Tee Higgins is More Important than We Thought

[Whatever]

(10-10-2022, 09:10 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: The Bengals’ offense has been stop and go all season but without Tee Higgins in the lineup things were awful in the passing game.  It seems like opposing defenses can simultaneously lock down Ja’Marr Chase and Tyler Boyd but if Higgins is in the game one of the three will be open downfield.

Now I am definitely more of a defense guy but as a defense guy I caught on quickly to what the Ravens were doing last night. Downfield coverage is basically a geometry problem: Angles and areas.   It becomes significantly easier to select the correct angles and cover the correct areas when there are two deep threats on the field instead of three. Higgins was the missing ingredient.

Also, Baltimore sacked Joe Burrow three times and batted down at least three passes. With the deep threat negated, Joe had to check down and throw shorter with a flatter trajectory.  It’s a miracle those batted balls weren’t picked off.

Higgins is one of our best players and it hurts whenever one of your best players is out.  At the same time, it wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't such a steep drop off from our starting WR's to our backups.  

Zac certainly isn't helping anything with some questionable play calling and 4th down decisions, but our current struggles are similar to the ones KC's offense experienced last year when teams sat in two high S looks to take away the big plays and forced them to steadily move the ball down the field. Zac really needs to start looking at what they did last year for answers  The OL is starting to show improvement, but they are not at the point where they can execute on long drives with any consistency.