Bengals Film Breakdown: Analyzing Third Down Offense in Loss to Browns

Cincinnati converted 2-of-15 third downs on Sunday in Cleveland.

Mike Santagata | Sep 13, 2023

Bengals Film Breakdown: Analyzing Third Down Offense in Loss to Browns /

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Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals offense was an abject disaster in Sunday's 24-3 loss to the Browns.

They couldn't move the ball or sustain drives. They managed just three first downs in the first half and finished the game with six total. Even though Cleveland was held scoreless in the first quarter, they picked up five first downs over that span.

The Browns series conversion rate was a paltry 63.6%, which is in the bottom quarter of all performances since 1999. The Bengals were converting first downs at less than half of that rate (31.6%), which is in the zeroth percentile since 1999. The early down success rate of the Bengals was 24% (first percentile) and they were 2-15 on third down and 0-1 on fourth down.

Overall, this will go down as one of the worst offensive performances in the Joe Burrow era. The weather obviously had a huge effect on the game.

Burrow was extremely inaccurate (-18.2 Completion Percentage Over Expected) and that’s not something that will continue going forward. He couldn't figure out how to grip the ball in the rain and it was a major reason that the passing offense struggled so much.

The Bengals also struggled on third down. Let's take a closer look at why they failed to extend drives in Cleveland:

Statistical Look

It was already stated above, but worth mentioning again: the Bengals were 2-15 on third down. They needed an average of 6.3 yards to pick up the first on these 15 opportunities. Averaging a distance that far is not ideal, but it’s also something the Bengals have managed with Burrow.

Six of the opportunities were four yards or less. On those six manageable opportunities, the Bengals picked up one first down.

Their third and fourth down EPA per play was -0.75, meaning they gave up nearly an entire point with every third down and didn't have any conversions on the ground. That’s partially because they only attempted one run on third and manageable. To put it in simple terms, the Bengals were a disaster on third down in Cleveland.

Film Perspective

There were a few third downs that told the story of the Bengals day in this situation. They faced 3rd-and-5 on their opening drive. This is a situation that the Bengals should convert more often than not with the talent they have on offense. They actually picked up a 3rd-and-9 earlier on the drive as well.

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— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 13, 2023

The Browns are playing Cover 1 and bringing five on the rush. The weak safety is responsible for the running back. The Bengals are running a drive concept with the No. 2 and No. 3 receivers to the trips side of the formation. The drive concept is solid against man coverage if the 12-yard "in-route" takes an outside release first.

This way the in route can create a rub with the shallow route so that the defender of has to work through the inside receiver. Instead, the in route doesn't create this rub for the underneath route and as a result it’s tightly covered.

The in-route ends up pretty well covered, but it doesn't matter because Burrow is under pressure by the time Tyler Boyd is making his break. Myles Garrett comes almost instantaneously. Burrow is already moving due to the pressure when his back foot hits on the 3-step drop. Maybe if the rub happens he can dump it to the shallow route, but when protection is this bad, it’s almost impossible to play offense.

The next third down for the offense was a 3rd-and-1 and you have to convert those scenarios into first downs.

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— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 13, 2023

The biggest issue here is that this ball is just inaccurate. Flat out bad throw that’s outside of Irv Smith’s grasp. This is an easy throw for Burrow and if he puts it on him then this has a good shot at becoming a first down.

Schematically, it’s a little bit strange to run this concept with play action. Not sure what the play action is accomplishing when you’re attacking defenders outside of the box, but it really does not have much if any effect on why this play failed. The Bengals were going for a rub route here and they got the rub they wanted as Ja'Marr Chase runs into Smith’s man. Just sloppy conditions leading to a bad pass.

Skipping ahead to the next 3rd-and-1 situation. The Bengals failed to convert on a nicely dressed up tight zone look.

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— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 13, 2023

The orbit motion from Chase is nice eye candy for the defenders. Can’t be sure whether this is a true RPO or if they’re just dressing up the tight zone to get eyes on the wide receiver rather than the running back, but if this is thrown to Chase it might work out.

The Browns are gapped out against this run with seven defenders for all seven gaps that the six offensive linemen create. The reason that this play fails is that the right guard, right tackle and tight end on the backside fail to make their blocks.

Alex Cappa can’t get to the linebacker in time, which blows up a developing hole to the A-gap. Jonah Williams fails to flip his hips and create a B-gap hole. Instead, he gets pushed back and causes this to be squeezed even more. Drew Sample has no effect on Za'Darius Smith, which makes it even muddier. You need better blocking than this in short yardage situations.

The last situation worth looking at is this 3rd-and-4 late in the game.

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— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 13, 2023

The Bengals get the perfect look here with the Browns safety Grant Delpit on Tee Higgins in man coverage on a slot fade without help over the top.

This is a scenario where the coaching staff is probably ready to celebrate once they see the snap of the ball. Higgins doesn’t blow him away, but he does get even with him at about the 20. If Burrow leads Higgins, the Bengals are likely set up inside the 5-yard line or score their first touchdown. This ball is underthrown and it causes Higgins to slow down, which allows Delpit to stay in the play. Higgins has to attempt to make a catch around Delpit, rather than over his shoulder. Credit to the Browns safety on this as well because it’s a great pass breakup.

Even on an inaccurate pass like this, it still feels like a situation Higgins should win more often than not. Still, for the story of how third down went, this goes down as another situation that was ruined by an inaccurate pass.

Looking Forward

What can we expect from the Bengals third down offense going forward? It definitely won’t be this bad for the rest of the year. There were quite a few contributing factors that led to this debacle of a game, but this does show some of the volatility in what the Bengals like to do.

Typically they shred teams on deep balls when they’re given the opportunity. They attempted four different deep throws on third down with good looks and the only one went for a first down due to a defensive pass interference.

Despite all of the issues, they were the third best offense in the league on third down last season. There should be optimism that this was just an abysmal day for the offense and that it will not bleed into the coming weeks.

It was extremely frustrating to watch, but this offense will be better going forward. I’m optimistic that the third down issues from Sunday are more of an outlier than a future issue for the team.

All of the above examples failed due to execution rather than due to a schematic issue in the offense. Burrow won't play as bad as he did on Sunday again and the offensive line will rarely be as outmatched as they were against Garrett and company.

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