Bengals Film Breakdown: Analyzing Joe Burrow and O-Line Ahead of Showdown With Bills

Cincinnati heads to Buffalo on Sunday afternoon.

Mike Santagata | Jan 18, 2023

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Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals offense didn't exceed expectations against the Ravens, but they were pretty good in the first half. The issue for them was that they only got three drives in that first half.

On those three possessions they scored a touchdown, kicked a field goal, and had a fumble. Jonah Williams went down with an injury towards the end of their third drive. At first, it seemed as if the Bengals were still going to be able to produce on offense. They scored a touchdown right out of the half on a long drive, but then they punted on their final three possessions. Outside of the 83 yard touchdown drive, the Bengals managed 1 first drive in the second half and that came from a roughing the kicker penalty. So what was the difference between the first and second half? Let’s dive into the film.

Different Types of Quarterback Drops

Every single NFL offense has the quarterback’s footwork tied to the routes that are being run. It’s not just certain offenses that are “rhythm and timing” based. It’s every offense. A general rule of thumb is that the play is designed to have the first read come open as the quarterback hits their last step in the drop. To have a better understanding about how the offense was called before and after the injury to Williams, there is prerequisite knowledge needed about the types of passes that the Bengals use.

Quick game is exactly what it sounds like.

The quarterback takes essentially a one step drop and throws the ball. The ball is in and out of the quarterback’s hands within about two seconds. There should be no hitches from the quarterback on these plays and every quick game concept is going to be essentially one read to checkdown. The offensive line should expect the quarterback to be around 6-7 yards of depth on the play. These plays are very easy for offensive lines to block because there is very little chance at the quarterback getting sacked in the structure of the play. The main concern for offensive linemen in quick game is the defensive line batting the ball. They need to make sure that they get those hands down. These concepts are common on 1st-and-10 or any type of “mixed” down situation where the offense could run or pass the ball. Not a common concept on 3rd-and-long.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

This is an example of quick game and it’s one of the most common concepts associated with it. The concept is “dragon lion” which is a slant flat combination to one side and a double slant combination to the other side. If the defense plays two high safeties, then the double slant side is the read, and if the defense plays one high safety, then the slant flat side is the read.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

Check out the footwork on this play from Burrow. The snap is a little high so he has to jump to catch it, but then it’s one step for the drop. After he takes that one step, he opens and fires to the flat. Extremely quick and Burrow has some of the best footwork in the league with no wasted movement so he creates a great example. Despite this being the fastest you can throw the ball, Carman is still pushed into him by the end of it.

The next type of concept is tied to a 3-step drop. This is not quick game and you will see the difference in the quarterback’s drop. The quarterback takes the same type of first step to push back, but then crosses over on the second step and plants ready to throw on the third step. These concepts allow for the quarterback to hitch and move to a second or third read if needed unlike quick game. The quarterback will be around 7-8 yards of depth at the end of their drop. This is a standard dropback pass from the quarterback and it’s more difficult for the offensive line to block although not the most difficult concept to block for them. These types of concepts are used in just about every down and distance.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

Burrow starts his throwing motion here as he hits his back foot, but if it was necessary he could work to the backside to hit the in-breaking route. The out route works well as an isolation concept against the quarters side of the field, so it is not necessary, but that’s the big difference here between a 3-step drop and quick game.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

Snap is on target this time, so Burrow is able to catch the ball and get right to the drop. It’s pushing off on the first step to gain depth, a crossover step, and then finally he plants the back foot and opens to throw. Once again, there is pressure on the play as Hakeem Adeniji loses around the outside, but it does not matter because Burrow throws the ball on his first read. If he needed to get to that backside in-breaker, then this would be a problem though. Especially on quick game, but also on these 3 step drops the offensive line is typically going to create a wider but not deep pocket. That’s because they do not need to protect for an insane amount of time and they just want to make sure that the quarterback has room. That’s something to keep in mind as we get to the next type of passing concept.

The final type of quarterback drop we have is the 5-step drop. These plays are designed to attack down the field and take longer to develop. Sometimes it is even designed for the quarterback to take the full five steps and then to hitch before throwing as well.

These plays are the most stressful on the offensive line because the quarterback will be somewhere around 9-11 yards of depth and it takes around three seconds for the ball to come out. This is the most difficult concept for the offensive line to block that the Bengals run. These concepts are typically reserved for passing down situations such as 3rd-and-long.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

Here the Bengals want to run a deep curl route to again isolate their receiver against the Ravens cornerback to the quarters side of the coverage. This is a passing situation on 3rd-and-long which fits the general usage of a 5-step drop. This specific passing concept is actually a variation on the Bengals doubles concept. Instead of double gos (989), here they run a deep curl and a deep out with the same middle read from the slot.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 18, 2023

The 5-step drop is essentially a 3-step drop, but with a repeat of the first two steps. There’s the push back step, a crossover, kick back step, crossover, and then plant and throw. Here Burrow plants and then sets his feet to the target before opening and throwing the ball.

The idea on taking this many steps is to gain depth from the center. This gives the interior guys a lot of room to allow penetration because they are going to have to protect against 300 pound athletic marvels for a full three seconds. The biggest stress on a 5-step drop falls on the offensive tackles. Here Jonah Williams is protecting with the slide working away from him and without a chip. On the other side Hakeem Adeniji gets a chip from the tight end and they are sliding toward him. There is so much stress on Williams for this play at left tackle and he plays it perfectly. The pocket here is entirely different from the 3-step drop and the quick game as well. It’s more about the tight deep pocket on this play than it is about a wide shallow pocket. The offensive line is conceding ground both because they are allowed to from the depth of the quarterback and because they need to due to the time to throw.

With all of this prerequisite information out of the way, let’s get into the differences in the first and second half and the types of drops that they utilized.

The Tale Of Two Halves

The offense was fairly normal in the first half of this game. The Bengals run more quick game than most teams because Burrow is very good at it and it protects their offensive line. In the first half of this game, the Bengals used six quick game concepts out of 23 total passes. That’s good for about 26% of the total passes in the first half.

Their most commonly called dropback was a 3-step drop which they called eight times. Eight out of 23 total passes is around 35%. Then there were five instances of a 5-step drop which is nearly 22% of the total passing plays. You can see that these numbers are fairly balanced. There is nothing that really stands out as being called too often. For those wondering about the other other 4 passing attempts in the first half, there was a play action pass, a screen, and two RPOs.

So how did that change in the second half? Well the most staggering difference comes in the quick game. The Bengals ran 10 quick game concepts in the second half of this game despite only throwing the ball 18 times. That’s nearly 56% of their called passes being quick game. They also ran five plays with a 3-step drop (28%) and only one play that was a 5-step drop (6%). The other two plays were a sprint out and a play action pass.

So why did the Bengals move to so much quick game? It all has to do with Williams' injury. Despite up and down play from him this season, the Bengals trust him as their best offensive tackle in pass protection. They feel like they can put him on an island for 5-step drops if necessary. Quick game is easy on the offensive line, so they made life easy on the offensive line in the second half of the game. They had to throw Carman into the game at a position he has not played since college. Because of that, they protected him with the play calls. The issue for the Bengals here is that they also neutered their offense doing this. All of the quick game allowed for the Ravens to creep further and further into the box and when the Bengals tried to take advantage of that with their only called 5-step drop, Carman gave up a sack.

The Ravens creeping into the box can be highlighted from Joe Mixon’s run game efficiency. On the long touchdown drive Mixon averaged 5.7 yards per carry. They were able to hand him the ball and they saw good returns off of it. After that first drive though his average plummets to 0.7 yards per carry and that does not include one play where Carman was called for holding. Basically a net of -8 yards with the holding penalty on four attempts. The Ravens no longer respected the Bengals ability to pass the ball during those drives and were able to sell out to put this offense behind the chains offensively.

Looking Forward

Whether it’s Carman, Isaiah Prince, or D’ante Smith at left tackle, the Bengals have to find a way to run standard drop back passes against the Bills' defense. It’s one thing to go into your shell offensively against an offense starting a backup quarterback, but it’s another to do that against Josh Allen and an explosive Buffalo offense.

The Bengals are going to need to find a way to put up points in this game and they will not do that if they cannot push the ball down the field. The gameplan will probably emphasize staying ahead of the chains and being efficient on first and second down, but there will be instances where they need to get to 5-step concepts because it is 3rd-and-long.

The game could hinge on the Bengals ability to protect on those plays and other calculated shot plays. One thing going in the Bengals favor is that the Bills defensive line is not as imposing as the Ravens defensive line. This will hopefully present more opportunities for the Bengals to feel comfortable pushing the ball down the field. They also get an entire week to prepare for this situation instead of having an emergency left tackle in the game.

Cincinnati and Buffalo meet in the divisional round this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on CBS. The game is available via fuboTV—start your free trial here.

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