Bengals Week 10 Snap Counts vs Ravens: Cincinnati's pass rushing plan sparks too many questions
The Cincinnati Bengals risked it all and fell just short, again, to the Baltimore Ravens. The 35-34 loss stings as much as any defeat from this frustrating season, but the Bengals were at least able to escape playing a road game on a short week without any more major injuries. It's not a great consolation prize, […]
The Cincinnati Bengals risked it all and fell just short, again, to the Baltimore Ravens. The 35-34 loss stings as much as any defeat from this frustrating season, but the Bengals were at least able to escape playing a road game on a short week without any more major injuries. It's not a great consolation prize, but it is reflected in the snap counts.
Let's see what the snaps from Thursday night had to say about the game.
Bengals Week 10 Snap Counts vs Ravens
No tricks on offense
Go through the running back, wide receiver, and tight end positions and report back anything that looks suspicious. It all matches to expectation with one slight exception. Running back Chase Brown (71) was on the field seven out of every snaps while Khalil Herbert (2) left the field just as quickly as he saw it. Any shot of Herbert playing significant snaps went down the tube when he fumbled his lone carry of the night. Brown also fumbled and unlike Herbert's, it was recovered by Baltimore. That was the kind of night for the running game.
The Bengals knew how they could succeed against the Ravens' defense. Joe Burrow (82) threw a season-high 56 passes (he hadn't even eclipsed 40) and took a beating as a result. The times he wasn't hit, Ja'Marr Chase (77) saw 16 passes come his way while Brown got 10 and tight end Mike Gesicki (58) was right behind with nine. Tanner Hudson's (29) seven targets were ahead of Jermaine Burton's (39) five and he did much more with them, though many will remember the two-point conversion he couldn't convert at the end of the game.
Burton did indeed player a major role in his first game back from being inactive for missing walkthrough last week, but only one of his five targets were completed.
Continued frustrations on defense
Once again, Cincinnati's pass rush disappeared against a quality team and not even Trey Hendrickson (54) could get home on Ravens QB Lamar Jackson despite pressuring him six times. Jackson came away sack-free and evaded the Bengals' pass rush just like he did a month ago.
Sam Hubbard (31) played under 50% of the defense's snaps for the second consecutive week, but there's an argument to be made that he still played too often.
Myles Murphy (14) played the least amount of snaps he's played all season, and he still was second on the team in pressures (3) with just seven opportunities as a pass rusher. Murphy registered four pressures in his debut against Baltimore back in Week 4, so why he played even less this time around is a total mystery.
Safety Jordan Battle (30) did not out-snap Vonn Bell (33) like he did last week, but the distribution being near-equal is evident enough that the rotation is still ongoing.
Other notes
Rookie tight end Cam Grandy (4) made his NFL debut as a practice squad elevation and looked damn good doing it. His block shown below helped Brown score his opening-drive touchdown.
Defensive tackle B.J. Hill (44) played his usual workload despite being a game-time decision with a rib injury. The rotation behind Hill and Sheldon Rankins (41) wasn't as frequent with rookies Kris Jenkins Jr. (21) and McKinnley Jackson (12) seeing fewer snaps than they've had in recent weeks.
No receiver in NFL history has ever dominated a team like Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase has dominated the Ravens in 2024
Chase made history Thursday night despite the loss.
