THE RETURN: Bengals Film Breakdown Reveals How Joe Burrow Knocked Off Rust in Win Over Ravens

THE RETURN: Bengals Film Breakdown Reveals How Joe Burrow Knocked Off Rust in Win Over Ravens

We’ve got Joe Burrow film to break down for the first time in forever. And so let’s talk about how Joe Burrow played in his first game back from Turfto in a big win against the Baltimore Rap. 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 now the number one sports podcast network in the land. I’m Jake Liscoco, your host of Locked On Bengals, hosting this show since 2019. This show’s existed since 2016. Your best one-stop shop on the internet for all things Cincinnati Bengals. And today joined by our resident film expert Mike Santaga here to break down with me Joe Burrow’s return to action. what works for the defense, what’s sustainable, and what’s going on with that offensive line that’s really showing significant signs of improvement as this season goes on for the Cincinnati Bengals. That’s what we’ll get to in this episode of Locked On Bengals, brought to you by Game Time. You can download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL to get $20 off your first purchase of tickets. Welcome back to the everydayers out there. Welcome back to all of you who make lockdown Bengals your first listen. We appreciate all of you who are part of the everydayer club and are here with us as you start your day. And of course at this point you’ve probably seen the Bengals squad shows out there. You’ll see Mike Santaga with our crew on the Bengals squad shows directly after the game on the postgame show and I’ll be on those shows in the middle of the week. It’s just new supplemental programming here on the Locked On Bengals channel if you need a little bit more Bengals coverage in your life. But today, Mike, we dive into the film. We finally got some Joe Burrow film to talk about for the first time since week two. He finishes the game. Looks honestly, for the most part, unaffected by the turf toe injury, the steel plate in his shoe. I think there’s maybe a handful of plays where I thought his mobility was slightly affected. one of those where he’s rolling to his left, ends up turfing it at the feet of his running back on the play. Doesn’t have quite enough juice to escape the impending pass rush there as he’s trying to escape the pocket. But after he settled in, I thought he knocked the rust off very quickly. I think that he talked about his footwork in the first half being a little bit frantic, but eventually settles in. What did you see from Burrow as this game pro progressed from the first half where he looked a little bit like early season Burrow to the second half where I thought he looked like mid-season Burrow? He looked locked into me. Yeah. What was interesting to me was um it felt like in the first half got a little check down happy. Got a little let’s uh keep myself alive in these situations. also did feel like that’s where he kind of was a little bit scattershot and that’s probably footwork related where it sailed a couple of out routes and I think a deep ball so the accuracy wasn’t exactly where it normally is but then like you said that second half it felt like a normal Joe Burrow type of game where he’s on time he’s hitting windows that can only be accessed when you’re seeing the game at a high level he’s making accurate pinpoint accurate throws I mean the one to Tanner Hudson As awesome as that is as a catch, it’s also putting that ball in a bucket where only Hudson can get it in the off hand away from Kyle Hamilton on the run. That’s pretty awesome. And uh there’s just throws like that throughout the game. Some anticipation stuff on the outside. The Mitch Tinsley where he didn’t run hard enough. Thought that was Joe Burrow. Great processing, great throw. I mean, it’s a throw that doesn’t happen very often. Most quarterbacks aren’t throwing that. Joe Flacco probably isn’t throwing that. And that could be a reason Mitch Tinsley is not used to being in a live route, but that’s also why you have those are called for the love of the game routes because you’re running as hard as you can just for the love of the game. You’re not getting the ball here. But the reason you also run that hard is because there’s that one in a thousand chance that the corner is peeking inside because it’s Jamar Chase running an out route and thinking you might get a pick six and you’re open. So, it’s tough. But that was another example of like I know it didn’t go for anything but that is like oh Burrow is feeling it right now. Like he is reading body language of the defenders really well and accessing these throws that not every quarterback is able to do. Felt like his eyes were in the right place a lot in this game. So the processing especially in that second half and the timing felt really good. The accuracy a little up and down but also felt like that improved over the second half. It might all be footwork. might have been getting used to the steel toe in the or steel plate in the shoe, but he also made some plays out of structure, too. Might have been a little bit less mobile than normal, but I saw him do the quarterback sneak a botched RPO that turns into like a quarterback lead draw type of play. So, there’s some stuff in there that makes me think like he’s not immobile, it’s just a little less mobile and it’s probably not as comfortable. Yeah, I think it’s just a little bit less than you’re used to seeing from him in terms of the mobility, but he’s still like outside of structure creating the the play to Jamar Chase to to convert a first down. This team converting when they get behind the chains, they get into a first and 20, which for the last six weeks, even for all the good things I’ve said about Joe Flacco, and I know he converted in this situation a couple of times, but it felt like that was the end of the drive. You get behind the chains, that’s the end of the drive. You get to a second and 10, you get to a third and 10, that’s the end of the drive. and and Joe Burrow able to overcome those things at a little bit of a higher frequency, especially against the Ravens, especially with Jamar Chase. I did think in the first half as well, and let me know what you think of this. I thought that he did find glimpses of peak Joe Burrow. It wasn’t like it was all the one for 10 in the red zone stuff where everything is just off. There were a number of throws that did come out with really great timing and anticipation. You talked about the one to Mitch Tinsley that doesn’t end up being a touchdown, but talk about really great anticipation and you have a great clip of this and so make sure you’re following Mike at Bengals Sands on Twitter where he’s got clips of a lot of the plays we’re going to be talking about in this episode. He’s got a clip of this one, the the anticipation throw to Mitch Tinsley. But outside of that, I just thought like on some of the outbreakers, the anticipation was still there. He gets to a backside dig, which illustrates again that processing speed. He gets there on time in structure and he gets there a couple of times. One of them Shinobi Auzier bats away and a really good man coverage rep for Shinobi Auzier. But there are also some plays that I thought if Mitch Tinsley can come down with some of these contested kept situations you’re thinking, man, that’s a hell of a throw from Joe Burrow. One of them being in the end zone, a ball that hits Mitch in the hands as he’s kind of diving backwards would have been a really tough catch. Don’t get me wrong, but if Mitch makes that play, you’re thinking, man, Joe put that in a spot where only Mitch Tinsel can make a play on that ball and they got a touchdown out of it because his his trunk landed inbounds. So, if he would have caught it clean, would have been a touchdown. There’s also the ball to the right sideline that Mitch Tinsley couldn’t quite catch cleanly. That again, you you could have sat sat there and thought, man, that was a heck of a throw from Joe Burrow and Mitch Tinsley couldn’t quite bring it in. Not to pick on Mitch Tinsley who made some plays in this game as well and has made some plays this season, but that’s the the difference I think in in some of the ways we’re thinking about this game where there are some plays that I thought there were great throws from Burrow that weren’t rewarded with the catch on the other end. Yep. I agree. And uh you mentioned the anticipation on the out routes. I thought that was mostly fantastic. I think there was like one or two he might have been a tiny bit late on, but overall he figured it out. Yeah. like he kind of settled in and got there. I figured I think yeah, he settled in. I think that’s the way to do it is that he kind of knocked off some of that rust early on and the Bengals offense kind of protected him early on up until a sack, an unfortunate sack, the only sack, which I I think Sam Perine and Joe Burrow both a little bit oblivious to the slot blitz there. What did you think? Did you think that Peran should have kind of come off the play action a little bit earlier there to to identify that and pick up Maron Humphrey blitzing there? Yeah, because there’s no other way to protect that unless Pine kind of abandons the play action. It’s to that side so he’s not really in, you know, you’re not worried about him running into the quarterback to try to get there or anything or taking a long route around. Uh so yeah, ideally Pine kind of comes off that. I think that to me kind of signaled this is a team that doesn’t really get under center condensed formations very often and wasn’t expecting one of the most common answers to that which is just sending that corner because he’s so tight to the line. Yeah, one of the things that I want to make sure we talk about with the Joe Burrow return and talking about the adjustment, this being one of them, this uh Joe Burrow turning us back to the defense situation where he ends up taking the only sack he takes in the game. Then they kind of shift and and go back to the Joe Burrow offense to their detriment in some spots that that uh red zone sequence after Lamar Jackson turns it over on the three- yard line and to their benefit in others where the the pass to Andre Yosvage is a good example of this and just the way he played on their two big touchdown drives in the second half I think illustrate the upside that you get with a guy like Joe Burr who can continue to do it the hard way when he has to throughout a game where on the other side Lamar Jackson in those moments was unable to do so in this game. So, let’s talk a little bit about the scheme and an excellent performance from the offensive line before we dive into what’s working for the Bengals defense. Those topics coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Game Time. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be the biggest World Cup. 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Swipe tap ticket. Go. Game time. Michael, let’s talk a little bit about the scheme from the Bengals in this one and how it evolved. Like you said, they protected him a little bit early on and then we saw the return of the Joe Burrow offense. What did that look like to you in terms of the differences from the Burrow offense and the Flacco offense? And you know, people were talking quite a bit about ah the Bengals better keep some of this stuff from the Flacco offense. Did any of those ideas stick around because it felt like at least some of the run game did? But what were your thoughts on how the scheme adjusted for Burrow instead of Flaco instead of Browning and what we’ve seen from this team throughout the last six to nine weeks, I guess nine games since Joe Burrow last played. Honestly, that first drive didn’t even feel like the Flacco offense. It was so protected. It almost felt like he was pulling it that Taylor was pulling in from his McVey days with Jared Goff where it’s so much like boot and just wide zone handoffs and trying to run the ball and just run play action. Don’t don’t even get into drop back situations that often and then yeah, they take a sack because they’re in that condensed formation. You think of the Shawn McVey offense, it’s a condensed offense. Actually, I don’t even think it was the slot. I think he was the only wide receiver on the side. So, it was a true cat blitz from Marlon Humphrey on that one. But that’s just how tight the only receiver on that side was was right off the line of scrimmage because that’s how you run that offense. then they didn’t entirely abandon the idea alto together and I think Burrow got them out of a couple of underenter looks too but there was a little bit in there and I think especially in the run game like you mentioned they kind of run an interesting misdirection type of toss play where they pull a guard and have the running back kind of take a step that way and then jet back out the other way away from the guard which the Ravens also hit for a touchdown or at least something similar with Katon Mitchell earlier in the game and the Bengals hit last week too. I think actually Yeah, I think it’s uh pretty I think it’s becoming a popular play. Kind of like one of the fad plays of the NFL, which the Bengals are finally running one of those. I feel like normally you see those. It’s like no, they don’t run the RPO with the wheel flat post uh thing. They just don’t do that. So, they’re running one of the fad plays, which is cool. But, uh I think some of that stuck in there. I think the run blocking and the blocking in general is some of the best that Burrow has had in his career, which is relatively a low bar sadly, but I thought they were very good in this game. We’ll talk about that later, but I know the offense it just it felt like there was too much of the Burrow stuff at times and yeah, it is specifically that low red zone going out in empty. It’s just man that there’s no way I would be happy about that with a healthy a fully healthy and playing like prime Joe Burrow. I’d be a little bit like damn we have a threat of a run here and then uh to do that first game back turf toe. I think that was just kind of uh that that felt like a little bit of Zack Taylor feeling himself a little too much when Burrow was doing an okay job in that first couple of drives. Yeah, it’s a always a balancing act, right, of of giving Burrow a chance to to to be Burrow, right? Like you don’t necessarily want to take the ball out of Burrow’s hands, but on a first down, you can at least present the threat of a run. You can maybe hand the ball off on first and goal from the three and and then you have a couple more shots with Burrow after that. And obviously, they took those shots with Burrow after that. They were unable to convert in those spots. and and there was a there was a fade ball at one point to Jamar Chase that was uh covered well and pressed uh the press worked on Jamar Chase in that spot. I I do feel like they found some answers though as they often do and the second half they found the rhythm they needed. They they figured some things out. They were able to run the ball to kill some clock in the second half effectively as well. The the carry split weird in this one a little bit. We talked about that a little bit on the postgame show as well. The Sam Perin Chase Brown carry split very close to even where well even though Chase Brown outnapped Sama Pine by nearly 20. The Bengals ran a lot of plays in this game too. They they ran I think 80 plays on offense which is I think significantly the most they’ve run this year. I I would probably have to double check, but it’s the only time on NFL Pro where it was triple digits for the Bengals offense where that includes like some kicks and stuff, too. But I was like, “Oh, big one.” Yeah. So, there you go. The most offensive plays they’ve run this year. They also kicked six field goals, so that’s inflating that number a little bit, I guess. But, uh, I thought that they they found answers in the second half as Burrow settled in, found the rhythm they needed to find, found the answers to what the Ravens were trying to do to them defensively, and it’s all really bolstered by the idea that we actually have protection in this game. The offensive line was outstanding in pass protection in this game. Joe Burrow rarely pressured. What worked for the offensive line, Mike? Is is this just a unit that’s coming together? is Scott Peters clicking and with this with this group of guys at this point they’ve had great continuity there for the most part. Now Daltton Risner in a right guard a little bit of a change but this is two weeks in a row with this configuration of the offensive line. Oh yeah, I think Scott Peters deserves a lot of credit because this is I think Dylan Fairchild looks like a vet on stunts with the way he’s communicating with Ted Carris and Orlando Brown did a good job. the hardest match up. The only thing is that the Ravens don’t really present a ton of one-on-one pass rush winners without Matab, but Travis Jones probably the best of that group. Um, question mark. I’m not a full Ravens expert, but I think so. And felt like Fairchild handled him pretty well. I thought Risner handled him when he had to. Um, Mike Green did not look like some type of high-end, you know, rookie talent against Mims or Orlando Brown. felt like they really just handled all their one-on- ones really well. And that includes plays where Burrow is holding the ball an extended amount of time or trying to create something out of structure. The only times that they really had any issues would be Burrow kind of drifting into it or there’s a sack or not the but like like the sack like blitzes and stuff too would obviously get home when they don’t have enough guys to make that block. But even the blitzes, you think about that touchdown to Yose and that blocked that really well did a great job and Perine cross keying to the opposite side and getting that just a hand on that defensive back. I thought that was awesome. And he’s not even touched on a blitz like that. Yeah. And the confidence from Burrow really stands out there, right? Like I I think when Burrow is going well, he has a great feel for where pressure is coming from with his offensive line. He develops that sense for this is how much time I have. this is where I need to maneuver. And the confidence there is just like now Pine’s got that. I can just step up and throw this thing. And and that tells you that to me feeling really confident in his protection in this game. And I I think maybe it’s resultsbased because it it just kind of worked. Like maybe if he takes a sack there, we would be calling him oblivious a little bit. But it seems like instead to me he’s got a great feel for that’s what made me think, yeah, he’s good. Like he’s knocked the rust off. He’s He’s feeling like mid-season Joe Burrow at that point. Yeah. And he made some throws in what I would consider like kind of muddy pockets, but that’s the NFL where you’re going to make throws where there’s a guy around your feet or there’s, you know, one of your linemen is getting pushed back a little bit too far and makes you a little uncomfortable. That’s those are just the NFL. That that’s still good protection to me because he’s upright. He’s not getting hit while he throws. It’s it’s some of the best protection Joe Burrow has had. And I think he was trying kind of getting used to that as well. I feel like with some of this where he didn’t have to go one to two to I got to go make a play out of structure. You’re kind of talking about those backside digs. And part of me thinks he’s he’s you know reaching those because he’s now comfortable like man this offensive line is giving me enough time that I can cycle all the way to the backside dig. Yeah, I agree. I also think that like he even left some clean pockets at times. Some of that led to good plays. Like he’s buying himself an angle on the Tanner Hudson touchdown. But that’s a clean pocket. He doesn’t have to go if he has something else in structure, but he leaves to to get that angle. And and you mentioned the Bengals doing a great job against Mike Green. Thought stylistically that could be a problem, but man, Orlando Brown and Amarius Mims both playing awesome football in pass protection at tackle for the Bengals in this game. Orlando in particular violently engulfing guys throughout the game. And Amarius Mims I thought just did a really good technical job overall. Just a great pass protection game from him. But on the other side it was more comical to watch because Amarius was or because Orlando was burying guys a couple of times which which is pretty fun. And also, I mean, you talk about Dylan Fairchild and and his his progress as a rookie under Scott Peters. When you’re drawing praise from a random Brandon Thorne, who is a guy we’ve had on this show in the past as an offensive line expert, drawing praise from from Brandon Thorne after a Thanksgiving game. That’s a good place to be for a rookie. I know Fairchild was one of his guys, but uh exciting to see the development from Fairchild. We got to talk about this defense though, Mike. Planned to get to it a little bit earlier, but a lot to talk about with Joe Burrow’s return. The defense with five takeaways. A lot working in their favor. Still some problems. Let’s talk about what’s working and what’s sustainable with this defense down this stretch. Coming up next. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. The holiday season is one of the best times for sports. You got bowl games, big basketball matchups, playoff pushes. You probably just watched Ohio State play Michigan. It’s all happening at the same time. 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And so you you kind of see this synergy in this game between corners that were playing well between Daxel and DJ Turner and the front that was relentless and has been getting pressure with Miles Murphy and Joseph Osai consistently stepping up. It was an especially nice game for Osai obviously coming up with the forced fumble, coming up with two sacks. Uh but but what were your thoughts as far as what was working on defense? Because to me, it’s pretty encouraging to see Al Golden finding the right buttons to play to to to push in the Blitz game that he’s been ramping up a little bit in the last few weeks. Exactly where I was going to go is that it felt like Al Golden got really aggressive in this game and they ran cover zero, especially in that second half. I feel like a ton in those must pass situations. Um they didn’t. It helps that you get the Ravens into those by taking the lead and getting into a position where they have to throw the ball, but when they got them in to must pass suations. Yes, Lamar played bad, but some of that is also Golden bringing different looks, but also kind of lining up in zero and just bringing it a lot of times where it it really didn’t feel like the Ravens expected that. And I think some of that is how much Golden has lined up in pressure looks over the course of the season and he drops out or he brings four and tries to, you know, we’ve talked a lot about it. He hasn’t had his finger on the pulse of these pass protection schemes to be able to bring four and get a free runner or get a guy against a running back. What you can do, what any defensive coordinator should be able to do is bring six, seven, eight, and you’ll have just one more guy. So, as long as they don’t get too muddied up and walled up in there, you should be able to get home. And I thought that was something that Golden did really well. The other thing that Golden did in this game, I feel like a lot of stunts. And you talk about Osai’s great game and it feels like a lot of what he got came off of blitzes and stunts. Yes, he had some pressures one-on-one, too. I’m not trying to discredit him, but I also want to give some credit to Al Golden because it was a tech stunt on the left side with Murphy that worked to get him the strip sack. And then throughout the game, those two kind of ran some stunts and they were almost always successful against the Rosen Garden and Falle combo on that side. I also thought that they dialed up one of those replacement pressures that we’ve been so critical of all year, but like you said, starting to feel out the the protection rules and I thought he did a great job of challenging the Patriots protection rules a few times last week. But that’s what gets Osai as a free rusher on the right side. the the Ravens slide right. They’re forced to slide right to account for all the bodies in there and the left tackle Ronnie Stanley has to block. I think it was a blitzing linebacker or no was safety even. Maybe it was a blitzer that was not a defensive lineman. And so because he has a more direct path to the quarterback in the B gap, he has to step down and take that inside rusher gives Joseph Osai a free path to Lamar Jackson. And so that really stood out to me in terms of Al Golden dialing it up. And it also stood out when they they dial up that zero pressure and and it gets Miles Murphy one-on-one with Isaiah likely and he gets his hand in there to create the interception. So those are plays where yeah, you credit those guys for executing and taking advantage of those opportunities when you have them. Especially Miles Murphy because there’s a player on the other side and and Joseph is able to run through Lamar Jackson, not get jked. So you credit him for that, too. But Miles Murphy really getting into Isaiah likely’s chest. Great bull rush there. Isaiah likely is not a guy that should stand up to Miles Murphy in those spots, but nice to see Miles take advantage of that. And Al Golden for putting guys in spots that are advantageous to them to make plays. Yeah, kind of treated him like he should, like what you expect that to go. And that does come just a few plays after. Didn’t take a snap off from hawking down Derrick Henry 44 yards downfield. So, that’s that it was impressive to me. And getting his hand up, too, because the pressure was one thing, but getting his hand up in there. Um, I thought Golden did a good job in this and, you know, he did a good job stopping the run for the most part outside of, you know, a couple of big runs as well to get him into these situations. Not just them taking a lead because it was a close game throughout the entire first half, but it never felt like Derrick Henry was taking over the game or anything like that where you’re just entirely fearful of like the Ravens are just going to get the ball and they’d just be able to hand the ball off to Henry every single play. The run defense showed up as well. I I think part of that is also Lamar was clearly hampered, right? Like he he wasn’t moving as well as normal. He only really threatened them in the run game on the one or two play like he had a scramble. He had a keeper that they weren’t ready for. I don’t think they were buying that he was keeping the ball as an option in in the normal option game that the Ravens have. It wasn’t really present in this one. The other thing that worked for the Bengals in this game, I thought DJ Turner once again had a nice game. whether or not you agree with the offensive pass interference call. Uh did his thing out there, Dax Hill with the great recovery to to get in there and break up a pass when he’s beat by Devontes Walker. Uh even Josh Newton on on that fourth down getting the hand up to knock away that pass. Guys took turns in the secondary in this one. Jaylen Davis, yeah, he got pancakes and everybody saw it and everybody made a big deal out of it. You don’t want to do that. Yeah, like that’s that’s not great. But even Jaylen Davis had a few plays of his own, including the uh the strip of his own to create the the fumble that finally removed the drama from this one. What else worked in the back half, would you say, Mike? And what should we still be worried about? Because it felt like the linebacker still had issues and Barrett Carter made some plays in addition to the issues that he had, and it was still a lot of the same issues, but at least he made some plays this week. He hasn’t missed a tackle for a couple of weeks, and you take that as a step in the right direction. But what what’s your overall assessment here? Because Buffalo obviously uh considerable tests and then Baltimore again some very important games for the Bagels. They want to keep their season alive. Yeah, it felt to me like the corners did play a great game. I think whenever they were match or man or plastering out of structure, I thought they played really well. I didn’t think they did anything wrong in their zones. It did feel to me a bit a bit though like the safeties and the linebackers had some mistakes in both man-end zone and match coverages. So that’s where I think you get into was this is this sustainable when you ask like Jordan Battle getting beat by a tight end and then chasing him down. Incredible play to chase him down and force a fumble that goes out of bounds. But on a normal day is if that is Dawson Knox or Daltton Concincaid or whoever for the Bills and he runs the whole way down there, does he just hang on to the ball and then instead of incredible play, you’re thinking, “Oh my goodness, what is going on with this defense? Why can’t they cover tight ends?” Thought throughout the game kind of that under center play action over route stuff was always available. So that makes me a little bit worried that, you know, Buffalo sees that on film and hopefully the Bengals see that on film and go like we got to get back into coverage faster on these tight ends on these over routes to provide help. Um, but that does make you a little worried of like how sustainable is this? Also, you talk about five turnovers and h that’s another one. It’s like you hope you hope that you can always get five turnovers in a game, but it’s it’s more likely the best defenses of the league are getting like two. So can can you still put up a great performance getting two turnovers? Can they be as clutch as some of these like going through the back of the end zone on fumbles? So, those are what has me worried. What doesn’t really have me that worried is the OSI Murphy combo in the pass rush and the Dax Hill and DJ Turner combo in coverage. I think those things seem at least okay for the defense. It’s everything else. is I’m not 100% sure if you can always count on getting these turnovers or, you know, a guy dropping a ball when your guy falls down in coverage or bad throws from the quarterback or the quarterback just throwing the ball on the ground for a fumble. So, that that stuff’s not really sustainable. So, can they keep doing it in a situation against, let’s say, Josh Allen where he’s not going to do those things? We don’t know. Maybe he does and that would be awesome. Maybe they just get in the heads of all these quarterbacks and you get some good fumbles. But I think that’s uh a big test for them this week is can you keep repeating this because they did rattle Drake May a little too. I felt like I didn’t feel like that looked like an MVT type performance and May was putting up some really good performances against better defenses. Yeah, May May kind of settled in obviously in the second half of that game, but they they still found a few stops at key times and and I think Al Golden is to credit for some of that. I think Jaylen Davis in the slot has had a couple of really impressive weeks for them and that’s probably the trio that we see going forward assuming assuming that you have health there. So, if you can build around your your defensive plan around the fact that you can trust your corners for the most part. We’ll see if Dax can sustain this level of play. Really nice bounceback game for Dax in this one. But if you can build around having some guys that you you like the direction they’re going and Joseph Osai who’s really strung together now five weeks of of solid plus play in a row capitalizing this week with eight pressures, two sacks that the direction we’re seeing from Miles Murphy where the the effort is converting into plays a little bit more often. And the the theme that stands out to me is you’re getting hustle plays. I mean, the Yeah, you gave up the the big catch if you’re Jordan Battle, but at least you stuck with it, right? And yeah, you gave up a 45 yard catch or whatever it was to to Dererick Henry on first and 20 checkdown or whatever it was. And and that’s not something you want to do. But Miles Murphy tracked him down and then Miles Murphy had an opportunity to make the play that created the turnover. So, I I do agree that there’s still major concerns for this defense, but they made some plays this week. It is a step in the right direction, and at least it gives you an idea, I think, if you’re Al Golden, of something that you can kind of coach around or build around, right? Like, these things have worked. Let’s see if these things continue to work. And obviously, every quarterback’s different. going to need a different plan every week, but it’s nice to see that he’s at least found some solutions that have disrupted offenses. Of course, we’ll have you covered here on Lockdown Bengals all week as we gear up for another huge game for the Bengals going on the road to Buffalo, a game that is now earlier in the day than it otherwise would have been. It got flexed to the one:00 spot from its late afternoon window. I wonder if the schedule makers are regretting that at all. Maybe not because I don’t know about you, Mike, is weird. Like nobody’s talking about this Bengals game. And if the Ravens have won, I I can guarantee you people will be talking about, “Oh yeah, the Ravens in commanding position in the AFC North now. Did they just seal their you know, none of that in this one.” But we’ll have you covered here all week and make sure you’re checking out the squad shows as well. Find Mike on Twitter and his writing at Bengal.com where you’ll find his film breakdowns. And until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Good day and have a good one.

Joe Burrow’s return to the field helped spark the Cincinnati Bengals to a statement win over the Baltimore Ravens, overcoming turf toe and questions about his mobility. Jake Liscow and Mike Santagata break down Burrow’s film, highlighting standout throws, improved offensive line play—especially from Amarius Mims and Orlando Brown—and critical red zone adjustments. The conversation covers Al Golden’s aggressive Bengals defense, Joseph Ossai’s breakout performance, and persistent linebacker concerns as Cincinnati prepares for a pivotal showdown with the Buffalo Bills.

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