The problem is we had a penalty on the play because we had a legal man downfield. They released a little bit too early and got downfield and Okay, fine. So, let’s watch this offensive line and let’s see as you’ve got to give it a click once the ball is released right now. Now, you can be downfield after he catches it. But, we could also do a better job blocking those on the backside. So, we just released a little bit too early there, especially the guys on the inside. I think that was on Ted Carris if I remember correctly. And those things happen. Uh, the Broncos were called for it a bunch as well. under center. We’ve got motion and now we’ve got a play action. We’ve got only a single high safety, which we’re going to get a lot with the Broncos defense. But that’s the idea is that if you’re going to get under center and you’re going to run play action, I need to get all these guys in the box and give my receivers one-on-one opportunities with their uh with their corners or whoever’s covering them. And that’s what you get. We got max protection, right? We’ve got everyone. Well, Chase Brown is leaking out here. But you got one-on-one with both guys. Whether you want Higgins on the in route, whether you want Jamar running what, but it looks like a postc corner. I’m going to go back a little bit because I was watching T more than I was watching Jamar. We saw this one because Yeah. Okay. So, he’s just This is a more of a bench route where you go bang bang bang. That’s the sound it makes. And you got great protection and Browning should be able to lay this ball towards the sideline with Pat Certain going to the inside here. and they’re basically gonna replace which it’s a it’s this is such a good job by the defensive backs for uh Denver. But Browning could probably zip a little bit more on this. This is wide open, right? Like you can lay this here and really allow Chase to make a play and this is the first drive of the game. That’d be awesome to make that play and start the game off with that and have that type of confidence that oh no, we can’t leave these guys one-on-one because the Bengals have some schemed up plays here. And when I said Max Protect at first, I mean, we had Sample here, you had Yoshi blocking, you had uh Chase Brown all in here. They’re all checking. Is anyone coming? Okay. If not, I’m going to release out. And we’re going to see Yoshi release this way and Chase Brown released that way, which is a staple um for the Bengals offense. And everyone on offensive line has an easy job. That’s what it looks like. And you can see right there what I mean. It’s kind of inside. And I think Troy Aman alluded to this as well. This is this could be a better placed ball. Um first play I thought was execution with the screen to Jamar. Second play was execution by the players because they released too early down the field. And then third play there, again, I want to say execution by the quarterback this time. I’m putting that directly on the quarterback because everyone else did their job. So now fourth play, we got a one-on-one shot with T. Higgins on the outside. I’m just watching the other guys real quick. Sorry, this is the first time I’m seeing the film completely. I saw bits and pieces. Uh work day for me. Plus, you know, Tuesday was real busy after the game on Monday night. There’s a lot to talk about. So, we got Tiggins on the outside here and he’s going to run it vertical. And we’ve got one-on-one with Riley Moss, which we’ve had that before and we know how that can go. And we’ve got great protection up front, right? And this looks like a ball you want to put to the back shoulder because he isn’t completely beating Moss downfield. And it is. And it’s great placement and you’re letting your guy high point it. And bang, big play, Bengals down the field. Maybe they can do something today. So, not so much like scheming guys open or anything like that. It’s saying, “Hey, if they want to give us those opportunities one-on-one on the outside, we’re going to take it.” And they did here. This is our guys being better than your guys and we know T. Higgins can dunk on Riley Moss all day long. And I thought they would continue this and they tried to be fair. All right, so we’re like one for four for execution now. Bengals again are going to have a tight end help block. This looks like Gaseki helping block here. Mitch Tinsley’s in the game. If you’re wondering where Mitch Tinsley has been or if he’s getting more time or whatever, Tinsley is going to settle down here after Jamar is going to break free here. And again, this play Troy Aman called out as well because as this middle linebacker is breaking down on Tinsley, that’s the idea, by the way, of bringing Tinsley here, you’re trying to gather the attention of this linebacker and pull him forward. And as soon as he does, this ball needs to go to Jamar Chase. As soon as he steps up, I wonder if I can get one click backwards for you here and just timing as he comes and turns this way right there. So, as soon as you start like, all right, I’m going to get into a throwing posture and ready to go. This ball goes to Jamar. Jamar turns. I mean, you rifle that thing in there. Instead, you get Tinsel and you get a solid gain and no one’s frustrated just quite yet in this game. See if we can see a good angle. Monday Night Football. This uh camera here, the floating camera, Sky Cam, is that what it’s still called? Uh had a great angle on this. And we want to get Jamar in the slot because that’s going against their worst corner. Even though I think his name’s McMillan, is a pretty good player. So, a fine play. The scheme worked. It was exactly what it was supposed to be. Execution-wise, we’re leaving maybe a potential touchdown on the field there. So, probably misexecution by the quarterback. Not great play from him to start that. Uh, Bengals are got everyone going to the right here. As you see, we got we’re going to have a pass completed to T. Higgins. Uh, but a lot of times they will split the field for Jake Browning and say, “Hey, just, you know, just read half this field here where you can see what’s happening.” And it looks like that’s what we got here. Browning goes to the right instantly sees that we’ve got some off coverage by the DB. And if T just settles down in this hole right there, you can turn, flip your hips, throw this ball, and it’s a completion. We’ll take that. And I think this is going to set up third down if I remember correctly. And uh so far in the first drive, things are looking good, right? The whole line’s doing their thing. The pass protection looks good. Everyone’s helping each other out. The ball’s coming out quickly for Browning. And even if we missed a couple of these and wondered, you know, what’s going on? Could he have hit that big play to Jamar Chase down the sideline? Um, overall the ball’s still being moved and that’s okay, you know, because even even Joe Bro has those plays where he’s not as clean on the reads as he should be, especially early in the game. Sometimes it takes a minute. So, now we get to the third down here and the Broncos are showing man coverage across. We got press man right here. Press in the slot. We’ve got one safety in the middle of the field. This is throw it to the boundary all day long. And if they switch and they do something different and say this guy drops back to here and this guy drops back to here and ends up being some weird cover too, then they have options for that as well in the scheme. But as soon as Jake Browning sees this here, he’s picking where he’s going. He’s saying, “Okay, we’ve got if we’ve got a single high safety and we got press here, I’m gonna throw this to T. Higgins and I’m gonna let T make a play and and let him go up and play above the rim.” So you see as Browning takes the snap, he turns and he’s going. He confirmed it that that safety staying in the middle of the field. Okay, let’s go. Ball’s coming out and he just misses. And you’ll see other people break this down. But when Browning’s releasing this right now that what you’re looking for here is if T is more here or here, if he’s beaten him down the field completely. What I mean is if you’re if the DB is here and you’re ahead of him, throw it to the back of the end zone. If he’s here, it’s even, I’m still throwing it to the back corner. If T is here and the DB is here, this needs to be a back shoulder or jump ball scenario for T. Higgins. And it’s neither of those things. Ends up just being a ball that sails. I mean, it lands out of bounds. I don’t think it hits the white at all. And you’ve got other options, too. If if this ended up being um a play where he reads it a little bit longer, I think I like the options of the three options here to look and read it out a little bit. If it was Joe Burrow, he might do that because you’ve got a corner route for Jamar, one-on-one with Patan. Certain great player, but I’ll take one-on-one with Jamar anytime. And you have Chase Brown with an ISO route on this linebacker with a linebacker was definitely protecting that outside leverage. You’ve got this angle route. That’s the word I was looking for with Chase Brown. That to me looks wide open. Even Chase Brown, you see him clap his hand there like, you know, that that would have been a good one for me. You got man coverage here. You have options. Throwing the fade and picking the fade and picking it probably pre- snap is one of the lowest percentage plays you could throw. And like Chase Brown right there, you can put that in him. And he’s faster than Sternard at linebacker. Or was that Singleton? I didn’t say the number. Anyways, he’s faster than any of those linebackers for the Broncos. And I would like Browning to take that shot. So, it doesn’t really matter there. I think everyone I think playwise from a play call, you have plenty of options. People said, “Oh, why did Zack Taylor call the fade?” He doesn’t call the fade. He calls all of those plays. And based on what the defense does and what Browning chooses, that’s where the ball goes. And he will often call multiple plays in the huddle. So Browning has a lot of freedom at the line to get get them in the correct play and Joe Burrow did a lot and Browning doesn’t do that. So again, now we’ve got one really good executed play and now we have another play here that is not executed well by the quarterback and that’s just on their best drive of the game. Here’s their next drive. And again, are we seeing it correctly? As soon as this linebacker is jumping on Jamar underneath, Gaseki is up on the next level. Like you’re supposed to be reading these guys and then going on based on them. So if you go back just a click here and he’s go waiting on that linebacker, that linebacker squats and puts his eyes on Jamar. That ball comes out to Gaseki. Bang. Big play, right? You got split safeties. Split safeties. We’ve done this before. Means middle of the field open. So, we’re going middle of the field. Well, he is so locked in on Jamar Chase there that that ball’s got to come out to Chase and it’s high little inside and Chase can’t make the the linebacker miss, which is a rarity. Chase usually that first guy getting chased down. Not something you’re going to see all the time. And you’re going to see the ball placement here. It could be better. So, again, quickly now we’re only on how many plays and a lot of them are execution errors by Jake Browning. This might be the fourth one. I would like to say Mims getting beat back to the inside. Not ideal. You see the ball placement there. You’re if you just put it in the stomach, he may have a chance to make a play and get up field. Uh but that ball should have been going to Mikei. I think easily. That should have been a big play for the Bengals. So now we get a third down here. I believe it’s third down. Actually, don’t they don’t show that anymore when I do this film. They used the old film used to show me the down distance first. So Browning gets to the line. He sees the blitz. They’ve got everyone up here. He comes up and they walk up their running back, which some people really hate, but it’s really it helps the O line and the running backs identify who they’re going to get. Sure, they don’t think you’re running the ball, but on third and three or third and four, no one thinks you’re running it anyways. And I think it’s third and two here. So maybe you could have said, “I’m running it.” But again, you got a single high safety. When you get a single high safety, it means the boundary is where we’re we’re looking. And T. Higgins is one-on-one with Riley Moss. And this time, he looks like he’s even. So, I’m going to throw this one down the field here and let T go chase it. And Browning throws it out of bounds. Did you see where that ball landed? Can you see that? It landed here. Is that not a good color for you? Goes out of bounds. He just misses. Now, if you want to look at the other routes and say, you know, he’s predetermining here where he’s throwing it, I think he is. And people ask about Yoshi all the time. You want to watch Yoshi’s route down here against McMillan. Like, he’s just locked up right there. Right. But watch Jamar versus Pat Certan. He’s locked up. That’s good coverage by Certan. So, I get throwing again. Why are we throwing so many fade balls? I think it’s a good option by Browning. I just don’t think he throws it well. He missed. He missed D. Higgins. And we all know this offensive line stinks, right? So, let’s watch this offensive line on this. Is there any pressure on him? Does it Does it have to come out as quickly? I know we think the blitz is coming here. Does the Do the Broncos actually blitz? Let’s see. They don’t actually blitz. It’s just four guys coming. It’s picked up pretty well because Yeah, because Fairchild’s picking that guy up. This has picked up great. The ball doesn’t have to be out. They’re forcing a quick decision by showing blitz on Browning. And Browning can’t hit it. He can’t land it. So again, we’re on how many plays now? Maybe we should have kept the counter on the sideline of on the side of the screen here. Bing bing bing. For how many are Browning, how many are other players? How many are Zack Taylor? I think the one thing criticism for Zack Taylor on that previous play, teams know they can show you something and you’re going to check into something at this point because it’s been so long and you’ve done it for so long that they know they can get you on a quick decision there. We got a cover two situation finally. We haven’t gotten too many of them. I’ve said before your options are what in a cover two. We can hit the middle of the field. We can hit these hole shots or we can hit all these hooks and curls and check downs underneath, right? Check down here or this middle check down here. You want a little You want a guy coming over the middle. To me, you’ve got a lot of options. You have to kind of read this boundary corner though. If he squats down on Gaseki, that’s not going to go for much. Gaseki’s not a big run after the catch type guy. But if you watch this whole shot here, you’ve got Higgins on it if you felt confident that you can throw this. But again, we’ve got a solid completion. So, this is very similar to the one to Tinsley and to Jamar earlier where I think there’s more meat on the bone on the play. You’ve got plenty of options that are open, but we’re a little nervous in the pocket here and we want this ball coming out quick because for reasons understandable, the offensive line hasn’t been great. So, but so far so far we’re one and a couple one drive and a couple plays in and the line is perfectly fine. We’ve got no issues here. Again, we’re not showing any type of run because we’ve got a blitz from the Broncos at least showing it. So, we walk up our running backs. We want a criticism. Whenever the Broncos or any defense shows that the Bengals are going to put the running back up and we’re not going to have the threat of running. If you had a running quarterback, teams would be more lerary of doing this. So, let’s see. Do they actually blitz? They do not. They’re rushing four again. And it looks like a cover three scenario. And oh my gosh, I don’t know if you see this at the top of the screen. He’s looking this way. Okay, he’s looking this way. It looks like we have Gaseki going deep. And I think Jamar must be coming inside. I actually didn’t see what Jamar was doing, but I want you to watch Gaseki going deep here. This corner, and I think it’s Riley Moss is locked eyes with Jake Browning. He is completely staring at the quarterback who just hit his back foot. If Browning was super aggressive in seeing this, watch Gaseki. One more click. That ball comes out. Gaseki would love to have that option, right? He would love to have that ball, but Browning doesn’t like it. I mean because look how much attention Jamar Chase attracts this guy and this guy. So much attention for Jamar that this is when your other guys can help you out anyways because Browning was looking that way. He feels flushed anyway and he goes to take off and doesn’t really see anything and we are throwing the ball away and Jamar’s pretty like you see him like come on man because I still think you could complete this pass to Jamar despite the coverage. Bang. Ball come out. Catch. Maybe you only get five yards out of it, 10 yards, whatever it may be because I think it was a penalty before this. You take it. But did you have a combination on that side of the field to take advantage of what the Broncos were doing? I think you do. And I think you did. Let’s see if the offensive line will happen here because they’re showing the splits again and they only rush four. So, do we pick it up correctly? It looks like we do as of now. But again, the dreaded stunt tackle and stunt again. Can we get once we see this, can we get some help over here? Can we pass this off? Let’s see how it processes. They were going to pick it up. I think maybe 98 might have got back inside on Browning, but again, what you want to do against Bengals is you want to show blitz. They’re going to check to it and and max protect with their running back, which is a less one less guy in in on the field as a weapon. And then you want to pull out of it and you want to stunt your your guys because the Bengals can’t seem to pick it up. Okay, so this is a I want to say a third and long. They’re just trying to get this ball out quick. This is almost like setting up a wall here with all these guys. and you’re going to let Chase maybe he can make something happen which we’re just getting the ball out quick out of Browning’s hands and hopefully something can happen here and we do get a stiff arm on Patton 10 but it’s not enough and the Bengals will have to punt now and there was that’s because there was a penalty and because Browning didn’t like that second down throw felt the pressure in his face I think Burrow probably would have stuck in there and taken that hit and seen it his vision remember the Madden vision cone Burrows is so wide that I think he would have seen that and got the ball to Gazaki potentially. And we don’t have Burrow. We have Jake Browning. Again, I don’t want to put this all on Jake Browning because he’s doing his best out there, guys. But you got to wonder if his best is good enough. Play action. Okay. Rounding rolling out. So, we got a little boot action here. Let’s look how much room and space we have here. What is this? This is Tinsley. He’s going to run like this. And Jamar is going to run free into the middle of the field. So, you’re going to watch that two combos here. Is this a good play called? Is Is this well designed? Jamar should be the throw, right? Hit Jamar. He’s wide open. Hit Jamar. Oh god. I If you’re wondering why Jamar is upset and people thought he was upset at Zack Taylor. If go by the first three, first two drives in one play now. You think he’s upset at Zack Taylor? You think Jamar’s upset with Zack Taylor so far? He’s open. He is not upset with Zack Taylor. He’s upset I’m upset with Jake Browning if I’m him with this. Like, come on, bro. You got to hit me. I’m open. And so, you kind of understand why on some other plays he’s fixated on getting the ball to Jamar. He’s just on the wrong plays. He’s not seeing it well. I mean, how open is Jamar here? How easy of a completion and run after the after the catch would this be? That guy’s still chasing Tinsley? Like, how good of a throw are you at? So, like the fade balls are one thing, low percentage. That’s also a low percentage throw for a guy with low pedigree like Jake Browning. Take the easy throw. It’s there. What are you doing? Bringing Jamar in motion. Trying to see if they’re playing man. What are they doing? And we got one-on-one on the outside. Browning’s going to turn and see it right away. Single high safety, it looks like. Yep. And Browning’s going to say, “Okay, I got one-on-one.” Riley Moss, T. Higgins, keep going to that. Well, let’s see. Let’s see if we can hit it. That ball’s out of bounds. I get it again why you want to take this shot because you’re the Bengals. You have these weapons. I think Jamar would like these one-on-one balls once in a while, these deep balls. Is he going to get them? Let’s watch the offensive line. Did they give Browning enough room? Was he hit? Was he pressured? What caused him to maybe have a poorer throw than we’d like here? No. I mean, I want to watch Mims real quick. He got a terrible grade from PFF. He does his job there. Brown Orlando Brown Jr. You only had another half second there, Jake. But just enough. I mean, that ball is far outside. Far outside. That thing’s going to land in the green. See what I’m saying? Okay. So, this is the first time here. It looks like we’ve got a clean pocket and it doesn’t look like great route combinations. Yeah, it does not. We got a single high safety. So, we’d want to go to our boundary, guys, if we can. It’s really not much there. Maybe Brownie could have sat in the pocket and found Yoshi. Yosh Yoshi is absolutely clamped. Everyone’s clamped, let’s be honest. So, Brownie is going to try and make a play and he just throws it up and throws it away. So, this may be the first time we’ve got a a play that scheme-wise does not look like it works. Don’t know what happened here. Where are underneath guys? You got two running backs out there. You got Perine and you have Chase Brown. Chase Brown’s trying to help. They’re both trying to chip the edges and then release. Browning must see it right away because the protection’s good right here. This ends up being a holding on Amarius Mims. But this pocket is great. Like, let’s be honest, right? This is exactly what we would take every single time. If I could take this every play, I would. It’s not perfect. It’s great. And Browning leaving means M ends up holding on because he doesn’t. That’s how it goes a lot of times. You shouldn’t hold him. You should probably try and push the guy, whatever. So, Browning does that, throws, takes a hit, throws out of bounds. I mean, it’s and it’s a holding play and I I want to say they decline it because it’s third down. So, we need a play here. Number one, I think the scheme sucked on that play. play calling scheme and play calling that goes together there did not work. It was third and long. Uh and Browning bailing the pocket for no reason. I’d rather him just throw like if my options are bail the pocket unnecessarily or throw it up to T. Higgins, I’m going to take throw it up to T. Higgins. We got an actual blitz coming this time. Okay. Actual blitz. Ball hit. nothing happening. So, they’ve showed this how often. The Broncos have showed this at the line how often and they haven’t come yet. Well, this time they do. And the Bengals don’t have a running back this time to pick it up in the middle. Now, every time they’ve kept a running back there, they don’t have one this time. So, the ball’s got to come out now. And they’re trying to run a rub situation here where Perine’s going to come in and he’s going to pick he’s going to pick off Pat Certan. Watch it right there. Perine tries. It really doesn’t matter because that ball comes out and hits it hits uh it’s get gets hit by the defensive line. It’s right in Jake Browning’s face. You’ll see on this angle here. We need to protect this better on this side. You don’t have enough guys. How many are coming? one, two, three, four, maybe five. I can’t tell. They’re really doing a good job of just kind of hanging out at the line of scrimmage and tying these guys up. But what it does is I think for the first time they’re like, “Yeah, 49’s not going to come. Oh my god, he did come.” This is This is Amarius Mims. He’s not coming, is he? No, he did come. Oh no, I’m too late. Bang. That’s on Mims. I think there could have been better execution by Perine to pick off um Certan, but again scheme wise, Bengals are an empty with no protection against the Blitz this time. So the Bengals are like, “We know what you’re doing. You’re only showing that blitz to get us to leave a guy to protect. We’re not going to do it this time.” Well, the Broncos say, “Fine. We will actually come. We’ll actually come after you. We’ll actually blitz.” So, a little little back and forth chess match going on there. And finally, we get a deep a deep play. Is that Jamar down at the bottom? No, it’s T again. T is going he is on his horse, man. Look at this. You see him at the bottom of the screen. Watch him get up to speed here and split these two. So, T is pulling two guys here. Jamar is running from a defender here. We want to talk about scheme and play calling. Do you got Do you like this? Do you like this? Because I do. I like this right here. I like this. Again, throw the ball to Jamar Chase. Jamar’s got to be thinking like this is me all day long. I can’t believe that we’re already at this dig route. This backside dig. I get it why we’re throwing this. Well, you could throw that to Jamar as well. That’s good coverage by that corner. Is that Riley Moss on on um on Jamar? It’s a good route by Yoshi as well. So, this is a good executed play finally in this game. It’s a good play call. The scheme works. There’s multiple guys that are open at least Jamar and Yoshi. The protection is good, right? Look at Rivers get that guy out of his face. You move in the pocket. Jake Browning. That’s good quarterbacking. That’s a beautiful ball. It’s good catch all around. That’s I think that’s our second one of the game now. That seems like it’s perfectly executed by all involved. And we are late in the game at this point because I remember that play. I didn’t think we were getting that one already. Jamar’s getting jammed at the line here by Certan. And we’re going to take this slant against man coverage. It’s good. It’s a wellplaced ball. It’s a gain of eight or so. Uh it’s good executed play. This is Jamar getting hit in the face, I think, and and being upset at Certan a little bit, but this is good protection up front. Everyone does their job. Ball comes out quickly. Good placement and Jamar picks it up. So, that’s another well executed play. No mistakes there by anyone. We’ve got about three of those in total so far. So, maybe they can start getting back into this, right? Oh, there was a penalty, wasn’t there? I’m trying to remember. Was there a penalty on that one? How did they end up here? I don’t know if you guys just saw that real quick. See, I don’t get all the when I Sometimes I don’t keep the box score up next to me. This is the first oner way over here. What happened here? I don’t remember. It was so late and I might have been so mentally checked out that we’re running basically a screen. We see the lineman releasing now. Running a screen to Chase Brown. So, the ball comes out quick. Chase Brown catches it. Going to try and cut back and pick up some of it. I can’t remember what the penalty was there. H doesn’t matter. Let’s watch these guys on the offensive line. See if they get out in front. Does anyone lay a block? Does anyone Can anyone get a block in space? We got Caris, Fairchild, and Rivers. Rivers just gets in the way just enough. Caris and Fairchild miss 98 and stop their feet. So, we could probably be a little bit better on our execution for the screen there. But screens were a good thing to use in the Browning offense in 2023. That’s an okay play. I don’t want to say that’s a wellexecuted play because I think we need to block it a little bit better up front. Okay, we are also going empty again here and it’s long distance. Browning’s got a great pocket. The middle of the field, look how open this middle of the field. You know, the highest EPA per play passing play in the NFL right now is is middle intermediate. Intermediate in the middle right here. The Bengals don’t use that enough. They don’t use it. They didn’t use it with with Burrow either. But look at this right here. Are we just running four verts? We are with inside breakers from Jamar and I can’t tell who that is because that’s Yoshi down here. Maybe Tinsley. Maybe that’s T. You got So, okay, let’s go back here because now I’ve got an idea on this play. You’ve got inside breakers from your two slot guys and I think that is T and Jamar. You’ve got these guys going all the way to the boundary. You’ve got middle of the field so far open here. This ball needs to go to the middle to either Jamar or T. Pick whoever which one you want and you’re going to try and throw it off the back of these guys. Ball needs to come out. Ball needs to come out. Ball needs to come out. Browning just runs and throws it away. I need to see what the protection looks like on this play because play call-wise there he knew. He must have known what the Broncos were going to do because to have two your two best receivers in the slot running inb breaking routes against middle of the field open. Perfect. Great. That’s your shot. So, let’s see this offensive line here versus potentially four, five rushers. Let’s see. Is it five? Do they bring five? Doesn’t look like they do. Looks like they’re bringing four and they’re going to try and stunt and twist. I got to say, man, we are so close to picking this up really well. I would say that Fairchild here really messes this up. If we keep an eye on Fairchild, watch how he just follows too far. He goes to like really tackle this end, I think, and just overextends completely and misses. But this ball’s got to be up now. Browning drops. What do you see when a guy has bad pocket presence, eyes drop, ball drops, knees buckle and bend, throwing posture changes, looking at his shoulders, he’s just going to try and run. He wasn’t going to try and throw. Now he’s thinking, “Oh my god, I can’t run. I need to throw the ball. I would like to know timing wise because he looks back inside right there. Right there is where he had his shot right here and he sees he’s looking down instead of looking at his targets. He’s looking at this right here. And you can tell this because of the way his body reacts to it. I think you’ve got the right play call to give yourself a chance there. I’m not it’s it’s obviously a third and long situation. I don’t think you you’re going to convert that, but that’s a good play call versus that defense. That’s poor execution on the offensive line. We haven’t had too many of those yet. Got a couple penalties and couple bad pickups. Marius Mims had a bad blitz pickup. That’s a bad stunt pickup. Second one we’ve had this time on Fairchild. They got to figure out the stunts. It’s insane. This is a very similar play. You get you’re I don’t know if they thought they’d get the same thing. This is going to be a checkown situation. Cover two. Cover two with uh one of them being Riley Moss. Tampa two with the middle linebacker. Uh if you don’t have anyone beating that middle linebacker down the middle of the field, if you’re not going to hit one of these hole shots, which maybe the only one is this one, and he’s not even looking there, you just check this ball down. It looks like he does. and you let um Chase Brown pick up what he can pick up. So good. The play call is correct versus the scheme that you got from the defense. Jake Browning gets through his reads pretty quickly. Gets the check down pretty quickly. I know we want more, but the cover two, especially the Tampa 2, is designed to limit big plays and force you to check it down and have their defense run up. So, let’s see if their defense wants to tackle Chase Brown. Solid gain. Let’s move on. Gain of 12, right? The game is out of hand. So, they can play this and try and put a lid on you. But now it’s first and 10. That’s a wellexecuted play. There hasn’t been too many. There’s been as many There’s been more poorly executed plays than there has been bad executed play or good executed plays. We’re just sitting in the window here. This is a a tough I don’t really like the options here as one side is middle of the field closed while they are putting this safety all the way to this side. I hate this. I I think this even confuses Burrow. I think your best option is to probably swing this to Chase Brown and let him see if he can run around this this uh linebacker. I don’t like the options here, but I do get why they get this ball out quickly and they try and hit one of these hooks and curls and Jamar’s got it right there and potentially should pick up a decent gain. So, this is more execution unless the DB hit it there. We didn’t get a good replay during the game. Uh, but I I think Browning’s correct. I don’t I don’t love the options for, you know, it’s one of the rare plays where I’m like, eh. But that defense uh confuses a lot of quarterbacks and Browning does see Chase open. The protection is is quality. Ball comes out, Chase is trying to run after it. That’s just a drop. I’d like more space for my guys, but at the same time, uh, that there’s nothing wrong with that play. And this is me saying Zach needs to be fired. Just so we’re clear. I watched the tape and I came away going, the plays weren’t that bad. They just need to be better and more complimentary. So, like right away here, this this is a play that doesn’t work. And we’re getting to the end of the game where I need these plays to work. The Broncos are just dropping everyone. Can you see this whole line down the middle here? We’re in situations again where the first down is way down here. Like you’re you keep getting backed up because of penalties. The penalties really kill them this time. All you can really do is try and check this down to some JP Ryan and it’s not there. This is a bad play call. It’s a bad design for what they ended up getting. in the Broncos. This is probably only what I would say a second or third time I said bad play call or I’m not happy with the options. Uh the offensive line is fine. You can’t really sit in the pocket there. And I say fine and I know you’re going to be like, well Brown Jr. got beat over here. Yes, he did. But I’m not sure that he’s expecting Browning to just leave the pocket and run the way he did right away. But Browning saw that what was happening downfield and thought it ain’t there. I’m not going to have any options. It’s rock paper scissors. We threw rock. They threw paper. It’s not there. Okay. Think it’s a first and 10. We’re getting late in the fourth now. And we’re throwing a screen pass out to Jamar Chase. We’ve got two blockers here, right? We got this guy blocking. We can block this guy. Hey, you can actually pick up a little bit, I think. Oh, we’re a little hesitant, I think. Turning and running. Gaseki can’t get that block. Hunga just walks right through him and blows him up. That’s a bad execution by Mikei. Is the play call finer? Yeah, I’ve got no issue with it. First down. Let’s get the ball in our guy’s hand. That ball could be a little bit quicker to let Jamar get out there. But again, Browning doesn’t have a great arm. And we’re at we’re pretty much at the end of the tape now. At this point, I don’t even think Jamar stays in the game for the final few plays here as we’re there. Goti out wide in a three by one. They’re showing blitz. Broncos, what do we think? They’re coming. No, they’re not coming. They’re backing out. So, we just have this underneath to T. Higgins who picks up a few. And I mean, that’s pretty much it. Um, we’re going to get the other angle of this. There’s not much to say for rest of the game. There’s only a couple more plays here. I’ll let him roll and just wrap up my ideas and thoughts here. We didn’t have too many where I had a big issue with with Zack Taylor in terms of the passing options. So, that’s a whole discussion. your passing menu. And let’s finish this full screen. So, the menu I’m talking about here is the passing offense menu. I want to make sure my quarterback has as many options as possible versus whatever the defense may show. Whether that’s a blitz, do you have an outlet, do you have a hot, right? Whether that do you have enough protection, do you have enough guys to protect? Do you have if they go to a cover one or cover three, middle of the field close, do I have options on the outside for you? If they switch that into a cover two or middle field open or or any type of even umbrella coverage, do I have options for you to check it down or hit these these whole shots or where I can squeeze it in there? And the Bengals do typically, that’s one of their the strengths of Zack Taylor’s offense is that they’re going to give you the answer for everything. Whatever the defense is going to give you, most of the time they’re going to have an answer. It’s very rare. Like even in this game, there was a couple times I said, “Ah, you just didn’t have that. You didn’t have an answer for what they had.” Uh, I think they can be a bit predictable in forcing the def the defense, forcing them to cut down their menu a little bit by showing blitz, by showing sometimes a a safety in the box and then backing them out. You show that safety in the box, Burrow cuts, he kills the run play and then they scream back out into a cover two and you should have ran against that because it’s cover two. Uh, so I think the defense can sometimes force the Bengals to be a little more limited than I like. But for in terms of a menu and passing attack, the Bengals have one of the best when your quarterback is reading correctly and he’s a good player. Jake Browning was not reading correctly, was not making the throws. Uh, and also they were low percentage throws. The Broncos will take that. Broncos will say, “We want you to throw against our corners on the outside deep balls.” Yeah, they’re you’re going to complete 30% of them against us. We’re not worried about it. The Bengals are like, “And we’ll take that.” And if you don’t and you don’t hit them, well, you’re going to lose that game big time. The criticisms of the Taylor offense are all of the other plays, the first and second downs. That’s the balance of the run game and the pass game. It’s the easy buttons and the easy plays and scheming guys open and creating separation for receivers and the run blocking and the run game that they have completely failed with and have ignored for far too long. So, while we’re just looking at the passing game here, if you came away from this game and watch that tape, would you say, “You know what? Maybe you do give up a seventh for Jameus Winston or Russell Wilson because Browning can’t continue to play at that level.” If he plays at that level and continues this way, you’re not going to win any games. None. And this was very similar to what I watched in the Vikings game as well. That game got away from them very quickly, so there’s less to evaluate. This game did, too. But, you know, for a while there, the Bengals did lead. Uh, Browning has to be better and I don’t know if he can be, which is where I come and fall and land on. You might want to make a play for a quarterback if you want to save your job. If these guys in that building are worried about it, and I think they should be, they should be pushing to find a quarterback for the rest of the season because I don’t know, and they should have done it already because we’ve gone two games with Browning and you knew right away what was going on with Burrow. It wasn’t a secret. You’ve wasted two weeks that you could have been training another quarterback to to learn your playbook and and get ready for in this offense. You going to waste two more weeks because you don’t want to pay a higher price. That sounds like Bengals football. And this has been Bengals on the Brain presented by Firstar Logistics. Make sure you check us out on the weekend shows, the preview show, Jake and Joe postgame and preview Bengals shows. We give things away. Hey, First Stars had a speaking of great menus, First Star’s got a great menu of prizes that they want to give away to you guys. And all you have to do is watch, retweet, follow along. You’ll see those typically on Wednesday, sometimes it’s Thursday at First Star Log on Twitter. They tweet it out every week. They tell you who to follow, what to do to get entered, and uh with less people interested in what the Bengals are doing, your chances have never been greater to win. might as well get something from watching this because they are not making it fun for us to watch. Until next time. Huda [Music] Heat. Heat.

In Episode 207 of Bengals On The Brain, presented by First Star Logistics, host Joe Goodberry provides a detailed film breakdown of the Cincinnati Bengals’ struggling passing attack in their recent loss to the Denver Broncos. With quarterback Joe Burrow sidelined with a potentially season-ending turf toe injury, the offense has faltered, leading to questions about where the blame lies.

The Bengals’ offense hit a low point against the Broncos, losing 28-3 in a game where they were outscored by a significant margin for the second consecutive week. In this episode, Goodberry analyzes the offensive failures, dissecting whether the issues stem from head coach Zac Taylor’s play-calling and offensive scheme or the on-field execution of backup quarterback Jake Browning.

Browning’s performance against Denver was statistically unimpressive, as he completed 14 of 25 passes for 125 yards without any touchdowns. While he avoided turnovers, the passing game was largely conservative and failed to generate explosive plays, with no receiver gaining more than 32 yards. The offense as a whole managed only 159 total yards and was plagued by 11 penalties.

Goodberry delves into the game tape to examine the nuances of the team’s offensive struggles. The analysis examines specific plays, route combinations, and protection schemes to determine if the play calls put the team in a position to succeed and how Browning performed in those situations. The episode scrutinizes key moments, including missed opportunities and breakdowns in pass protection, as the offensive line allowed three sacks.

This in-depth look aims to provide clarity on whether the Bengals’ offensive woes are a result of coaching strategy or player performance in the absence of their star quarterback.