04-21-2022, 03:30 PM
(04-21-2022, 02:18 PM)Joelist Wrote: The story of our pass blocking last season is pretty convoluted to be sure.
On the good side we didn't have the plague of rushers coming in unblocked like we did in 2020 and we did have games where the line looked competent. Reiff was a definite improvement over Hart and Spain an enormous improvement over Jordan.
On the other side, the sack count did go up. for one thing we had constant issues with backs and TEs missing their blocking assignments (it was interesting that those plays late in the season and postseason mostly were not called anymore) and yes Burrow by his own statement was holding the ball too long for a while there. Depending on your stat source the backs and TEs gave up 8 sacks and Burrow himself is usually assigned 10-12.
On the line itself things went up and down until Reiff got hurt - that was when the implosion started. Adeniji was already terrible (9 sacks in his limited time including 6 in postseason) and Prince was just overmatched. Add in both Carman and Spain being injured as well as D'Ante Smith losing tons of development time to injury and it was a recipe for disaster.
Things like this are why the Bengals got right out there in Free Agency and landed Cappa and Karras and jumped on Collins when he came open - we have completely retooled the right side of the line.
Great post Joelist. Spot on about everything IMO.
