PREVIEW: Drake Maye Should DOMINATE | Will Joe Burrow SAVE Cincinnati?

PREVIEW: Drake Maye Should DOMINATE | Will Joe Burrow SAVE Cincinnati?

The Pats are looking for lucky number nine as they head to Cincinnati. It’s time for our deep dive preview. This is Locked On Patriots. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. What’s happening? I am your host, Nick Catles, born and raised in New England. I’ve been covering the pads for 16 years. I’m also the co-host of the Greg Madard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. Before we get started, don’t forget we do a postgame live on Sunday. We will do it again following Cincinnati and the Patriots. We will be going live on YouTube, so don’t forget to check it out. On this week 12 preview, we tell you how we would defend T. Higgins without Jamar Chase on the field, while also giving you a Cincinnati formation that could cause the Pats defense some issues and offensively find out how the Pats can feast in this matchup. But first, we start with a major reason why the Pats are 9 and2 heading into this weekend. Today’s episode is brought to Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. One of the top priorities for Mike Vrabel when he took the head coaching gig for the Patriots was to reconstruct the offensive line and build his type of defensive line. Trench talk, Mike Vrabel fits perfectly. And at nine and two, we can say check and check. Let’s start with the defensive line. Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. Before the season kicked off, we talked about how Milton Williams and Christian Barour, that tag team combination on the interior of the defensive line was going to create havoc. It was going to cause headaches for any offensive line that they face. And aside from two quiet weeks from Christian Barour, hopefully he’s passed that after what we saw against the Jets. Aside from the two quiet weeks from Christian Barour, you got to look at this and say, man, oh man, have those guys done absolutely everything we thought that they would do. They’ve been good against the run and the pass. They’ve been getting some pressure. So, when you look at this defensive line between Milton Williams, Christian Barmore, the interior defensive line depth that we’ve talked about all week because Milton Williams going on the IR really creates opportunity for some other guys on that defensive line. But the the interior defensive line depth, Kyrie’s Tonga and Cory Deran and Joshua Farmer, the defensive line has been good to really good, especially against the run. Now, Milton Williams, he is ranked third in ESPN’s pass rush win rate metric for interior defensive lineman. He is literally one of the three best pass rushers at his position according to that metric. And one of the biggest questions on Sunday is how are the Patriots going to replace Milton Williams? Now, it’s unlikely you’re going to replace his production in full, but how do you replace the body? How do you replace the man? Does Christian Barour’s snaps go up? I I think that’s unlikely because Christian Barour uh did not practice on Wednesday. Uh this is how they have managed him all year long after last season in the blood clots. They are managing Christian Barour throughout this year. Maybe his snaps get an uptick once you get to the postseason, but right now I think you handle him the same way you’ve handled him all year long. You do not go away from your plan because your plan has been working. Kyrie’s Tonga I do think could get some more snaps on Sunday. His snaps have been going up throughout the year. I would not be surprised if he ends up at his highest snap count against the Bengals. Now, as far as the three technique and rushing the passer like Milton Williams does, would not be surprised if Christian Barmore is there. He played some against the Jets in that spot and he was terrific creating pressures from that interior against the New York Jets offensive line. The other guys that could play a role, Cory Duran, wouldn’t be surprised at all if his snaps go up a little bit. Joshua Farmer, full participant at practice on Thursday, looks like he’s going to be back. He has popped a few times on film this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Joshua Farmer gets a couple of more snaps. Don’t forget, you also have Eric Gregory, former Cincinnati Bengal. Maybe Mike Greybel plays off of that history, right, and throws him out there and says, “We brought you from Cincinnati. We wanted you. We love you. We’re going to play you a little bit more this weekend. Make it worth our while.” So, I I do think you’ll see that heavy rotation still. Kyrie Taga, Christian Bour, the main ingredients. Kyres Taga getting some more snaps. I’m not so sure Christian Barmore will while those other guys rotate in. And if you keep getting Corey Duran to play the way he has played, if you keep getting Joshua Farmer to play the way that he has played to go along with Christian Bour and Kyres Tonga, you should have enough on the interior. Now, defensive linewise on the edges, Caleb Chason, Harold Landry, you know, before the Tennessee injury to Harold Landry, both those guys were playing really well. Uh Harold Landry’s been a little bit more up and down against the pass. He has not been consistently getting pressure. I don’t think he’s healthy. He popped up on the injury report this week with a knee, but both Caleb Chson and Harold Landry practiced in full on Thursday. They should be out there. So when you look at this defensive line, the run defense, aggressive getting up field, some of the pressure that they have created, especially from the interior. Mike Vrabel wanted to build his type of defensive line. he’s doing that. I think he’s going to keep building. Now, the offensive line, they’ve been much better. They have been much, much better. And I know that you can look at some of the pressure rate metrics and maybe have some concern, but I think those pressure rate metrics are missing the context here because when you look at the Patriots, they have the sixth best mark of an offensive line in the time to pressure analytic. It is taking 2.85 seconds to get pressure on Drake May. Now, yes, some of that is Drake May’s ability to extend plays, maneuver around the pocket, but a lot of that is the offensive line. So, yeah, they’re giving up pressure, but how long does it take to get that pressure home? That matters. And the Patriots are sixth in that mark. And they’re sixth in time to pressure while they’re facing the eighth most blitzes in the league. the Patriots offensive line in opponent blitz rate. They have faced the eighth most. If you don’t believe me about this offensive line, Ben Baldwin tweeted out this week the pass protection composite ratings, which is uh 40% PFF, 40% SIS, and 20% ESPN pass block win rate. In that pass protection composite rating, all three of those metrics combined, the Patriots have the 11th best pass protecting offensive line in football. Last year, they were 32nd, 31st, 30th almost all year long. Another post from Ben Baldwin. How about when you’re in true pass sets, the pass block grades of offensive linemen and true pass sets. What are true pass sets? That excludes plays with less than four pass rushers. It excludes the play action. It excludes screens. It excludes short drop backs and less than two seconds to throw. So when you exclude those types of plays, which will help the offensive lineman in their pass protection, when you look at the Patriots offensive line and true pass sets, they have the ninth best offensive line in football. That’s what I’m talking about. One more post from Ben Baldwin. Run block and pass block composite ratings. The Patriots are in the good category. They’re in the top 10. The top 10 to 12. When you look at run block and pass block composite ratings. The offensive line has been much better. The defensive line is starting to look like a Mike Vrabel defensive line. I wish Harold Landry was healthier. But when you look at the O line, the even better news, your left tackle is 21, your left guard is 22. Uh, your center is 30 years old and your right guard turns 28 in December. Yes, Morgan Moses is 34, but the rest of your offensive line is either very young or just fine in age in NFL terms. The trenches, and the trenches should help on Sunday. Drake May had to be licking his chops watching Cincinnati film this week. That’s next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. If you haven’t tried it yet, Prize Picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup, and you can play anywhere. Prize Picks operates, including California, Texas, and Georgia. You can use prize picks during both football Sundays and NBA tipoffs. It keeps every game exciting and the new stacks feature is a gamecher. You can now pick more on Jaylen’s points, threes, and assists in the same lineup. Download the prize picks app today and use code lockdown NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That code again is locked NFL for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. [Music] Hey, thanks for uh making Lockdown Patriots your first listen of the day. And thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network your team every day. Don’t forget a few things. Don’t forget to click that thumbs up if you’re watching us on YouTube. Those likes help. Don’t forget to throw a comment in. Who do you like in the game on Sunday? Give me a score. Give me your prediction. And I want to thank all of you because we have surpassed the 7,500 subscriber mark. That was our goal the past few weeks. Now we look towards 8,000. But thanks to every single one of you h who have joined this lockdown Patriots family. Let’s continue to build. We go live on Sunday after the game YouTube. Uh let’s get in on it. No doubt about it. I appreciate every single one of you. Drake May and Josh McDaniels should cook on Sunday. I don’t want any excuses. This matchup is prime. It is prime for Drake May to go absolutely off. The Cincinnati defense is terrible. It’s terrible everywhere. How bad is the Cincinnati defense? Aaron Shots, he posted. Now, Aaron Shots created DVOA, that metric. The Bengals have the worst defensive DVOA ever through 10 games ever. The worst defensive DVOA ever. It’s astounding. They’re so bad. And we talked about it during the crossover. If you missed the crossover episode, it all starts with the tackling. I was watching the film between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh last weekend. And this is not hyperbolic. The Cincinnati tackling, if you want to call it that. Let’s put it in air quotes. Cincinnati tackling. It was as bad as I have ever seen on an NFL field. It was that bad. the linebackers, the defensive backs, equal opportunity on the second and third levels. They could not tackle. Gino Stone looked like he did not want to tackle. Looked like he didn’t want to be out there. How bad is the Bengals tackling when you look at the pass defense? Cincinnati is 32nd in yards after contact overexected. Worst in the league. That’s bad enough. But let’s dive in deeper because this is the deep dive preview. The yards after contact over expected or yards after the catch. Sorry, overexpected. Plus 414, 414 more yards than expected after the catch. The Washington Commanders are the second worst defense in that metric. I just said Cincinnati is at plus 414. What do you think Washington’s at? Give yourself a second. Try to figure it out. Do you think they’re at 370, 380? No, no, no, no. Washington is at plus 282. Cincinnati is 130, 140 yards worse yards after the contact over expected than the second worst team in football. And if you think that’s bad, here’s something else. Cincinnati has that much of a lead over Washington and they’ve actually played one less game than the Commanders. That’s how bad it’s been. Plenty of miscommunication, especially on the second level between linebackers looking like they have no idea what they’re supposed to do. I think Josh McDaniels watched this film and he was sitting next to Drake May going, “Oh, baby, this is an opportunity to make their life miserable on Sunday. misdirection play action jet sweeps attacking the edge. I Josh McDaniel is going to play some games on Sunday against this defense because they are lost and they looked lost against Pittsburgh, a division rival that they played earlier in the year and they still looked that lost on film. Evan Lazar wrote this week that Cincinnati is 30th in the NFL in success rate against running back screens. Trayvon Henderson, maybe couple running back screens, maybe maybe a Raandre Stevenson running back screen if he’s back, which it looks like he will be. This Cincinnati pass defense going against Drake May this Sunday. You know the Drake May and the MVP conversation. This pass defense is 32nd in EPA per pass. They’re 32nd in yards after the catch. They’re 28th in average separation. And they lost one of their starting corners last week for the season. Cam Taylor Britt is not going to be playing for the rest of the year. This is literally the worst pass defense in football. And part of that is their pass rush stinks out loud. Now, if Trey Hendrickson was out there, no doubt he would help. He would have a significant impact. He is in the top 10 in pass rush win rate for edges according to ESPN, but there’s no Trey Hendrickson. He’s been out the past few weeks. He’s going to miss Sunday. Now, Miles Murphy, I will give credit to. I thought Miles Murphy popped against the Steelers last weekend and it was by all accounts his best NFL game. He had a heck of a football game. But overall, this pass rush is bad. I’ll tell you how bad. 29th in pressure rate. Yuck. They are 30th in time to pressure. Remember what I said in the first segment about the Patriots offensive line. When you look at the context, the pressure rate is higher than a lot of other teams. That’s not all on the offensive line as we’ve discussed before, but when you look at time to pressure, the Patriots are sixth. So, it takes a while to get to that pressure. Well, Cincinnati 30th in defensive time to pressure. It takes them forever to get to the quarterback. They are 31st overall in team pass rush win rate. They don’t win their one-on- ons. And if that’s not bad enough, th this time to pressure isn’t because they’re getting blitzed. There’s no team that’s been blitzed less or has blitzed less rather than this defense. So, it it’s not like they’re they’re they’re failing to get pressure because, you know, oh boy, what’s going on here? What what’s happening? Look, they don’t blitz. They don’t get to the quarterback. It It’s brutal. They don’t get to the quarterback quickly. The pass rush is just non-existent. It’s non-existent. Drake May in this pass game should easily move the football. Drake May is not going to see exotic blitzes. He’s not going to see a lot of blitzing at all. He’s not going to see defensive edges winning their one-on- ones consistently. Again, Miles Murphy, Will Campbell’s going to do a good job on him, but Drake man this past game should easily move it and he should absolutely freaking eat on Sunday. Raandre Stevenson practicing, I I think it’s likely he’s going to play. We’ll see. He was moving around during practice on Thursday really well, so it it looks pretty positive for him. Trayvon Henderson, meanwhile, man oh man, he’s been good. He’s been good the past few weeks. Taylor Kyles of CLNS uh posted Trayvon Henderson’s rushing since week eight per pro football focus. He is uh fifth in yards per rush. He is tied for the second most rushing touchdowns. He has the fourth most yards after contact per rush. He has forced the seventh most missed tackles. and he is tied for the third most 15 plus yard runs. His 2.40 yards after contact per rush was from weeks 1 through 7 tied for the eighth fewest. He’s gone from 2.4 yards after contact since week 8 to 5.19. And for those saying, “Oh, it’s because of the hu the the two huge Tampa runs.” No, it’s not only because of Tampa. Uh back to Taylor Kyles. He says if you take out week 10 versus Tampa, Henderson is still tied for eighth in yards after contact per rush and he’s 10th in yards per rush and he’s tied for fourth in missed tackles forced. So even if you take out the Tampa game, he’s top 10 in yards after contact per rush, yards per rush, and missed tackles forced. It’s bad news for Cincinnati when you when you have that type of running back going against your defense that can’t tackle. And even more bad news for Cincy, because they can’t tackle, guess what? They stink against the run. They’re 28th in run stop win rate. They’re 32nd dead last in rushing yards per game. They’re 30th in rushing yards per attempt. They are 30th in yards after contact per attempt. The Patriots, they’ve got a menu of options on Sunday. They should be able to throw the football. They should be able to run the football. And I know they haven’t always run it. consistently, but against this defense, they should be able to run the football. If they get to the second level, they are going to absolutely eviscerate this run defense. Now, Cincinnati, again, they don’t blitz a ton. I know it was a little confusing a few moments ago, but they don’t blitz a ton, but they also don’t get a ton of pressure. What they do do is play uh lots of one high safety. At least they played a lot of single high safety against Pittsburgh. If they decide to play a lot of one high safety against the Patriots, we know what that means. That’s going to create opportunities for Drake May to beat the defense over the top. If you’re going to play one safety on the back end, Drake May is going to test that safety all day long. And Kahan Booty full participant Wednesday and Thursday. Looks like he’s going to be back on the field, which of course will exponentially help Drake May with the deep ball. Couple last things here. Patriots want to get the Cincinnati linebackers in space because they’re not good in space. So, running backs, tight ends could be a tough combination for these Cincinnati linebackers. And I I know it’s just unbelievable. Every stat it’s like it’s worse. Cincinnati is 31st on third down. 31st. second worst team in football on third down defensively. And we know what Drake May’s done on third down all year long. And let’s put a bow on this. Cincinnati is also 30th defensively in the red zone. One of the worst defenses in the red zone. The Patriots should put up points on Sunday. Coming up, find out how we defend T. Higgins and a whole lot more. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. [Music] NFL season is cruising along. And honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets can be a hassle between cues and login screens and prices jumping at checkout. It’s frustrating. That’s why you should use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to fans. Game time is fast, easy, and backed by the game time guarantee. You’ll always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all the fees are included. So, the price you see is the price that you actually pay. The app, it’s just super simple. You can even see the exact view from the seat before you are buying. And honestly, again, it’s just faster, cheaper, and less stressful than any other way that you can buy tickets. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms of course apply. Again, that’s promo code Loc for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download Game Time today. Like, comment, and subscribe. Marching towards 8,000 subs. Appreciate all of you. Don’t forget that on Sunday we’ll be doing the live post game on YouTube. The biggest question for the Patriots defense this weekend is who are they going to be playing against at quarterback. Joe Burrow was a full participant at Wednesday’s practice. He was a full participant at Thursday’s practice. Now, of course, Cincinnati plays on Thanksgiving. So, there could be an idea of, well, he’s not going to get a full week of practice next week, so let’s get him out there as much as possible this week, but I I honestly feel like Joe Burrow is going to play on Sunday. I I would be surprised at this point if he doesn’t play on Sunday. And if he does play on Sunday, that could change the math. Joe Burrow is a top four or five quarterback in the league. You could argue he is a top three quarterback in the league. You could argue that he was the best quarterback in the league last year. And the only reason why he did not win the MVP is because his defense, shocker, after last segment was brutal. Joe Burrow’s tough man. He’s experienced returning from injury. So, you know, if you wonder about the rust factor, maybe that will help him. He is super accurate, incredibly competitive, has a very high football IQ, and we’ll see how his mobility is moving in and out of the pocket and trying to extend plays and maybe scrambling every once in a while because of course he did have surgery on turf toe. That’s what he’s coming back from. But he is usually a mobile quarterback. Burrow’s tough. Now, if it’s Joe Flacco, Flaco has limited mobility. I think he plays hero ball at times. He’s got a big arm, but because of that, he’ll force some throws downfield. He is capable of big plays, but the numbers have not been great. He’s 22nd in QBR. He’s 31st in passer rating. He’s 28th in completion percentage, and he’s 32nd in EPA. So, he has not been great. He has not been great. The second big question for the Patriots, aside from who’s going to be playing quarterback against them, is how do you defend T. Higgins? Of course, Jamar Chase is going to be out. He’s been suspended. The suspension was upheld. So, how will the Patriots defend T. Higgins? We talked about this a little bit on the crossover. Will they devote Christian Gonzalez to T. Higgins and say, “Shut him down.” Will they play sides and wherever T Higgins lines up, the alignment is the alignment? That’s who plays against him. Or will they have Carlton Davis shadow T. Higgins with a safety helping him over the top. Now, what I would do is I would play Carlton Davis with safety help over the top. That’s what I would do. I I would put Carlton Davis on Higgins, give him the safety help, and then Christian Gonzalez can take care of Andre Yosvage. Take care of Andre Yosi Vos. Do what you got to do. Lock him down. And I think that would create a situation where it would be very very difficult for Joe Burrow or Joe Flacco to consistently make plays in the passing game. It’s old school Bellich stuff. Bellich would do that, right? Take the best receiver of the opposing team and put a good corner on him. Maybe not your best corner, but with safety help over the top and bracket that guy and make sure he doesn’t beat you downfield to make sure he doesn’t crush you. That That’s what I would hope to see. Is that what the Patriots are going to do? I have no idea. No idea. Now, there are a couple things the Patriots have to watch out for defensively. Noah Fant, Mike Cassiki, yes, old friend Mike Cassiki looks like he’s going to play. Patriots have had some problems against two tight end sets. Noah Fant, he can hurt you. He can hurt you after the catch. He’s an athletic tight end, a passcatching tight end. So between Noah Fant and Mike Cassiki, there could be some problems for the linebackers and safeties. And Chase Brown, the running back for Cincinnati, he’s also a good football player, and he can hurt you in the pass game. He made a one-handed catch against the Steelers last weekend, made a nice play out of it. It was nice soft touch from Joe Flacco, but it was a really nice catch from Chase Brown, who also finished the run pretty well. So the tight ends and the running backs, they could be an issue for the Patriots. They’ve got to make sure that they don’t give up those easy yards against those two positions. And Cincinnati, yes, this is with Jamar Chase, but they are the 10th best offense on third down. And here’s something that’s concerning. We know the Patriots defensive issues in the red zone. When you look at it, Cincinnati is the 14th ranked team in in red zone offense. So, they’re just better than average. But against this Patriots red zone defense, we’ve seen bad red zone offenses finish drives against this Patriots defense. So third down red zone, Cincinnati’s been pretty good to really good. Now what hasn’t been really good is their offensive line. Their pass protection is not very good. They’re 29th in pass block win rate. They’re are 27th. Here’s that here’s that stat again. They’re 27th in time to pressure. Rushers are getting to Cincinnati quarterbacks within 2.55 seconds. That’s quick. And they are 29th in opponent blitz rate. Again, got a little jumbled up last segment about the blitz rates and and switching defense offense, but the Cincinnati pass protection. You know, they’re not getting blitzed a lot. 29th in opponent blitz rate, but yet they are one of the worst teams in giving up pressure quickly at 2.55 seconds. So, teams are getting pressure. They’re getting pressure quickly and they’re not having to blitz to get that pressure. The offensive line, Ted Carris, is solid. Old friend, steady Teddy. He is solid. He was solid against Pittsburgh. Right guard was an issue last weekend. Jaylen Rivers, a rookie. He was terrible against the Steelers. He also got hurt late in that game. So, it might be Dalton Risner due to injury or just due to not playing well for Jaylen Rivers. Dylan Fairchild, their left guard, he’s dicey. And the offensive tackles, Orlando Brown on the left side, Amarius Smims on the right side, they can be had. And Orlando Brown can have some issues against speed. So, this offensive line has not been great. And if it’s if it’s Joe Flacco, by the way, Evan Lazar mentioned at patriots.com, Flaco is averaging 73 EPA per play while under pressure. He’s 28th in the NFL when under pressure. He is the eighth best quarterback in the NFL EPA wise when he has a clean pocket. So if it is Joe Flacco, you want to get pressure on Joe Flacco. He will struggle with that. All right, I’m going to give you two predictions because it depends on the quarterback. If you’re wondering, this season I am seven and four straight up. I am 6’4 and one against the spread. And when you look at it, the Patriots, you know, what’s interesting is the quarterback to me kind of does change the math. If you’re looking at the spread now, the spread now is 6 and a half. It It was about 8 and a half. Now it’s 6 and 1/2. I think the Patriots offense is too much for Cincy. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Patriots will score points in this football game. It’s just how much do the Patriots give up on the other end. So, here’s what I’ll say. If it’s if it’s Joe Flacco, Patriots win, they cover the spread. I’ve got like 3120. If it’s Joe Burrow, and I know he doesn’t have Jamar Chase, but Chris Alave went off, Drake London went off, Amecha Ibuka went off, and those teams didn’t have great number two receivers, right? So, I still think Joe Burrow, Noah Fant, the tight end packages, Chase Brown, T. Higgins, Andre, Yosvash. I I think those guys can put some points up against this defense if Joe Burrow’s healthy. And if he’s playing, I think he’s healthy. So, if Joe Burrow is healthy, I would not be shocked if this is a shootout. And I still have the Patriots winning. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re looking at 31, you know, 28, 3127, 3130, something like that if Joe Burrow’s playing. So, if it’s Flaco, I like the spread. If it’s Burrow, I don’t like the spread, but I’ve got the Patriots winning no matter what. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick Cradio. Don’t forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. And for your second listen, get a double dose of Lockdown NFL podcast with Tyler the Mad Man Roland and Tony Wiggins. Find Lockdown NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a fantastic weekend and we will see you on Sunday for the post game.

New England Patriots face struggling Cincinnati Bengals as Drake Maye eyes a breakout performance. Will the Pats offense capitalize on the NFL’s worst defense and keep their winning streak alive?

Nick Cattles breaks down why Mike Vrabel’s revamped trenches—featuring Christian Barmore and Kyrese Tonga—should control the line of scrimmage. The episode spotlights Cincinnati’s abysmal tackling, injuries to Trey Hendrickson and Cam Taylor-Britt, and why Drake Maye, Rhamondre Stevenson, and TreVeyon Henderson are primed to feast. Key topics include defensive strategies against Tee Higgins, red zone mismatches, and the impact of quarterback uncertainty between Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco. With the Bengals ranked last in multiple defensive metrics, can Josh McDaniels and the Patriots offense deliver a statement win?

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