Tee Higgins is More Important than We Thought

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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.