Arkansas Bengal Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 How can the Bengals prevent a shootout? September, 10, 2014 Sep 10 9:00 AM ET By Coley Harvey | ESPN.com CINCINNATI -- OK, shameless plug alert. That question was posed Tuesday afternoon on our "NFL Nation TV" Spreecast (if you haven't seen any of our 22 episodes, you're really missing out), and unfortunately we didn't have time to get to it. Actually, there were a couple of Bengals-related questions we couldn't get to. Between the discussion on Ray Rice and getting updates from and into debates with the parade of guests we had on, we just couldn't quite hit everything. My promise on the show was to address a couple of those questions on the blog. Here's the first one.How can the Cincinnati Bengals prevent a shootout against the Falcons? I took the liberty of paraphrasing that question a bit. Hopefully Joshua Tucker, the man who asked it, can forgive me. Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe easiest way to contain Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense? Keep them off the field. Like many of you, Joshua saw the scoring fest the Falcons had with the Saints last weekend in Atlanta, rallying to tie it at 34 before the game went to overtime. Less than two minutes into the overtime period, Matt Bryant hit a 52-yard field goal to give the Falcons the 37-34 win. The victory made quarterback Matt Ryan's 448-yard, three-touchdown performance stand out even more. It was certainly clear that the Falcons' high-octane offense got off to a strong start. Ryan was so good for fantasy owners that he led all players in the league in scoring, collecting 30 points for those who played him. So how can Cincinnati's defense slow the Falcons down and prevent a similar shootout, or even a blowout, from taking place? With its offense. That's right, in this case, the best defense will be a good offense. It'll take several long, clock-eating drives by the Bengals' offense to keep the Falcons off the field and out of rhythm. After last week's opener at Baltimore, it's clear the Bengals can incorporate those types of plays into their game plan. By halftime of their Week 1 contest the Bengals outpaced the Ravens by about 10 minutes in time of possession. Through the first 30 minutes, the Bengals had the ball for 20 minutes and 19 seconds. The Ravens possessed it for nine minutes, 41 seconds. In the fourth quarter, though, the Ravens had the ball for 11:18, while Cincinnati had it for only 3:42. It was in that final quarter when the Ravens rallied, took a brief lead, and even had a chance to tie it back up with about a minute to go. The Bengals' quick, two-play scoring drive on the go-ahead 77-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green played a role in that time of possession disparity. Against Ryan and the Falcons, the Bengals' best defense will be to play keep away, and also, naturally, to get into the end zone. The Bengals struggled last week with finishing drives that either made it to the red zone, or were close to it. They had six drives that ended inside Baltimore's 31, and all six resulted in field goal attempts. Five of the field goals were made, another was blocked. If the Bengals can get similar downfield movement, eat clock and get touchdowns, they have a good chance to keep this game well within reach. Another way they can prevent a shootout? Simply play good defense and put pressure on Ryan. As we pointed out earlier this week, Ryan was good against both the blitz and a standard pass rush versus New Orleans. With cooler temperatures expected in Cincinnati this weekend, perhaps the Bengals' defenders won't get quite as gassed late in the game and can get even more fourth-quarter pressure on Ryan than they had on Joe Flacco. Tired or not, they still got to Flacco on the drive that counted. Imagine if they were fresher. One way to keep them fresh? Keep the Falcons' defense on the field all day. http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueridge Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Answer :By playing top 10 quality defense. The Falcons have only played like a top Offense for on week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Burfict plays. Geno be Geno. No mental breakdowns in the secondary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scharm Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Flacco had 95 yards nearing the end of the 3rd quarter. Bengals got 3 sacks (2.5 from D-line) at least 3 batted passes from D-line and I think about 7/8 hits on the QB. It's true Flacco had alot of incompletions with his targets touching the ball. However, he was under pressure and threw alot of inaccurate passes or ones that were just chucks at a target and they had the hard decision to catch and get killed. Factors to prevent a blow out: 1. Conditioning of course 2. I think their skill guys will get yards. It's just doesn't seem likely the White, Jones and other are going to get shutdown completely 3. Get Ryan on the ground, not sure how he compares to the mobility of Flacco. 4. 3rd down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Score first, grind it out in the running game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
membengal Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 I don't fear a shootout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Dr Tarzan| Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Flacco had 95 yards nearing the end of the 3rd quarter. Bengals got 3 sacks (2.5 from D-line) at least 3 batted passes from D-line and I think about 7/8 hits on the QB. It's true Flacco had alot of incompletions with his targets touching the ball. However, he was under pressure and threw alot of inaccurate passes or ones that were just chucks at a target and they had the hard decision to catch and get killed. Factors to prevent a blow out: 1. Conditioning of course 2. I think their skill guys will get yards. It's just doesn't seem likely the White, Jones and other are going to get shutdown completely 3. Get Ryan on the ground, not sure how he compares to the mobility of Flacco. 4. 3rd down. 1. Having a nice weather day will help with the conditioning. It should be mid 60's and 70% humidity....no strength sapping conditions. 2. This is contingent on #3. I think the DL will get well on Sunday. Their Tackle, Carimi, looked horrible last week. Didn't have good anchor, nor great quickness against speed rushes. If Matthews is out with his ankle (haven't heard an injury update on him.), they will be basically be playing with 2 backup tackles. I suspect that Falcs will be forced to either, keep in an extra blocker, and/or double one of the DE's, leaving Geno with more single blockers and/or one less receiver in a pattern. 4. The Falcs run D was not impressive, I think our run game gets healthy, also. Alot more ground and pound than we saw last week. I like thier undrafted FA LB, he's a tackling machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|schotzee| Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 Score first, grind it out in the running game. Agree. I just don't see a shootout any which way with this Bengsl's D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Lucid| Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 I picked in the predict the score thread that we would beat them by 2 touchdowns or more, and I believe it. I never expect a win by that great of a margin because it doesn't happen that much in this league but I just don't see them stacking up to us at all. Our offense is better than their defense by a large margin IMO, and their offense doesn't stack up well against our defense. They are weak on the OL and that is where our strength on D resides. This is contingent on the status of Burfict though as I didn't like what I saw after he left the game on Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigo Montoya Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 Brees carved the Falcons up last week. Saints turned it over twice or they probably win said shoot out. I don't think Atlanta will be able to do much to stop us if we do not turn the ball over. On the flip side, I think our defense can and will slow down the Falcons talented offense. Especially with their o-line being banged up. If we don't get worn out, we should be in good shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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