Arkansas Bengal Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 PFF reviews Bengals' Week 12 win November, 24, 2014 Nov 24 7:00 PM ET By Coley Harvey | ESPN.com CINCINNATI -- Before we move on from Sunday's win over the Houston Texans, let's take a peek at how Pro Football Focus graded the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12. As always, take the grades with a certain grain of salt because they can end up being later amended. They can also sometimes be the byproduct of particular schemes or coverages or set ups a team happens to play that week. Here are a few Bengals grades and notes following the 22-13 win:OFFENSEIt certainly wasn't pretty, but right offensive tackle Marshall Newhouse's protection for quarterback Andy Dalton was just good enough on the 73 plays when he was thrust into the fray by an unexpected injury to starter Andre Smith. He didn't allow possible league MVP J.J. Watt to sack the quarterback, and held his own in other quarterback pressure situations. Still, as expected, the grades weren't kind to Newhouse. They have been worse, but they certainly could have been better, and he knows the reasons why. According to PFF, he allowed a quarterback hit and hurry, en route to a minus-2.9 pass block grade. While he was only beaten on two pressures, Newhouse still was turned around a lot by Watt, beaten on a handful of other plays that turned out favorably for the Bengals because Dalton got the ball out quickly. Dalton had a quick trigger, taking the ball from snap to release in an average 1.88 seconds, per PFF. That was the best among quarterbacks in Week 12 entering Monday night's game. Slants and screens were among the shorter routes the Bengals employed to make sure he got it out before Watt could get his hand up and swat the ball away. That also was the tactic employed to help lessen the amount of time Newhouse had to hold his blocks. Per PFF, receiver James Wright saw a season-high 43 snaps. He didn't catch a pass, although he was targeted twice. Houston blitzed on 18 of Dalton's dropbacks. On them, he was 10-for-17 for 102 yards and the infamous pick-6 that occurred with a lineman actually set up in the neutral zone (officials didn't see it) and the house being sent. Dalton also scrambled once. Of his 35 passing attempts, Dalton didn't throw a single pass 20 or more yards in the air. Twenty-five of them traveled within nine yards of the line of scrimmage. Of the combined 132 rushing yards backs Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill combined for, 72 (54.4 percent) came after contact. DEFENSEEarly in the season, Wallace Gilberry was the defensive end getting the most recognition. Now it's Carlos Dunlap who is. The lineman ended up with a plus-4.3 grade, creating pressures on five of his 43 pass rushes. One of those was a sack. He also had four tackles against the run. As a result of his play, PFF named Dunlap an honorable mention selection to this week's Team of the Week. Geno Atkins continues to start gaining traction in the pass rush. He has 28 total pressures on 329 pass rush snaps this season. His 6.5 pass rushing productivity rating (one of PFF's signature stats) ranks 13th among defensive tackles. http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The PatternMaster Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 Geno's getting his legs back and hopefully will start to be the player he was before he got hurt. On the safety he was two yards deep and still made the play on the RB with the guard attempting to block him. If this defense can get a healthy Geno and Burfict then we should be in great shape to finish the season off strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincity Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 I think with Tez being able to lead that Double-A gap blitz again, it will once again start getting the pass rush going again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scharm Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 I think with Tez being able to lead that Double-A gap blitz again, it will once again start getting the pass rush going again Hopefully. That was a staple not too long ago. With Atkins back and being able to run the Duo A gap blitz would be huge benefit for pressure. Or just having the ability to fake it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scharm Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 By the way SI did a write up on double A gap pressure and pointed out Cincinnati as high users and high success. Cool article, if I can I'll look for it and post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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