Minnesota Vikings vs. Cincinnati Bengals Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Minnesota Vikings vs. Cincinnati Bengals Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Cincinnati Bengals traveled to the Minnesota Vikings. We have one that uh they kind of wish they hadn’t. I know for sure we have to cover as the highest graded player in PFF history in a single game. At least tied. I don’t remember. I I I’d have we’d have to do some research, see if there’s anybody else, but it’s tied. I highly highly doubt there’s anybody I don’t think there’s anybody else who’s ever done it. I’m pretty sure of it. I don’t think there is. And that’s the man who is at the very top of the Minnesota Vikings top five list, cornerback Isaiah Rogers with folks, that is not a typo, a 99.9. Now, I tweeted out that he was having an unbelievable game and that in the first half he had a 99.9 because what was it? An interception returned for a touchdown, a forced fumble that he recovered and then turn returned for another touchdown and then he had another forced fumble. just some of the most impactful plays uh in the game which has been unbelievable. I just got to say you you loved this signing for the for the Minnesota Vikings before the season, but um you know I can’t give you I can’t say that you predicted a 99. I can’t I can’t take credit for perfection. That’s for sure. The only thing I think of as I go, you know, may maybe Philadelphia should have thought about keeping this guy as their number two. Yeah. You know, anytime you got a guy you let out of the building, he was capable of a 999. Obviously, you might have a little bit of second thoughts there. Anyways, uh back to the top five that we had for Minnesota. Number two on the list is safety Theo Jackson with a 91.5. Edge rusher Jonathan Granard 90.8, defensive tackle Jaylen Redmond with an 898, tight end T.J. Hoginson an 868. And then Carson Wentz in this game who was starting for JJ McCarthy a 61.4. On Cincinnati’s side of things, edge rusher Miles Murphy top of their list with a 71.8. Offensive tackle Amarius Mims with a 70.7. Uh edge rusher Joseph Osai with a 70.3. Wide receiver Jamar Chase with a 664. Offensive guard Dalton Risner a 60.2. And then Jake Browning a 64.7. Dalton. Anytime we’re doing a top five list and there is somebody on the list who makes it with a 60.2, you did not have a good day at the office as a team. Not a great day, especially offensively. And you know, I I came into this game thinking that Brian Flores maybe had an advantage over Jake Browning. He’s a tough DC to go against. Obviously, the Bengals still have weapons. Apparently, the advantage was massive. Bengals Z minus0.807 EPA per play in this game. the worst by any team since week nine of 2023 when the Arizona Cardinals with Clayton Ton as their quarterback shout out played the Cleveland Browns and lost 27 to nothing. The worst EPA per play since the Clayton Ton Cardinals against Miles Garrett in the Browns. That’s how bad this Bengals off. I would have been curious as to if you take that game out how far back you got to go. Uh cuz I’m actually surprised that it happened as recently as 2023 cuz negative negative0.807 is low. I I I thought I was going to have to go back further, but that that game obviously jumps at Miles Garrett against Clayton Ton’s a tough matchup for sure, but I I mean five turnover. They had five turnovers and five explosive plays. I mean you had as many turnovers as explosive plays. Seven negative plays. I mean there’s not really any other way to say it. It was the biggest loss in Bengals history. They’ve never lost by 38 points in a game. So, and offensively, now it can’t get any worse than that, I think, considering what the Vikings did on defense. But this is the fear with Jake Browning as the quarterback and the offensive line being an absolute mess that it is and basically a team that doesn’t have a lot of dimensions and paths to winning games. This is the fear for the Bengals is that if it’s if it’s not this bad, it could be something close to this bad on a weekly basis. It’s not It’s obviously not good. And that’s just the Bengals. I mean, you turn the ball over five times, you’re going to lose. And sometimes you’re going to lose like this. Yeah. I mean, this the stat that told the story is very simple. Five fumbles, three loss fumbles. I mean, that’s it. I I I went back and I I watched uh Browning’s all 22. I watched all of his throws. It’s not horrendous. Like, it’s fine. It’s Jake Browning. It’s Jake Browning. It’s what you would think. like it. Is he Joe Burrow? Obviously, he’s not Joe Burrow, but Jake Browning was fine in this game all things considered. Was the run game good? No. They could have been better running the football. And the Bengals offensive line, which we’ll talk about a little bit more in a couple minutes here, like that’s still an issue for this team. But genuinely, you can’t fumble the ball five times and lose it three times. And you certainly can’t have an interception go back for a touchdown, one of those fumble recoveries go back for a touchdown. I mean, just you’re not going to win the football game. You’re just never going to win. So, that has to be the stat that told the story here. The Bengals offensive line, 13 pressures allowed. It’s not getting any better, Dalton. 13 pressures allowed, 41.7 run blocking grade, 42.0 pass blocking grade. Orlando Brown Jr. even who when we talk about the Bengals offensive line, we always just talk about the interior, right? Oh, they got to get the interior right. Okay, they’ve got to get the right three out there. They’ve got to all play together. What? Orlando Brown Jr. is supposed to be the guy who they don’t have to worry about at all. 26.5 pass blocking grade in this one. Amarius Mims was their only offensive lineman who graded above a 70. You saw Dalton Meiser was number five on that list with a 60.2 and they just signed him what a couple weeks ago. Yep. So that’s the biggest issue for the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah. Of course like Joe Burrow is hurt. That’s that’s the overarching theme that’s underneath the umbrella. But this offensive line is is a massive issue whether it’s here in 2025 or moving forward. They might have to do what the Patriots did this past offseason where the Patriots are just like, “Nope, four or five completely new offensive line starters.” Now, Amarius Mims is probably going to be there, so it’s not obviously going to be all five, but they might need three new offensive line starters going into next season. And and anything less than that might be viewed as a failure for how this team is playing. I I would agree. I mean, you’re going to get Mims and Fairchild coming back and hopefully Fairchild can just make it through this rookie season without any sort of confidence being shattered. But I mean, this has been the theme of four of the last five years, they’ve had a bottom five offensive line in our grading. And I already know this season they’re in the bottom five. I’m just checking right now to see if they’re the number one worst one because Well, I I got another stat for you while you’re looking that up. So, feel free. Yeah. So, uh Gordon McInness, our content director, sent this to us this morning. We talk about pass protection with the Bengals offensive line. They can’t run block either. 37.4 PFF run blocking grade as a team through three weeks. That’s the second lowest that we have charted since the 2006 Lions at a 34.5. So through three weeks they are they are not just the worst run blocking unit in the NFL, they’re the second worst that we have ever charted through the first three weeks of an NFL season. And they are the lowest graded offensive line and obviously have the lowest run blocking grade in the league. I mean there’s just there’s no there’s no answers. It’s just well hope you get the ball to Jamar and T enough times. Well, the people are saying trade for Jamus cuz Jamus and how he’s going to throw the ball 40 50 yards down the field. That’s offensive line proof cuz he’s going to do that within the first two and a half seconds anyways. It doesn’t really matter whether they’re blocking or not. I don’t know if I’d call it offensive line proof. I mean, but it’s he’s going to push it downfield more than Jake Browning. But it does. Look, at the end of the day, if your offensive line is this bad, there’s nothing that’s offensive line proof. You’re seeing it in Cincinnati. You’re seeing it in Houston. You’re seeing it in Miami. This is just what you get. You see it in Cleveland. If your offensive line is this bad, this is what your offense is going to look like. Yep. And and especially now you don’t have Joe Burrow to be lightning quick with the processing and sometimes bail you out. Even look, even if Burrow was in there, you don’t feel like this team could have made the maybe they make the playoffs. Maybe they scratched their way to nine or 10 wins because Joe Burrow is just that good. Now, I mean, yeah, they started 2 and 0, but again, at what cost? And this is where we’re at. We’ve we’ve talked about this for I mean everybody’s talked about this for five, six, seven years now with the Bengals offensive line. They just same story. It just repeats. Yep. Um most impressive obviously it’s Isaiah Rogers. Yep. You want to say anything more about it? I I mean just perfection. I mean we’ve we’ve we’ve never seen it. People in the chat are like, “Oh, you couldn’t give him 100?” We don’t It doesn’t go up to 100. 999 is the is the highest that it goes. So if we could, honestly, we would. If it was in there, we would. I mean, you don’t just go with two force fumbles. He outscored the Bengals by himself. Think about I mean, that’s I didn’t even think of that. He He outscored the Bengals by himself. I I mean, and al and a pass break up on T. Higgins on a potential touchdown. I I mean, just um as great a football game as you’re ever going to see played. Simply I mean, by our scale, perfection. There’s not much else you can say about it really. You’ll we I don’t know the next time that we’ll see that again. Uh, I was impressed by the Vikings tight end passing game, which I really liked in this game. Six catches, 61 receiving yards. Uh, both the tight ends, uh, had touchdowns in this one, T.J. Hogan and Josh Oliver. 1.239 EPA per pass to tight ends, which is a very, very high mark. So, very efficient throwing the ball to the tight ends, multiple tight ends they obviously have in this offense. So, I know we talked about the wide receivers and Justin Jefferson and everything like that, but um, a really potent tight end passing game when they want to lean into it. And I think that’s going to come in handy whether it’s Carson Wentz or JJ McCarthy moving forward. So was impressed by the Vikings tight end pass the game in a game that there’s just not a lot of takeaways. When you have those kinds of dominant plays on the defensive side of the ball that go back for touchdowns, it really just sort of ceases to become a competitive football game. So, the thing that I took away the most um that could actually be something constructive moving forward is how the Vikings were leaning into their tight ends and how it was uh very fruitful for them to do that.

PFF’s Trevor Sikkema and Dalton Wasserman review the matchup between The Minnesota Vikings and The Cincinnati Bengals.

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