Bengals’ condemned position group proved to be the ultimate difference in Week 1 victory over Buccaneers
The Cincinnati Bengals have traditionally succeeded on offense despite their offensive line. Sunday’s Week 1 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers proved the inverse is possible.
The Cincinnati Bengals offense doesn’t normally succeed the way they succeeded against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Quarterback Joe Burrow put together a relatively average performance in the 33-27 Week 1 victory. Completing 71% of his passes while averaging 7.3 yards per attempt is pretty close to what Burrow is expected to do on a given Sunday afternoon. His converting two of the Bengals’ four red zone trips into touchdowns was nothing out of the ordinary, if not slightly underwhelming.
Perhaps the inexcusable pick-six is acting as massive weight on how Burrow’s day felt. Outside of that critical miscue, it was far better than some of the season-opening outings he has scraped together in past years. That bar was very close to the floor.
The same bar has been used for Cincinnati’s offensive line during the majority of Burrow’s career.
This has been a known talking point with the Bengals. Their offensive line has been maligned for a decade, mostly for good reason. It’s been so engrained in NFL discourse that despite finishing last season strong, it was still viewed nationally as a weaknesses on the current team.
And then Sunday came and went. The offensive line didn’t just clear the low bar it was used to having; it cleared it with more room to spare than an Evan McPherson field goal attempt from beyond 50 yards.
Burrow was relatively mundane. His running backs were right there with him with a combined 3.6 yards per carry and -0.08 EPA/rush. Ja’Marr Chase had just 12 measly yards on two measly receptions.
The Bengals still scored 26 offensive points. Short fields thanks to the defense supplying four turnovers helped, but for once, it was the O-line that carried everyone else when the home team had the ball in Paycor Stadium.
Bengals’ offensive line steps up against Bucs
There were individual heroes in this game. Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook, Barrett Carter, and Tee Higgins all made game-changing plays. The unit that played the best as a whole, unquestionably, was Cincinnati’s O-line.
Per Next Gen Stats, four of the Bengals’ five OL allowed a pressure percentage below 8.1%.
There’s an individual to highlight here. Right tackle Amarius Mims, per NGS, allowed just two pressures on 37 drop backs. His main matchup, Rueben Bain Jr., was on average 4.77 yards away from Burrow when rushing him. The league average is 4.58 yards.
Mims was a beast on his own. The line as a collective was virtually lights out for four quarters.
Burrow was sacked at least twice in every Week 1 game before this weekend. He was sacked three times in five of the previous six Week 1 games. Two games saw him go down at least five times. He was sacked just once against the Bucs. Rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter, the very rookie who intercepted Burrow and took it back to the house, got to the 29-year-old QB early in the third quarter on a blitz up the middle in which Calijah Kancey twisted behind him.
That blitz got home, but most of them didn’t go so well. Further context proves just how impressive that was for the line.
More blitzing? No trouble
Burrow was not just operating behind an O-line that was keeping pressure at bay, the O-line was doing so against a defense that was feverishly blitzing.
It’s usually a cardinal sin to blitz Burrow as he is very liable to dice you up, but it wasn’t Burrow who beat the blitz. It was the line.
According to SumerSports, the Buccaneers blitzed on almost half of Burrows drop backs, but only pressured him 29.7% of the time. The blitz rate was 64% in just the second half alone!
Damn near two-thirds of Burrow’s drop backs in the final two quarters came against the blitz. Again, this is exactly Cincinnati desires, but the Bengals didn’t score a touchdown in the entire half. Burrow efficiently completed 11 of 15 passes for 121 yards, but couldn’t put the nail in the coffin until just before the two-minute warning.
Tampa Bay made a concerted effort to get in Burrow’s face, and he was much more often kept clean and able to operate in a normal pocket.
A different kind of win
It’s not enough for Burrow to be efficient. The standard for No. 9 with great protection is quite high as he’s been able to accomplish much with unreliable blocking in front of him. The Bengals usually have a slim shot at winning without him playing near his best. They certainly don’t count on him having even slightly off days. They would not mind having a better shot at winning when it does occur.
The Bengals won last year’s season opener against the Cleveland Browns despite an even worse for a performance from Burrow, but his offensive line was also part of the problem. This has been the case in his career, no matter if Cincy is a worthy playoff team or not. Most of the commendable wins on his resume have been a result of overcoming bad line play.
It’s really refreshing and promising to see the inverse can still lead to victories.
