Bengals in middle of AFC insanity

[*SHRacerX*]

(12-25-2021, 11:02 PM)fredtoast Wrote: In depth look at our defense.

Bengals are middle of the pack in many areas. They are almost dead on league average allowing 4840 total yds (4856 avg) and 5.4 yards per play (5.4 avg).  They are 16th in percentage of drives they end with a turnover, 17th in third down conversions rate and 15th in Red zone td percentage.

They are very good at stopping the run (4th in yds/game, 7th rush tds, 10th yds/att).

They give up a lot of passing yards (26th), but they are 16th in pass efficiency rating.  I don't understand all the new stats for pass rushing.  The Bengals are 8th in sack percentage, but much lower in "hurry percentage" (15th), "pressure percentage" (15th) and "quarterback knockdown percentage" (22nd).  All I know is that the pass rush seems solid this year.  The jets game seemed like something from the twilight zone.  I still do not understand what happened there.

Overall it adds up to the number 11 scoring defense.  And points are what it is all about.

I say the numbers back up my overall impression.  I think we are good against the run and we get a good pass rush mostly from our d-line.  But we have some problems in coverage.  Hard to tell if it is players or coaching, but with the pass rush we get we should not give up as many passing yards as we do.

NOT asking you to do this, bud, but it would be really cool to see a graph with these numbers plotted week by week.  I think the pass defense numbers suffered massively early on with Apple getting so much playing time after being a back up for so long....although I credit the coaches for having him develop in to a solid option.

The three game road trip hurt them massively as well.  Really, outside of that two game stretch against the Jets and Browns, I think the defense has been really solid.  Probably top 5 overall.  

Inconsistency isn't something to celebrate, but the defense seems to be rolling now.  I would imagine they will get a huge test today with a run first, second, and third down (almost like an option team).  If I had to guess, that is what we will see from the Rats.  I am sure they are thrilled that Reader is out.  

Very excited for Mike Daniels.  Although he doesn't play Reader's spot, it should be interesting how he impacts the game at 3T. 

This is also one of maybe two games where the Bengals have their preseason projected secondary.