Joe Flacco SHINES in Bengals Film Breakdown: Can Defense CATCH UP?

Joe Flacco SHINES in Bengals Film Breakdown: Can Defense CATCH UP?

We’ve made fun of the question, is Joe Flacco elite? For far too long, Joe Flacco is elite. Let’s break down the film takes. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I’m Jake Kliscoco, joined today by Mike’s Antagona, our resident film expert, breaking down the film for us on Lockdown Bengals every week, watching coaches clinics in his spare time. I’ve been hosting this show since 2019, and this is your best one-stop shop anywhere on the internet for all things Bengals. From the film analysis to the postgame shows to the previews and the crossovers, we’ve got you covered here every day on Locked on Bengals. Shout out to the everydayers who heard James Rapin and I make the joke last Wednesday or maybe Tuesday afternoon depending on when you listen about Joe Flacco keeping it on a read option and Joe Flacco kept it on Thursday on the read option. We’re going to break down Joe Flacco’s game. What was so good about him? What was working for this Bengals offense? Zack Taylor calling a game that worked against the Pittsburgh Steelers with Joe Flacco executing at a high level. The run game working. Chase Brown with the second highest average yards per carry in Bengals history was the stat I saw on Friday behind Corey Dylan for for minimum 10 carry game. So a nice game for Chase Brown. Some explosive plays out there in both phases of the offense. And man, what’s going on with this defense? The the issues that still need to be fixed on the defense are where we will get at the end of the show. DJ Turner is excused from this criticism and DJ Turner continuing the heater he’s on. But Mike, let’s start with Joe Flacco. It seemed to be a relatively simple game plan from the Cincinnati Bengals. You get man, throw a slant. You get zone, throw an out route. There was a lot of that. The Bengals very successful. I think it was like a 67% success rate targeting slants in this game. It was a 60% success rate on out routes, I think, for the Bengals in this game. uh those numbers from True Media, but it looked kind of simple, kind of repetitive. What What did you think the Bengals came into this game expecting to get and and expecting to try to do to the Pittsburgh Steelers? Yeah, it feels like they they know the Pittsburgh Steelers defense and they’re going to try to win with their pass rush. They’re going to really play a lot of single high. This is one of the teams that even when Burrow’s in there, we’ll play single high and it’s kind of old school. Uh they’ve kind of got that Tomlin. Not a lot of teams are going to end up with your fourth end Jack Sawyer covering Noah Fant down the sideline. But uh well I guess the Bengals on that one Peele play might have. But uh uh this is like by design they they end up having ends and linebackers in these spots and it felt like they played it as it went because I I do think early on there were some struggles too. like the game. They started out down 10 nothing and they had hit a few hit a few bumps in the road, but it felt like the main the main part of the game plan to me was a little this under center stuff and not just oh go under center like Jake Browning like when they tried to just send him under center and then we’ll just run an offense off that. just kind of an artistry to it and you see it with Joe Flacco like the uh the footwork on straight drop backs, quick games, standard five-step drops out of under center to keep the defense in a single high because they know we go under center, they’re going to go single high to match this. And then also a lot of lot of packaged plays in this uh game as well which are you have a run call but if you have a good look your wide receiver runs a slant or a now slant or just something access bubble screen just like sits there and catches the ball and Rogers ran a few of these too. It’s kind of like in lost art of the under center quarterback. That was a lot of the plays that ended up being completed to both Chase and a couple to Higgins as well, but mainly Chase, I think, is just those going under center. This is a called run. Oh, they’re playing off coverage again. Outside leverage. All right, we’re just going to throw a slant here. Just every every single time you do that, I’ve got the thing to beat you. And I think that’s something that I can’t think of too many modern quarterbacks that run package plays under center. You see, this is a run block from the offensive line. This is a run play from the running back, but there’s a one route and the guy just takes the ball, takes a step back and throws that route. And it was very successful to the point that Zack Taylor after the game is talking about how he was excited to see what percentage of their passing yards came on called running plays because a lot of that stuff Joe Flacco recognizing, hey, I’ve got a free release for Jamar Chase. I’m just going to throw it to him in space and let him go make a guy miss and gain eight yards. And then that worked on a running play on a called running play. So like you said the the offensive line run blocking running back expecting to get the ball and then Joe Flacco is just taking a step throwing the ball mostly to Jabar Chase on those. And Jamar Chase racking up 23 targets in this game. One of the things we talked about when the Bengals acquired Joe Flacco was Joe Flacco probably knows where the ball should go. The Bull should probably go 33 times out of 47 attempts to those guys you’re paying all those millions of dollars to if you’re the Cincinnati Bengals. And it was a successful game plan for the Bengals. Some other fun numbers here as I look at the the splits on targeted routes uh against zone. All five of the hitches that Joe Flacco threw against the Steelers came against zone coverage of some way, shape, or form. 80% success rate for the Bengals on hit rates, hitch routes against the Steelers, on screen. 100% success rate for the Bengals on screens. Every single screen the Bengals ran picked up at least five yards, which isn’t the definition of success rate, but uh the first screen of the game was a successful screen alert for the Cincinnati Bengals. Was an eight yard play for Jamar Chase on a first down. We had a seven yard play for Jamar Chase on first down. We had a five-yard play for Jamar Chase on first down and a five-yard play for Jamar Chase on second down. You might be noticing a theme here as we’re talking about the passing game that there’s a lot of Jamar Chase that’s coming up in these splits. But what what else was it, Mike? Was it a lack of adjustment from the Steelers? That that was something that Kirk Kirk Ker Street talked about during the broadcast like, “Hey, maybe play inside leverage on on these slants you’re giving up all day.” Well, but then maybe they just go to an outbreaker. What What else was working for Flaco here? Was it because because he was getting rid of the ball quick, right? And and so he’s he’s getting through his reads. He’s figuring out where the ball should go quickly. Is that as much of this as anything? Yeah, I think that’s going to be part of it because that’s why I think it helps the offensive line when you’re able to play that quick at quarterback. He had an average time of throw of 2.44 seconds. still ended up pressured on 24 and a half% of his drop backs, which not terrible, but also might have been a little bit of Flaco working through some throws while being hit, moving around the pocket a tiny bit. That’s what I was seeing to make that not affect him. I can think of the one time I think they did make a good adjustment in Pittsburgh was the double double play. It’s just like third down, you are not beating us to Jamar Chase. We’re going to send double teams to both those guys. Actually think there was a window for Higgins on that play, but that wasn’t thrown. He throws the ball deep to Andre Yosvivas who beats Darius Slay down the field. And other than that play, I can’t think of too many times that the Steelers were thinking, let’s go inside leverage, press, jam Jamar, and just have a safety play over the top. They have the guys for it in my mind. They’ve got Joey Porter Jr., you’ve got Jaylen Ramsey that can try this. Not that they’ll be successful, but they could try and physical guys. And they just I that’s where I think the adjustment thing didn’t happen. felt like they were happy to just give up these access RPOS’s and try to go make the tackle, but that’s a tough guy to tackle. And uh so I thought it was a bit of a lack of adjustments and the Bengals were able to just keep keep hammering. I mean, you look at what happened in the game. It just felt like they just kept going, I’m not going to stop this until you make me stop and the Steelers never did. Yeah, very effective game plan in general. It it seemed like anything the Bengals really wanted after those first couple drives which included a couple drops on the second drive between Chase Brown and Andre Yosvage could have kept that drive potentially going scoring and and the Steelers tackling in this game. Credit the Bengals for for making some guys miss. The Bengals running backs in this game combined to force 10 missed tackles and that’s seven for Chase Ryan according to PFF. Three for Sam Pine according to PFF. Pittsburgh on the whole missed uh 16 tackles in this game. And and we’re going to spend some time later in the show talking about the Bengals tackling issues. The Bengals missed fewer 11 missed tackles. 25 total missed tackles in this game. Jamar Chase of course contributing to the missed tackles forced as well with three broken tackles according to PFF charting. Two for T. Higgins and one for Chase Brown in the in the receiving game as well. So, a nice day for the Bengals weapons showing off. A nice day for Zack Taylor figuring out what works, the game plan working pretty quick in this game. Yeah, they didn’t score in the first quarter, but there were some opportunities there. And so, it was nice to see the offense coming together a little bit and the run game coming together. We’ll talk about that run game and what we saw from this offensive line coming up next. We’re brought to you today by Ripling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make your work easier. But now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don’t work together. That’s not SAS. 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Mike, let’s talk about this offensive line, this run game. Joe Flacco was getting rid of the ball quickly, like you said. Cam Hayward had his share of wins. The guards had their share of struggles, I think, in this game. And and Joe Flacco, despite all of that, despite what we talked about with the Steelers pass rush challenge and and the challenge they would present in the run game as well, the Bengals found a tremendous amount of success in the run game this week. And Joe Flacco only took two sacks managing the pocket at a high level. How much of this is Joe Flacco in the pocket? How much of this is Chase Brown and and Sam Perine feeling? I mean, Saj Pan’s out there juking dudes. It’s that kind of day in the run game versus what what did we see from the offensive line to complement the way those guys played. Yeah, I want to give credit to uh the offensive line a little bit. I think this was one of their better run blocking performances. I mean, especially if you go back to like what this looked like when it was the game against the Minnesota Vikings where you’re looking like I don’t this doesn’t even look like an NFL run game to this game and they’re pretty solid unit. But I think as as maligned as and rightfully as he’s been I think for his performance so far this year, gotta also give Drew Sample some credit when it goes right and he’s making some good blocks and the receivers are making good blocks. And you got to give credit to Zack Taylor in this scenario who to me coached like his job was on the line with the way he was working some tendency breakers. I’ve talked a lot about how they run this one motion with a tight end that comes across and then stops right near the tackle on the opposite side and they just always run power or just something to that side of the formation. They ran wide zone opposite of that twice in this game and both them went for 10 plus yards. One went for the longest run of the season up to that point then beaten later on by a duo rep where the blocking wasn’t good. There was missed assignments and Jace Brown’s just awesome sometimes. So, I think you give the offensive line the credit where it’s due. Like, this was a solid performance from them, which and to be honest, that’s one of the best performances they’ve given is to be solid in both the run and pass game, but then also credit where it’s due where Drew Sample played a a good game blocking. And Zack Taylor dressed up his run game really well. I think Joe Flacco can even get a little bit of credit, too, because some of some of those package plays where he’s throwing the ball, probably not good run looks if you’re having that good of a pass look. So that’s part of the reason that you have that in there. I think credit is due all around really. But yeah, the offensive line played pretty well. I think the offensive tackles and pass protection, too. It was a good game from them. I I know TJ Watt ended up with one sack, but I mean I I take that. I think her according to uh according to NextGen stats, it was two pressures on 25 one-on-one reps for Marius Mims and TJ Watt. think he got a lot of like early hands, but nothing like major chips where he’s just sitting there while the tight end’s beating up TJ Watt. It’s just kind of like a well, let’s just limit his get off a little bit. So, there is a game plan in there. It wasn’t the game plan wasn’t Amarius, it’s all you. It’s all you. You’re one-on-one completely wide n TJ Watt. So, I think like the game plan helped a tiny bit, but great performance from him. Great performance from Orlando Brown on the opposite side. I know Nick Herbig did some damage, but to me a lot of that came when he got to go play spinner role and go rush against Dalton Risner, Ted Carris, and Jaylen Rivers, too. And that’s where Cam Hayward did his damage as a pass rusher. I thought they were the two best pass rushers and where they did their damage was up the middle. The there’s a little bit on the outsides, but to me, the tackles played pretty well pass protection wise, and I thought I thought I saw some pretty good Orlando Brown run blocking reps, too, for a guy that doesn’t move super well. Joe Flacco did a lot to mitigate the potential pressure issues. The throw to Andre Yosvage, which we we should probably highlight and discuss what happened on that play. Uh he’s he’s getting hit as he’s throwing that ball. PF graded the pass protection harshly, especially in true pass set situations. Nobody higher than a 56 in true pass set situations. According to PFF, they got Amarius giving up four pressures on the day. They’ve got Orlando Brown with two, Jaylen Rivers with three, Don Risner with two, and Ted Carris with two or with one. All of these in true true pass set situations. Most of the guys in the 40s. Drew Sample uh on his few pass blocking reps, was was blocking well. The running backs picked up pressures well in this game. But Joe Flacco deserves, I think, a lot of credit for for getting rid of the ball quickly for for a lot of this game. And the the average time to throw on slant routes below two seconds and and they threw six slants in this game. So that’s pretty quick. The average time to throw on go routes in this game. Sorry, there were nine slants. Um on the on the average time to throw on the six go routes that Joe Flacco threw in this game, two seconds. 2.05 second time to throw in this game for Joe Flacco. The overall average time to throw according to what I’ve got in front of me here, 2.1 second time to throw for Joe Flacco in this game. So ball coming out real quick. I think that helped. But that’s that synergy, right? The the veteran approach to the game from Joe Flacco. The pocket awareness, pocket management, feel for timing, feel for when the ball should be out, which is why I end up going back to Joe Flacco again here and and giving the guy a ton of credit. He played an excellent football game. We we’ve talked a lot about the the scheme that went in around it, the way that guys were performed around him, and Jamar Chase was obviously awesome in this game. got open consistently against what the Steelers have to feel is their best group of corners that they’ve had in the Jamar Chase era. The plays that T. Higgins made against Jaylen Ramsey and against zone and putting on the Jets for for his own touchdown. Noah Fant coming alive in this game a little bit, catching a touchdown, taking a ball for a big run after catch play. But it it a lot of this just keeps going back to Joe Flacco understanding what the Steelers are trying to do, understanding when the ball should be out and throwing the ball for the most part really accurately to the Bengals talented playmakers. And part of getting the ball out so quick is also you talk about Steelers defense making changes. Another change they should have made probably is disguising their coverage a little bit. Uh cuz we didn’t hear Patrick Queen talking about how excited they were about their disguises before the game. Maybe do a little better disguises if Joe Flacco is able to just read read ball throw ball repeatedly first for under two seconds to throw on some of those. Yeah, he’s you’re playing what he’s seeing whether whatever disguise you’re using. Maybe you’re playing though. We looked like we were in cover three, but we were actually in cover one. Who cares? I’m throwing a slant route either way. How how much of this do you think is is sustainable versus how much of this is maybe the Steelers defense is actually just really bad, especially at the second level? Yeah, I think some of this I do go back to like I think I think the Steelers defense is a certain breed and it works against some people um where they they kind of play 2010’s type of defense. They Terra Austin Terra Austin himself. Yep. Oh my gosh. And Mike Tomlin. They they’re kind of a little bit behind the times I think with their defense sometimes. And I think there are offenses this works against. Clearly just worked against Dylan Gabriel, but you’re talking about a vet from the 2010s against that defense. He’ll be all right. Um yeah. So I I do have a little bit of trepidation about like will this work when they play modern good defenses because the Steelers have some good defensive players. I think the se the second level and third level have some issues and they were getting beat. But I wonder next week you get the Jets. I don’t I don’t know about that one. But when you play against Well, what I’m also thinking is like man, if they have to play against good defenses that are more modern, like this is a pretty good offense, right? So I think there’s a little bit of trepidation from me about like this was the matchup. Zack Taylor is very comfortable calling games against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. He’s done so many of them and just last year had a great one in the normal part of the season, not the freezing cold game, and put up a bunch of points. So, I also think that you should have some caution, but you should be optimistic, too, because a lot of this stuff that worked, it worked because of the quarterback and that quarterback just had a good year for Cleveland. When he has these weapons, he’s got this opportunity. I think you just have a guy like what’s not gonna fail is just throwing the ball to Jamar Chase T. Higgins and finding ways to get them the ball. I think that’s what’s sustainable. What might not be sustainable is this run game. Maybe like how they do it with the package plays and having so many access throws and the Steelers missing 16 tackles. But I think there should be something in there that is workable for future games. I noticed that you didn’t say Joe Flacko keeping it on a read option isn’t sustainable. So I’m just going to assume that is a couple. Yeah, that one is. Yeah. A couple more notes here on the offense before we dive into the defense to finish up this show. Coming up next, this episode of Lock Bengals is sponsored by Mazda, who crafts cars for those who do more than simply move, like Joe Flacco, who does more than simply move and doesn’t even need the airport walkways that we joked about on those read options to move effectively at quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals. Look, I drive a Mazda 3. I’ve loved that car since I bought it. And they deliver confidence with every ride at Mazda with more IHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than anyone else as of August of 25. From footwork to breath work, athlete sweat, all the details. And Mazda brings the same intention to how they craft every model, which means you can feel that Japanese craftsmanship in every detail from metallic accents to available Napa leather upholstery. With all-wheel drive standard in every crossover SUV, you could cross crossover SUV, you can drive with confidence through almost any season. And like NFL players, like Joe Flacco, Mazda sweats, every detail. Because when you can make every move count, impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. We’re also brought to you today here on Locked on Bengals by FanDuel. And the NFL season is here. So FanDuel has an offer that you don’t want to miss. We’re in the middle of things here with Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals pulling off the upset. And going into that game in the last eight prime time games, seven underdogs had won straight up. So if you’ve got a hunch that follows a trend like that or the trend of AFC North road opponents on Thursday Night Football having a streak of futility going back at least a decade, well, you can put in a $5 bet. And if that bet is right, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. If you pick a bet, put $5 down, and it hits. That’s right. You get $300 in bonus bets to use across the FanDuel app. It makes football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something extra riding on the action. Whether you’re a casual fan or you love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes a game day experience exciting and gives you something extra to root for. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Make that $5 bet and give yourself a chance at $300 in bonus bets. Got a couple more Joe Flacco notes before we transition to the defense. Mike, because like to start every segment after a win with a positive, Joe Flacco, according to PFF charting, when he was kept clean against the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24 of 32 for a 75% completion percentage, 7.7 yards per attempt all three of his touchdowns when he was kept clean. That was good for a 92.5 overall grade. And anytime you see a big grade in the 90s from PFF, that’s fun. I mean, Joe Flacco played a really good game overall. I I don’t think there were many missed opportunities for Flaco in this game. And the the ability to execute downfield in this game is is part of what was fun about this. Two for three on deep balls, the T. Higgins play, the Andre Yosvage play, and I wanted to go back to the Andre Yosvage play because that one reminded me of a throw that we’ve asked Joe Burrow to make a lot. And part of what Joe Burrow does really well is that he understands, like Joe Flacco did last night against the Steelers, what defenses are trying to do to him and gets the ball out quickly. Sometimes that leads to him, like you said, identifying maybe that window to T. and getting the ball out in that window for the primary concept and not taking the alert. And Joe Flacco in the Thursday Night Football postgame show on Amazon was talking to to you know the the crew on the set down there and was talking about how like yeah if they got this double double look because he knows and and Zack Taylor told him and the Bengals know sometimes the Steelers are going to throw double double on their elite weapons at him. He has this he has this middle field go post whatever for Andre Yosvage he can throw you just absolutely dropped that in the bucket. Does that qualified Mike in your mind as a maybe alert isn’t the word but that that’s the kind of throw that we we talked about for for Joe Burrow in the past. Yeah, I think I think somewhat. My my only thought on this is I would like to know if it was an alert because the routes that Chase and Higgins run, they’re both in breakers at about 10 yards and that is typically on a bracket where the safety comes down. So part of me thinks like was this a genius play call of just like well if they run brackets. Flaco did say that yeah when when they got that double bracket call that’s when we’re throwing to Yoshi here. That’s what he said on the Thursday night postgame show. Yeah, which it like kind of is an alert in noticing the double bracket. So that to me is not a for the love of the game type of route where you’ll never get this ball um type of situation like the seam like the go on dagger which bro did throw one time I think but that’s almost never thrown. U this this felt like it was kind of in there as like a more part of the read where you wouldn’t read this if they just played cover three. you just okay that’s dead. So, it is somewhat of an alert, but I think it’s more if you’re going to rank like the alert throws like the skinny post on sale that that’s a similar to me where it’s like if we get quarters, I got this I got the skinny post and that is when Burrow hasn’t thrown a ton and he’s completed passes in this in that situation. He’s thrown it before, but I think you are correct in saying sometimes he doesn’t throw that because he has the window to T or chase in that scenario here. It’s hard to say. It’s hard to say because I don’t remember seeing this concept with Burrow where you have those inbreakers that are kind of tight coming at about 10 yards both towards each other. Like if that ball doesn’t go to Yos there and he tries to throw it, you could immediately see the oh what a terrible concept. You’ve got receivers in the same place. That’s how you end up with four Steelers defenders in a huddle around the two Bengals receivers. So part of me thinks that is part of like they kind of put that play call in there knowing the Steelers are going to do something like this and this is your answer for it. And if you but like if they don’t run that coverage, you have the answer because inbreakers are good versus a lot of coverages. So you just throw it to one of these great receivers on that. So I I’m playing both sides a little bit where I’m like, yes, Joe doesn’t always make that throw. But two, it is kind of a different concept and I think it’s in there specifically for this coverage. Just looks like the uh the alert post that we’ve at times alert go at times we’ve asked. Yeah, see that throw that. You’re good enough to do that. Uh let’s get to this defense. Mike DJ Turner excused from from most of what we’re going to talk about here. And credit to Jordan Battle for the great range from post safety on a terrible throw and decision from Aaron Rogers that leads to one of his interceptions. CJ Turner with one of the better interceptions you’ll see ripping the ball away from DK Mechaf. Sensational play. Uh outside of that, he had like maybe a couple pressures from Joseph Osai. One of which leads to Aaron Rogers evading the pressure, throwing the touchdown on a terribly positioned Gino Stone. And that was a couple times in this game, Dax Hill not having his best performance in this game. Demetrius Knight, four miss tackles, was either benched or had muscle cramping or both in this game. Not a lot of of terribly positive things to say about this defense giving up 31 points was it to to Aaron Rodgers and a third and 18 touchdown and a second and 20 touchdown which were both four verts to the tight end the inside seam where Gino Stone was just covering the sideline instead of playing where the half field safety probably should be on forverse and and you know, you get it. You’re trying to cap DK Metaf on the outside there, but it’s twice at least twice in this game they got you with Pat Fern move on on the seam ball. Yeah, you as the halffield safety, you have to be in position to make a play on both of those passes and which is hard to be fair. Is hard. And it is also you mentioned Dax having a bad I I did think he should have sank more and made that throw more difficult on the first touchdown. Yeah. The second one though, like the guy had to come off for the checkown because it’s second and 20. You don’t want to give up a first down on a checkdown like that. And the and the pole runner, he’s facing the opposite direction. Like there’s a lot of the receiver side. Yep. You open two receivers on that side. You got you got the tight end and DK on the other side. You you pick your passing strength, I guess. But, you know, because you’re you’re picking the passing strength here. So, you open to the passing strength. He’s correct in doing that. He’s opening to the correct side. And like, yeah, Fred Warner, maybe he flips his hips and gets underneath that throw to uh fire. That’s playing above your role. Like I’m not asking Barrett Carter, I think that’s who it was, to do that. Like you don’t have to be Fred Warner. I’m not going to ding you for not being Fred Warner, but that is where I’m like Gino Stone, you already got beat on this and he threw that. So you know it’s in his capability. Two, what a terrible angle on the throw. Either recognize with his athleticism, he’s not super athletic. Recognize your beat and seven points to gives them the lead. You got to go make the stop. I understand it end up being okay. Flaco drives down the field, scores a touchdown. That probably wasn’t the game plan because you would have just run cover zero if it’s like ah score don’t. We want the ball back. So you’ve got to be able to make a play there and one he puts himself out of position getting too far over DK Metaf. Yes. Two I think I think twoman fits better in that scenario. Second and 20 no time left. I understand it’s inside leverage. You don’t want to give up the outbreaker, but at the same time, just I’d rather get guys carried up the field versus have a guy get in conflict with a check down one yard from the line of scrimmage and a seam ball 30 yards down the line of scrimmage. But Jon, yeah, just too far over, didn’t gain enough depth, couldn’t make the play. I think he took a bad angle on the throw. Like there’s a lot wrong that ends up on how that ends up being a touchdown. I thought a more athletic safety actually intercepts that ball. Yep. Yep. And and Gino Stone is nearly in position to intercept it. As I was watching the play live and watching Gino Stone reacting and trying to get back into the window, it’s like, “Oh, he’s going to pick it.” Oh, he didn’t. Like my live reaction was, “Oh, Joseph Osai nearly had a sack and Aaron Rogers made a nice play to get out of it.” But Gino Stone, oh, oh no. And and that’s the kind of play it was for him. And it was just the repeated mistake is is what was rough. And Gino Stone has had generally a much better season this year for the Bengals. But going to cover two a couple times in this game is not something the Bengals major in on this defense and got burned in it twice against the same play. Very similar ideas on both of them, which is obviously frustrating, but I didn’t think Al Golden had a particularly good game as as a play caller either. Bengals managed to get off the field a couple times in this game, but it it’s tough with the the level of pressure they were able to generate, which was next to next to none. And the pressure they did generate was typically late and and not very effective pressure. But there’s a couple plays in the red zone that I didn’t like either. Not just the the cover two against four verts on third and 18, but the threeman rush on the first touchdown where Aaron Rogers has eight and a half seconds to throw and you’re dropping OSI again. Just asking guys that aren’t pass rushers to to get home and if they don’t, Aaron Rogers looks like it’s 10 years ago and he’s extending plays, making plays outside of outside of structure. Joseph Osai again, one of the closest defenders in coverage on that play. Just not really what you want. There’s another play where the Bengals go zero pressure in the red zone and it results in an easy first down for Aaron Ro. I mean, it’s just like you’re not going to fool Aaron Rogers with a zero pressure look, right? Like he knows where the ball’s going to go. He knows where the ball’s going to go if you drop out of it. He’s seen too much for for those kinds of things. So, those were a couple things that stood out to me as well in addition to just like how is this team still having tackling issues for the third year in a row? Like how is this still a thing? And it’s different guys. In this game, Josh Newton was up and played a little bit instead of Cam Taylor Brit who was benched, but he got jked twice in trying to defend the sideline, missed two tackles, and we’ve talked about Demetrius Knight. Just the miss tackle issue continues to be a problem. And Jaylen Warren is is tough to tackle and all those things, whatever. But it was it was a problem for this defense. And I just like how how do they figure it out, Mike? like what what do they do to get this thing back on track? Yeah. Uh the missed tackles, it it just you’ve different coaches, different players, and it just keeps happening. Yeah. So, you’re just scrambling for an answer there. Where who on this team is a good tackler though if you had to if you had to just pick somebody out that you go into a game, you’re like, there’s no chance this guy misses three tackles in one game. No one. Lit literally. Maybe Logan, but Logan’s had those games this year. Yeah. Yeah. My thought was also like I don’t know like Orin Burks, but he doesn’t play and he misses tackles, too. So, it’s like not really. So, it’s tough that you don’t have Logan, to his credit, has only had one game where he’s missed three tackles this year. Outside of that, he’s been okay. Hang the banner. Yeah. Yeah. I thought Logan actually played pretty well in this game, though. Yeah. Yeah. He had a couple really nice plays. I thought it it was like whenever he comes off the field and you leave the two rookies in, it’s like, man, this just doesn’t really make football sense. Slow’s making these good plays, you pull him out. Um, and the other guys are not really making good plays throughout the game. Sometimes sometimes, think of the Demetrius Knight stop on the tight end screen and there’s a couple things in there, but yeah, I think part of it just stems from they don’t really get good tackling players. You can think back to the draft class, what uh Shamar Stewart, one of the worst tacklers in the draft class. It just doesn’t seem like something they really focus on and we have an entire team of that. I think it kind of adds up. Shamar played only 22 snaps in his return to action out of 57. Was relatively invisible out there unless you’re noticing him being pretty stiff trying to turn and stop and and cut back to try to stop Aaron Rogers. There’s a lot of work to do for this defense. both I think schematically from from a play calling perspective where I continue to knit picks pick nets and from a tackling perspective I mean that’s such a such an issue for this team right now without Trey there’s no pass rush either so it’s it’s tough on that defensive side of the ball but at least they found a playmaker in DJ Turner who again awesome pick awesome play coming off his guy in zone for a pass breakup continues to lead the league I believe as of the time of recording anyway in pass breakups and and is stacking some performances here. This is now three really fun performances from DJ Turner, but a lot of work to do on that defense. At least we’ve seen some signs of life from this offense. Joe Flacco turning back the clock, playing a really fun game on Thursday night football and helping the Bengals get back into things. And now we’re back to a regular schedule here as the Bengals prepare for the Jets. And we’ll have a a full week of content for you here on Locked On Bengals. And until next time, you can find Mike Santagon on Twitter at Bengals_ands. Find his writing at Bengalstock.com where he puts his weekly film reviews up. And we appreciate Mike’s insight as always here on our weekly film episodes. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Hudday and have a good one.

Is Joe Flacco elite? The veteran quarterback’s stellar performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers was just as good on re-watch.

Jake Liscow is joined by Mike Santagata to break down Flacco’s impressive decision-making, the Bengals’ effective offensive strategy, and key improvements in the run game. While celebrating offensive successes, we acknowledge the defense’s ongoing struggles – namely tackling – while Flacco and the offense have rekindled hope for the Bengals.

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