Arkansas Bengal Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Bengals' D-line could surge against lacking Pats front Paul Dehner Jr., pdehnerjr@enquirer.com 7:25 p.m. EDT October 1, 2014 (Photo: The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger) Wallace Gilberry doesn't need reminding about the New England Patriots wretched offensive play. He's aware. Heck, anybody who spent five minutes watching ESPN, browsing the Internet, listening to national talk radio or consuming any semblance of NFL coverage knows of the Patriots' line woes. The story took center stage Monday night in the Patriots 41-14 debacle in Kansas City and erupted into the spinning NFL news machine this week. While holding court outside his locker Wednesday, Gilberry stood with one foot propped on a stool but both feet dug deep into the proverbial sand as waves of reporters prodded about a vulnerable offensive line. "We're not looking at it like that," Gilberry said. "Again, like I say, we're going in and we're doing what we do best, and that's play Bengals football. We're not worried about how they looked last week or how they looked the week before. I couldn't care less about that, and I'm sure my teammates feel the same way. If we go out and don't do what we've got to do, it could be the other way around." New England searched for answers starting a rookie making his debut at center. Bryan Stork was actually selected six spots before Cincinnati took their starting rookie center Russell Bodine. Next to Stork at guard was fellow fourth-round rookie Cameron Fleming. Even beyond the youth on the interior, no combinations have produced much besides frustration and exasperation from their quarterback. "This hasn't been an isolated incident," Tom Brady said during his weekly spot on WEEI Radio in Boston. "I don't think offensively we've played well all year. I don't think we've played well for a long time." New England owns the fewest yards per play in the NFL at 4.6. Brady has been sacked 10 times, enduring the worst statistical season of his career through four games. For all the opportunity to dominate in the trenches, the Bengals defensive line must prove capable to take advantage of mismatches. This position group traditionally viewed as the backbone of these top seven defenses the last three years has been off to a slow start in terms of sacks this season in comparison to years past. Hard to argue with only allowing 11 points a game — best in the NFL— but a majority of the pressures resulting in sacks have come off blitzes or disruption of Carlos Dunlap. Landing sacks without help from blitz scheme or No. 96 hasn't been as proficient. The defensive line produced 4.5 of the seven overall sacks thus far. Three of those came from Dunlap. Stretching the seven sacks over the entire season would mean 37 sacks over the course of the regular season. The Bengals totaled 45 sacks in 2011, 50 in 2012 and 43 last season. Of all those, 77 percent were attributed to defensive linemen. This season, 64 percent belong to the defensive front. Part of the dip in defensive line sacks can be attributed to the progression of defensive tackle Geno Atkins from his ACL injury. Atkins racked up 18.5 sacks in his previous 25 games but blanked in three games thus far playing about 60 percent of snaps. Coaches say Atkins old form has begun to show itself after a cautious return during training camp. "I think history has proven that players coming back off an ACL injury, they need time on task, and he continues to get that," Marvin Lewis said. "I think every snap that he gets brings him a step closer to being where he was in that, but Geno is not going to get a lot of one-on-one opportunities and we understand that, and he understands that which is the best part of it. Sooner or later if we can continue to do good things with our other rushers maybe he'll get some of those again, and then he'll be able to do the things he needs to do for us." Tracking often subjective and small sample size evaluation numbers or even the progression of Atkins' sack totals don't tell the important story in the eyes of defensive tackle Domata Peko. "It's a whole defensive thing because sometimes people get cheap sacks or guys whiff on blocks and whatnot but I think the way we measure ourselves is we are winning," Peko said. "Winning is the key to it. "Stopping the run. Not letting them have a 100-yard rusher on us. Then just getting pressure on QBs, forcing turnovers, the secondary has been getting a lot of interceptions because of pressure and hits on the quarterback. All that stuff comes into play but sacks aren't all the stuff we measure our defensive line by." The Bengals six picks tie for the NFL lead. Cincinnati leads the NFL with a passer rating allowed of 56.9. For reference of the dominance of that number, the Giants land second in the NFL allowing a 73.4 rating. Sunday night undeniably presents a prime opportunity for Atkins, Dunlap and the entire front line to remind the rest of the league of their ability to wreck a game considering the ugly showing of the Patriots offense thus far. Just don't tell Gilberry about it. "Again," he joked as yet another reporter discussed the Pats offensive line. "You must have just got here. I couldn't care less about how they looked last week." http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/nfl/bengals/2014/10/01/bengals-defensive-line-could-surge-struggling-patriots/16559499/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scharm Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Bengals front 7 got gashed at times against the Titans. Not a very good tackling display. The Titans don't have a bad O-line like the Pats but I would expect the Patriots to try to take the air out of the football and go less spread and more grind it out against the Bengals. Early run D could be a big factor. Getting a lead also. Patriots playing from behind doesn't gaurantee a Bengals victory but I'd think it would make Brady's night a painful one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'm hoping this is the game Geno gets his feet under him again and starts looking as domininate as he once was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HairOnFire Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Carlos wants to go to Hawaii. This is the type of game that could punch his ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeb Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Carlos wants to go to Hawaii. This is the type of game that could punch his ticket. His team has to win the game for that to count but you are correct, ...this is high profile enough to get noticed. Also, a strong Denver game too. I take that back, ...Denver will be too late to count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyrid Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 The Pats LT, Nate Solder, has really been struggling. Will be interesting to see if Dunlap plays most of his snaps on the right side of the D (matched up against the LT) or if he stays mainly on the right side like he has most of his career so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HairOnFire Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 His team has to win the game for that to count but you are correct, ...this is high profile enough to get noticed. Yeah, winning would be nice. FWIW Dunlap was awesome in a losing primetime effort against Miami last year. Big time player. Sacks. Strip fumbles. Unbelievable downfield pursuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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