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Bengals at Chiefs (AFC Championship Week Notes/Thoughts/News Thread)

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membengal

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Checking ahead of time - lots of news via press conferences and the on-field obs of reporters (for the first 30 minutes of practice) today - if I have time as it is going down while at work - do you all want me to paste them in here like I had been doing or does that instead screw up the thread for folks (per Amish). 

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Cricket Hall Of Fame

Cricket

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7 minutes ago, membengal said:

Checking ahead of time - lots of news via press conferences and the on-field obs of reporters (for the first 30 minutes of practice) today - if I have time as it is going down while at work - do you all want me to paste them in here like I had been doing or does that instead screw up the thread for folks (per Amish). 


I vote “post”

 

🦗

 

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membengal Hall Of Fame

membengal

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Dehner has a crackling good read today on the line and Burrow as things head to KC. There's some really interesting stuff to chew on that it might help all of us who argue/discuss this stuff on here to read - there were a few helpful tables in the article I could not paste...

 

Enjoy. 

 

https://theathletic.com/3090195/2022/01/25/protecting-joe-burrow-the-bengals-problems-options-and-potential-solutions/

Quote

 

There will come a time in Joe Burrow’s career he will heed the advice of coaches and older quarterbacks. He’ll throw the ball away. He’ll spot a free runner and spike the ball at a running back’s feet.

 

Sunday will not be that day.

 

The Bengals franchise savior plays behind a rickety offensive line and made a living spinning and slipping away from sacks and creating splash plays. Those plays have changed games and he won’t stop now. Even if it means taking nine sacks en route to a spot in the AFC title game.

 

“At this point in the year, it’s survive and advance,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “The kid gloves are off. We are going to do whatever it takes to win. If it means Joe takes some hits, then he’s fine with that. He would much rather us put the ball in his hands and go play than try to protect him. He doesn’t need that anymore. He doesn’t want it.”

 

The 2021 Bengals line is not suddenly morphing into the 1988 version. Prime Anthony Muñoz and Max Montoya aren’t walking through that door. So, in order to win, Burrow knows he needs to work his pocket magic and plan extra time in the Monday ice bath.

 

“It’s a little the cost of doing business sometimes,” Callahan said. The Bengals don’t plan on being in the battered quarterback business much longer. This offseason should feature a swift reconstruction of the front five. That’s a conversation for another day. This conversation is for a team needing one win to reach the Super Bowl.

 

Head coach Zac Taylor, Callahan and Burrow must plot a path of survival that keeps Burrow upright enough to work the magic that’s inspired an offense, organization and city to believe championship dreams can be reality.

 

Nine sacks and four more hits last Saturday, following a season with a league-high 51 sacks, won’t cut it at Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs. Especially when they cut short promising drives near the red zone to force eight Evan McPherson playoff field goals.

 

What were the problems, are they fixable, how much will change and which direction should the Bengals go?

 

Just like trying to explain how a team wins a playoff game while taking nine sacks, it’s complicated.

 

“Everyone is going to write about these nine sacks but it’s not all on the offensive line, it’s on all of us,” Taylor said. “That part needs to be put in the right context.”

 

A great point, let’s put it into context. The Bengals didn’t suddenly spring a leak and the Titans took advantage. Pass protection has been an issue all season. What Tennessee did provide was a particularly ugly matchup for the team’s weakness. The staff has tried to scheme around protection issues and take advantage of Burrow’s rare pocket presence and processing to offset the pressure.

 

If pocket movement and feel are Burrow’s superpowers, then wildly powerful defensive linemen capable of collapsing the pocket to erase escape lanes are his kryptonite.

 

That’s why Jeffery Simmons and company in Tennessee were a nightmare. Similarly powerful, so were Akiem Hicks and the Bears. Those were pass rushes centered around a truly bullish interior push and edges who similarly collapsed to contain.

For Mike Vrabel’s group, it’s a tenet of the old New England pass rush scheme (and why Bill Belichick always valued powerful defensive tackles as much as any position).

 

“They never rush past the quarterback, everything is based around making the quarterback feel like there’s nowhere to go,” Callahan said. “You got to have powerful dudes to do that.”

 

Plenty of teams have powerful dudes, though, right? Kansas City does. While the Chiefs did apply 22 pressures and four sacks in the first meeting, they were disruptive, but nowhere near debilitating as it was with the Titans. Burrow’s 466 passing yards are all the evidence necessary.

 

Chris Jones is as dominant a defensive tackle as you will find and he was that day, but much of the Chiefs pass rush was based on speed and pressure, which regularly created lanes for escape. That’s where Burrow thrives and did that day in the 34-31 victory.

 

What if I told you Burrow actually had a higher percentage of clean pockets against Tennessee than in any game during this streak? It’s true. The primary difference was when under pressure against the Titans, he couldn’t escape to make plays.

In fact, he’s been a more efficient, dynamic passer when under pressure than in a clean pocket in half the games during his hot streak. This was the first time the pressure truly derailed him as you can see by the cavernous difference between yards per attempt in a clean pocket versus being under pressure.

 

Even with Burrow’s capability to make plays through muddy pockets, a clean one makes the game about his accuracy and weapons and not any protection deficiencies. Burrow’s PFF grade, when kept clean, is 96.6 and under pressure is 62.9.

 

That’s as much about play-calling as it is protection, according to Taylor.

 

“Starts with me putting our guys in better positions where we can protect our quarterback better,” Taylor said. “I got to do a better job taking the pressure off the quarterback and put us in a better position so those guys can’t tee off on us.”

 

How can they keep Burrow cleaner against the Chiefs? Well, the answer might again be that less is more. As in less protection. Fans and pundits like the scream and yell about empty sets, but it’s actually served well to keep pass rush off him.

In the playoffs, the empty set served as a solid deterrent to pressure.

 

Burrow leads the NFL in yards per attempt in empty sets for the season. Notably, all three Ja’Marr Chase touchdowns in the first meeting with Kansas City came with only five pass blockers.

“Generally speaking, adding more protectors into the equation if you are not facing a blitz doesn’t help you very much,” Callahan said.

 

The Raiders and Titans were not blitzing teams. In fact, they were the two least-blitzing teams in the NFL this season. Burrow’s so good against a blitz that teams don’t like to do it anyway, so this fit in the wheelhouse. Tennessee went against its own tendency and actually blitzed 23.4 percent of the time. Burrow roasted them on those 11 blitzed dropbacks, going 10 for 10 for 192 yards and one sack.

 

Kansas City ranks in the top 10 in blitz percentage, so expect more aggressiveness than Cincinnati saw the last two weeks, but Burrow nearly always has a firm grasp on how to punish over-aggressive coordinators. The Chiefs didn’t get a single sack while blitzing in the first game, all four sacks came with a basic four-man pass rush.

 

If there’s an adjustment to expect, less blitzing would seem to be one. More quick game, draws and screens could be involved.

 

The Bengals did a fair amount of that against Tennessee, but as in any game they were wary of living in it and that proved true.

 

“The issue with always running quick game is they sort of always sit on top of things and clamp on it,” Callahan said. “They will make the throws hard and windows tighter because they know the ball is coming out.”

It inevitably comes back to the five up front. Hakeem Adeniji continues to struggle mightily at the right guard spot. The

 

Bengals have stuck with him despite a string of poor performances. Adeniji ranks 77th out of 88 qualifying guards in PFF in pass-blocking efficiency and has given up 29 pressures and six sacks in just half a season.

 

Rookie second-round pick Jackson Carman was promoted then benched midseason and waits in the wings. His inconsistency from snap to snap has been maddening for coaches, but considering Adeniji alone gave up three sacks against Tennessee, expect conversations this week about potentially giving Carman an opportunity.

 

Beyond tweaks in scheme or a personnel shift that could provide a temporary jolt, the Bengals and Burrow will continue to live with pressure. That’s the makeup of the 2021 club. They have been living with it all year and even during this streak of five straight wins for Burrow.

 

That will mean more hits. It will mean more scrambling. It will mean more instances where a future 35-year-old Burrow would look back at his younger self and cringe at the decisions to invite contact.

 

For now, however, he embraces the punishment as part of the equation of trying to win the Super Bowl.

 

“He’s able to just move on to the next play and it doesn’t affect him, you know I’m sure physically it does in the very short term and that’s my job at times to protect with the next call and be smart with what we do,” Taylor said. “But I also know if you call consecutive passes after sacks, he’s going to step up and play as if he didn’t get sacked the play before. Or play as if he hit a 40-yard completion on the play before. That’s just his mentality, his mindset.”

 

 

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Mikeslumina Pro Bowler

Mikeslumina

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I think we could deploy evans for check down. We could also do what kc does with hill have chase just stand on line of scrimmage he sees a lot of off coverage, so could work. Put more check down for burrow built into this scheme. Right now do whatever to get past chiefs wild cat chase or Boyd.. Keep things super easy this week at arrowhead . I think burrows throat being hurt this year might help us some as we had a qb that couldn’t talk. 

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Hooky Hall Of Fame

Hooky

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As Zac alluded to at halftime on Saturday, hopefully they can get earlier snaps on Sunday. There were too many last second snaps on Saturday that takes away the advantage of the OL knowing when the snap is. If they keep snapping at 0, then the D knows when they're snapping too.

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Jamie_B Hall Of Fame

Jamie_B

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52 minutes ago, membengal said:

Dehner has a crackling good read today on the line and Burrow as things head to KC. There's some really interesting stuff to chew on that it might help all of us who argue/discuss this stuff on here to read - there were a few helpful tables in the article I could not paste...

 

Enjoy. 

 

https://theathletic.com/3090195/2022/01/25/protecting-joe-burrow-the-bengals-problems-options-and-potential-solutions/

 

 

 

Good read 

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Jungletiger Hall Of Fame

Jungletiger

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3 hours ago, VonBlade said:

 

I know that as a Limey I have a different connotation to you for that sentence, but it sends shivers down my spine. (For context, the team he managed were miles ahead in the league, didn't win, and ended up second. So he didn't get to 'love it')

 

 

Hilarious

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