The Bengals have a depleted secondary. Chidobe Awuzie is out for the season, Mike Hilton is out this week, and Eli Apple is banged up a bit yet will likely start. Dax Hill is new to the league, Tre Flowers has his ups and downs, and Von Bell can’t be everywhere at once.

The solution? A better pass rush!

It’s true. If Carolina’s quarterback is hurried, pressured, and sacked — like the Browns and Cowboys did to Joe Burrow — the Bengals have a puncher’s chance at going into the bye week at 5-4. There’s no better way to take pressure from the secondary is to put the quarterback in a shrinking pocket every time he drops back.

Too easy, just need to get a Myles Garrett and a Micah Parsons while giving Jonah to the Panthers.

It would be the perfect week for the pass rush to come alive.

(11-05-2022, 10:56 AM)Go Cards Wrote: It would be the perfect week for the pass rush to come alive.

I saw the Rams offered Carolina 2 1st rounders for Brian Burns? ! I still dont know how they could offer it as they gave up the farm for Stafford and Von Miller? my point being : Bengals dont try and make key moves like this . Im not saying we should have made an offer like this but dam, at least try and add some pass rush talent. All we seem to have is Trey out there with a bad back. We are one back injury away from having ZERO pass rush.   

(11-05-2022, 11:22 AM)kalibengal Wrote: All we seem to have is Trey out there with a bad back. We are one back injury away from having ZERO pass rush.   

Let’s not forget the Bengals don’t blitz much if at all; Lou Anarumo prefers linebackers to shoot gaps, help the defensive line stuff the run, and drop into shallow coverage — not go after the quarterback.

Problem is are D-line is banged up too we gotta stop the run first before we get a pass rush. Foreman has back to back weeks over 100 yards. Got practice squad guys at NT’, Jay Tufele and whoever Domenique Davis is ? who played over Shelvin last week. Got Hill playing a million snaps which makes him a less effective rusher , same goes for Carter. Hendrickson and Hubbard both banged up. Get Reader and Tupou back after the bye can force teams to run versus a light box and protect this secondary. Tough this week with both units banged up.

(11-05-2022, 11:26 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Let’s not forget the Bengals don’t blitz much if at all; Lou Anarumo prefers linebackers to shoot gaps, help the defensive line stuff the run, and drop into shallow coverage — not go after the quarterback.

He also prefers his CBs to not go for the ball. It leads to some pretty boring conservative defense. It's only able to produce a roughly average defense with tons of money spent on it, and I am not sure if it'll ever produce a top defense. You're simply not getting those big game changing plays that a defense needs to be a top defense. 

(11-05-2022, 11:46 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: He also prefers his CBs to not go for the ball. It leads to some pretty boring conservative defense. It's only able to produce a roughly average defense with tons of money spent on it, and I am not sure if it'll ever produce a top defense. You're simply not getting those big game changing plays that a defense needs to be a top defense. 

It’s not sexy but it’s extremely effective when fully healthy. Defense was lights out during the super bowl run. Far as this season goes they were carrying us before the injures, offensive no shows versus Pittsburgh, Dallas and Baltimore are why we’re in this hole. Unlike Taylor, Anarumo has good game plans and can adapt. Far as money spent Awuzie, Hilton ,Apple and Bell were great bargains. Lou using his secondary background to identify talent. Hubbard, Wilson , Pratt, Bates, all homegrown talent.

Or drop everyone into coverage and rush 3 to have tighter windows to throw into.

(11-05-2022, 11:22 AM)kalibengal Wrote: I saw the Rams offered Carolina 2 1st rounders for Brian Burns? ! I still dont know how they could offer it as they gave up the farm for Stafford and Von Miller? my point being : Bengals dont try and make key moves like this . Im not saying we should have made an offer like this but dam, at least try and add some pass rush talent. All we seem to have is Trey out there with a bad back. We are one back injury away from having ZERO pass rush.   

True the Bengals don't make big moves like this usually, although liked the BJ Hill trade. But really like many others would not like to trade the future away like the Rams have done imo.  Heck Bengals were one play away from beating the Rams star studded cast in SB already.

 Yet would like to make moves and 1 pick really does not mortgage the future as some on here claim if a star player is added or any starter that plugs a hole really. 

But oddly enough I proposed trading for Bradley Chubb who is a star and would immediately help the pass rush and only one person on here even  agreed. Not only in pass rush but who better to stop Nick Chubb than his bigger and badder cousin Bradley ? Would have been an epic rivalry between the two. 

Anyway he went for a kings ransom that glad the Bengals did not pay up, but would have been awesome if we could have traded Bates and a mid round pick for him.    

Oh well, love our DE's presently as long as they both stay healthy and believe they will step up this week when asked to do so. 

(11-05-2022, 12:17 PM)lone bengal Wrote: It’s not sexy but it’s extremely effective when fully healthy.  Defense was lights out during the super bowl run. Far as this season goes they were carrying us before the injures, offensive no shows versus Pittsburgh, Dallas and Baltimore are why we’re in this hole. Unlike Taylor, Anarumo has good game plans and can adapt. Far as money spent Awuzie, Hilton ,Apple and Bell were great bargains. Lou using his secondary background to identify talent. Hubbard, Wilson , Pratt, Bates, all homegrown talent.

Yes they had a good playoff run, but in the regular season the defense was 17th in scoring, 18th in yards, 17th in takeaways, 12th in sacks, and 22nd in 3rd down %.

They were real good earlier this year in scoring defense, but they also played exactly 1 NFL starting caliber QB, so it's unclear how much of that is real. Even while they were playing well, they weren't getting to the QB and were mediocre at getting the ball away.

As far as money spent, the Bengals have the 3rd most cap space spent on the defense in the league this year. 6/11 starters heading into the season were originally outside FA signings, with another 1 being from a trade. When Burrow gets $50-60m/yr, and Chase gets $30-35m/yr, good luck spending that much money on the D anymore. Lou hasn't proven he can make an elite defense with tons of money, let alone put up even a mediocre defense with more limited resources.

(11-05-2022, 02:37 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Yes they had a good playoff run, but in the regular season the defense was 17th in scoring, 18th in yards, 17th in takeaways, 12th in sacks, and 22nd in 3rd down %.

They were real good earlier this year in scoring defense, but they also played exactly 1 NFL starting caliber QB, so it's unclear how much of that is real. Even while they were playing well, they weren't getting to the QB and were mediocre at getting the ball away.

As far as money spent, the Bengals have the 3rd most cap space spent on the defense in the league this year. 6/11 starters heading into the season were originally outside FA signings, with another 1 being from a trade. When Burrow gets $50-60m/yr, and Chase gets $30-35m/yr, good luck spending that much money on the D anymore. Lou hasn't proven he can make an elite defense with tons of money, let alone put up even a mediocre defense with more limited resources.

In Theory the offense should be built to win shootouts/ games with a bad D but Taylor struggles with all the resources we give him. The defense has been consistently good end of last year to this season which shows consistency versus some fluke. The defense seems to have good game plans and strategy because Lou can coach versus the offense which looks like a mess. Elite is rare for any team are offense is so bad at times we need to be the 2000 ravens defense to win games. Points allowed is the most important stat could care less about sacks/ turnovers if your holding teams to 20 or under that’s enough to win games. We signed so many free agents because all are early picks were on offense, Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Williams. And he made drafted guys like Wilson and Pratt work.

(11-05-2022, 10:37 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: The Bengals have a depleted secondary.  Chidobe Awuzie is out for the season, Mike Hilton is out this week, and Eli Apple is banged up a bit yet will likely start. Dax Hill is new to the league, Tre Flowers has his ups and downs, and Von Bell can’t be everywhere at once.

The solution?  A better pass rush!

It’s true.  If Carolina’s quarterback is hurried, pressured, and sacked — like the Browns and Cowboys did to Joe Burrow — the Bengals have a puncher’s chance at going into the bye week at 5-4.  There’s no better way to take pressure from the secondary is to put the quarterback in a shrinking pocket every time he drops back.

For sure. Would like for Ossai to have a breakout game against the Panthers tomorrow. It cannot all be Trey, Sam does 
his job and gets enough pass rush but we need that other End to come in and really disrupt the Offense. Sacks, hurries,
pass deflections etc.

Pass rush coming on consistently is very important tomorrow.

Even more important is the offense to control the ball for close to 40 mins of game time. Get the running game working and dink and dunk the whole way down the field. Cut down on the number of possessions Carolina gets, then hope the defense can get a turnover or two or Carolina has a couple of drive killing penalties. We don’t need to go out there and try to be our usual big play offense, if we do we probably lose.

(11-05-2022, 06:16 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: Pass rush coming on consistently is very important tomorrow.

Even more important is the offense to control the ball for close to 40 mins of game time. Get the running game working and dink and dunk the whole way down the field. Cut down on the number of possessions Carolina gets, then hope the defense can get a turnover or two or Carolina has a couple of drive killing penalties. We don’t need to go out there and try to be our usual big play offense, if we do we probably lose.

Go back to what we were doing against the Saints and Falcons, Burrow taking what the Defense gives him. Use entirely
the Gap scheme and use both Perine and Evans instead of so much Mixon. Jonah is probably still starting so need to help
him out and chip the End with the RB and TE all game.

Getting the thread back on track, need to also see Cam Sample get some pressures, I like what I have seen of Ossai and
Sample would just be nice to see them really have a breakout game in getting to the QB. I saw Ossai getting pressure 
against the Stains but I think he still only has 1 sack. He needs to up that number.

Also Zach Carter needs to get more pressure up the middle and Tufele needs to get back to what he was doing against
the Saints and Falcons. This is not near as good of IOL as the Stains have.

(11-05-2022, 10:45 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Too easy, just need to get a Myles Garrett and a Micah Parsons while giving Jonah to the Panthers.

We might not have either of those 2, but our guy is certainly no slouch…

PFF currently has just 3 Edge Defenders with a 90+ pass rushing grade.

1) Myles Garrett
2) Micah Parsons

and...
3) Trey Hendrickson

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) November 5, 2022

And Carolina has a rookie LT who’s been pretty average thus far. Could be a good matchup for Trey.

Pass rush alone can't generate enough pressure. I expect Lue to dial up our most blitzed game of the season tomorrow.

I didn't read every post but I'll tell you another solution. Have the offense get it's head out of it's ass and put up some points. When you're behind the first 3 qtrs. of every game the opposing O has it's entire playbook open.

It's waayyyy easier for the pass rush to get home when everybody and their grandma knows the opposition has to pass more to get back in the game.

(11-05-2022, 11:22 AM)kalibengal Wrote: I saw the Rams offered Carolina 2 1st rounders for Brian Burns? ! I still dont know how they could offer it as they gave up the farm for Stafford and Von Miller? my point being : Bengals dont try and make key moves like this . Im not saying we should have made an offer like this but dam, at least try and add some pass rush talent. All we seem to have is Trey out there with a bad back. We are one back injury away from having ZERO pass rush.   

We are seeing how the Rams model works.  Yes, they won last year (by inches) and they are a joke this season.  They will lose to the 49ers as well.'

The Bengals DO try to make moves, just not stupid ones...Two first round picks for a guy most don't know?  They have Trey, Ossai, and Hubbard.  That's a pretty strong unit.  The problem became losing Reader.  Huge loss.  They will get him back as well as Chase and still be in the playoff hunt.  They do need to win today, though, to make that a likely reality.  

We seem to have given up all hope because they ran in to a buzz saw on MNF.  The Browns season was on the line and they played like it.  Tip your hat and move on.  That game could have come out very different with a few calls and not a tipped INT.  The damn thing just snowballed from there.  

The biggest help we can do for the defense is move the ball on offense and give them breathers.