Bengals/Ravens

[*rfaulk34*]

(10-20-2021, 11:49 PM)Bmore Birds Wrote: Excited for the challenge. Most interested to see the Bengals' defensive gameplan. Indy & Denver basically had their ILBs lining up on the heels of the DL. It wasn't just a stacked box, it was constant run blitzing hell bent on slowing down the run. LAC played their ILBs at normal depth and got gashed in the run game. But their run defense was really bad all the way around gameplan not included.

The Ravens offense looks a lot different as well. We finally have capable targets on the opposite side of Hollywood. They can win one-on-one. Lamar leads the league in air yards per target. It's an effective intermediate and deep passing game. Crossing routes have slayed. Andrews has more space to work with. Overall, the Ravens can attack every part of the field which hasn't been the case previously.

The in-game adjustments have been very good by the Ravens offense. They're basically taking what the defense gives them. So I'm really curious to see what the Bengals gameplan is. Do they completely sell out to stop the run or trust their basic run defense? Are they aggressive in pass defense or play it safer to take away the deep throws?

It's going to take an innovative game plan to slow the Ravens down. Indy did a good job for 3 qtrs until they decided to drop into a zone and allow Andrews to have a career game in the 4th qtr. 

The Bengals D is night and day from where it was the last couple years. All 3 levels are playing well and supporting each other. The Bengals certainly know what doesn't work against the Ravens O so they need to do something different. With as well as they're playing, i can almost see them thinking they just need to keep doing what they're doing and be sound fundamentally. I don't know that's going to work. Giving Lamar too much time is almost a guarantee that he's going to find Brown or Andrews. Going too hard at him is almost a guarantee that he's going to take off and gash them with the run. You have to be able to pressure him but then have enough athleticism to keep him from the explosive runs. 

Chido Awuzie has been a very pleasant surprise this year and if i were coordinating the D, i'd have to think about Chido shadowing Brown. I'd then have either a safety or LB play press man trail on Andrews and bracket him. Wilson is too valuable to tie him up doing that and Pratt is more of a traditional thumper/run stopper. Akeem Davis-Gaither is very athletic and this may be a game where he sees his snaps go way up while Pratts goes down. I'd also go more with a controlled rush with blitzers coming from different angles to try and keep them guessing. 

The only problem is, you can't get too far away from what you are and what you've practiced all year so far...so it's going to be interesting. 

You also simply have to assume that the Ravens are going to score 30, so your offense has to be up to the task of putting points on the board. Fortunately, Burrow is very smart and he does have a game under his belt from last year. Also, he's currently the highest graded QB against the blitz this year and 4th in quarterback rating. They definitely have the firepower to keep up, but as always, it's going to come down to protecting the QB, giving him time and not turning the ball over. 

If they can come out of this game with a close, competitive loss, to me that's a plus and an arrow pointing up. I just don't think they're at the place, consistenly, where they can go to a good opponents place and come out with a win. They're close...and maybe they'll surprise me. At some point, to really be considered a good team, you have to go to someone's house and beat them.