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Bengals Film Breakdown: Analyzing a Dominant Performance by the Offensive Line

Cincinnati beat Buffalo in the trenches. They'll look to do the same on Sunday in Kansas City.

Mike Santagata

In this story:

It was universally agreed upon that the Bengals' offensive line was going to have to overcome a mismatch with the Bills' defensive line going into their Divisional Round matchup with Buffalo. 

Down three starting linemen, the question seemed to be just how bad would they play and whether they would be able to run their standard offense or not?

 Instead of simply surviving, the Bengals offensive line was thriving in this game. Joe Mixon averaged 5.3 yards-per-carry, which is the fifth-highest average of the season. Joe Burrow was only sacked one time, and the offense was humming the entire game. 

Mixon ran the ball 20 times and eight of those rushers resulted in a first down. The offense was incredible and that starts with the domination up front.

Run Game

The Bengals did a great job of staying ahead of the chains. Early on they seemed to avoid third downs, highlighted by their first drive of the game where they didn't have a third down and only had two second downs on their way to the end zone. 

Including the two third downs that the Bengals picked up via penalty, their average distance on third down was about five yards. Only three of their third downs were 3rd-and-8 or longer. Overall that’s a great job of keeping the offense on track and out of 3rd-and-long situations. By staying efficient early, the Bengals offensive line was not put into obvious passing situations all that often. They did all of this by winning in the run game.

The Bengals' rushing attack was dominant from the start. This is the second run of the game, which goes for 10 yards on first down.. The concept is a wide zone toss play and the execution from the tight ends and right tackle Hakeem Adeniji are worth marveling at. Devin Asiasi drives the end man on the line horizontally while Adeniji and Mitchell Wilcox perform a perfect trey combination to open up the hole. 

Wilcox turns the defender, awaiting Adeniji to take over the block. Once Adeniji takes over, Wilcox climbs and seals at the second level. This gives Mixon a free run into the safety who he absolutely plows after lowering his shoulder. It’s rare for a back to get an uncontested run into the third level of the defense, but the Bengals were able to achieve that through fantastic run blocking on this play.

This is a concept the Bengals seemed to add recently and it works to perfection with this group. Not only is this a fantastic design for a 4-open look (no tight end), but it pulls a defensive back into the run fit and uses all of the offensive linemen’s unique skillsets. Because Ja’Marr Chase is on an orbit motion away from the play side, the nickel defender is shifted into the run fit and one of the linebackers is kicked out of the run fit. 

This creates a personnel mismatch. By pulling Adeniji on this play, it creates a better angle for Max Scharping to make his back block. Adeniji is a very good athlete for the tackle position as well so he is able to make these long distance pulls with ease. Jackson Carman gives a strong punch to influence the defensive end up the field to create a gaping hole with Cordell Volson and Ted Karras working a double team together on the nose tackle. This uses Adeniji’s athleticism, Jackson Carman’s power, and Karras and Volson’s teamwork for a successful run. This was a 16-yard gain for the offense which is an explosive play in the run game.

Another example of the Bengals scheming their offensive line into an advantageous look while utilizing all of their pieces to the best of their ability. This is a 7-yard run on 2nd-and-1 for Samaje Perine. The concept is split inside zone with that same orbit motion from Chase to pull a defensive back into the run fit. 

The sift block from Wilcox on this play is smart because that’s one of the blocks he has been the best at this season. It’s another concept that uses a combination block from Volson and Karras who are the only two offensive linemen left who have played together the entire season. Lastly, Jackson Carman shows off the ability to block in space here as he seals Tremaine Edmunds. This is 2nd-and-1 and the Bengals offense is dictating the Bills defense with motion and blowing them off of the ball.

This play had the best block of the day with Carman eviscerating Tremaine Edmunds. The concept is crack toss and it really hinges on Chase’s ability to crack the defensive end. He gets great leverage and is able to pin that defensive end inside while both Carman and Volson pull around him to lead down the field. 

Carman pancakes Edmunds into the sideline while Volson gets out and takes down a defensive back. Adeniji’s athleticism shows up once again as he is able to lead up and block on the backside linebacker despite that linebacker having a head start to the play side. This play happened on 3rd-and-1 and the Bengals ended up gaining 13 yards as they set themselves up for another touchdown.

All of these different concepts were set up extremely well and used the Bengals offensive lineman’s unique skill set. Adeniji’s athleticism, Carman’s power, and the communication between Karras and Volson were all on display during this game. The players did a fantastic job executing this gameplan, but not enough has been said about Frank Pollack and Zac Taylor’s design to get these guys into advantageous positions. 

They didn't ask the offensive linemen to do anything they were uncomfortable with in the run game and did a fantastic job of forcing the Bills defensive backs to try to make tackles in the run game. 

Pass Protection

Not only did the Bengals offensive line handle business in the run game, but they did a great job in pass protection. They were charted with some pressures, but pressure really comes in different forms. The Bengals seemed to give up more pressures late in plays rather than early. They forced the Bills defenders to work for the pressure which is one reason that Buffalo only had one sack. The Bengals also had a slew of plays where they gave Burrow picture perfect protection.

The Bills bring five on this play to match the Bengals 5-man protection. That means that they have one on one blocks across the board. They get to start with a double on the nose because the linebacker is coming from depth, but Karras has to eventually come off of that to pick up the backer. Everyone wins their block at the point of contact and that’s all Burrow needs to throw this pass. To go with some surprisingly good protection, Burrow was near perfect when it came to getting the ball out on time. Here it’s essentially teach tape on how to hit your back foot on a 3-step drop and release the ball.

This time the Bengals run play action but the Bills once again send five rushers. They are doing this to get as many one on one opportunities as they can, but once again the Bengals handle those rushers. Carman does a great job getting out and setting the end, Scharping handles his solo block against Ed Oliver, and Karras and Volson’s communication shines once again as they pass off and work to the blitzing linebacker. 

Sometimes play action is easy on offensive linemen when it’s a boot or other play where they can fake a reach block and then take a break, but these play action calls are not easy for them. It still slows the rush some for the defense to play run then pass, but they have a few one-on-one blocks on this play.

Same type of drop here as it’s a 3-step drop off of play action. Once again, the Bengals block this up almost like a normal dropback passing concept. Carman’s get off, Scharping’s mirroring, and Adeniji’s are all showcased on this play. Burrow once again does a great job by making sure to get the ball out on time on this concept so that none of the linemen are forced to block for an extended period of time.

The Bengals offensive line was not just winning the one on one opportunities, but they were also communicating well against stunts and pressures. Some of that has shown up already, but here watch as they seamlessly handle a 3-man pirate stunt from the Bills. Adeniji, Scharping, and Karras have only played together for about 1.5 games, but in those games they have gotten better each week with their ability to communicate and pass these type of actions off. The Bills smartly attacked the new offensive line’s communication ability, but the offensive linemen stepped up to the challenge and easily picked up this stunt.

Even when the Bills were able to win in one area, they could not win the pass rush overall. Here the Bills effectively stressed the Bengals communication on the left side of the offensive line. Carman and Volson are basically in their first ever game together so it makes sense to throw a stunt their way. The two Bengals do not communicate well enough to pass it off so they need to man the stunt. This is pretty much exactly as it sounds with both offensive linemen just tacking the guy that they are blocking. They come away with a pretty rep in pass protection because they both win those one-on-one matchups. That’s really what this game came down to and the Bengals exceeded with flying colors.

The Bengals had a great gameplan in this game both running the ball and passing. They stayed ahead of the chains and took opportunistic shots down the field. Burrow did a fantastic job of protecting his offensive line by staying perfectly on time while the offensive line did their best at keeping him upright. The ability to win one on one blocks when they were schemed up was massive for this Bengals offensive line. For the most part, they also did a nice job of picking up blitzes and stunts that the Bills were throwing at them and even when they were unable to properly pass those off, they were able to win them as individual matchups.

Cincinnati fights Kansas City for a spot in the Super Bowl this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The game is available via fuboTV—start your free trial here.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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