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Bengals Film Breakdown: How O-Line Protected Joe Burrow, Slowed Down Chiefs Star Chris Jones

Cincinnati's offensive line continues to improve.

Mike Santagata

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Compared to last season, it was striking to see how often Joe Burrow was able to get through all of his reads and not face pressure on Sunday against the Chiefs. For the first time since 2015, the Bengals have one of the better offensive lines in the league. 

Burrow left this game taking just one quarterback hit and one sack (he gave himself up as a runner). That’s an incredible performance for a unit going against superstar Chris Jones. Let’s dive into how the Bengals slowed down Jones from a schematic and technical perspective.

Sliding To Jones

One thing that the Bengals made sure to do in this game was to slide to Jones. Sliding means that the center is going to step and work to that side’s linebacker. When the linebacker is declared not a threat, they can then provide help toward the slide side. Typically, the slide will be dictated by the front, but they decided to slide toward Jones more often than not despite the front. This gives the benefit of getting a double team on Jones, but it has the drawback of putting everyone else in one on one situations. The gamble paid off for the Bengals as they slowed Jones down while also getting great performances from everyone else to not allow any pressure, despite being one-on-one.

Everything starts with No. 95 for Kansas City. Here the Bengals are going to slide Ted Karras to Jones, but he also has to watch the linebackers because he is responsible if No. 50 rushes. Karras is also giving some help to the rookie left guard by having an arm out to brace and provide help to the inside. Cordell Volson takes some initial penetration, but overall does a good job of recovering. Karras is needed against Jones and he picks him up to stop what could have been a pressure. Both of the tackles do their job and Burrow ends up with about four seconds to throw this ball. Burrow had enough time to completely go through his reads and get to the 4th man in the progression. That’s just not something that the Bengals were giving Burrow last season.

The Chiefs are in an “under G” front which means that the 3-technique is set away from the run strength and the nose tackle is in a 2i just inside of the guard. Generally, the offensive line will slide to the 2i and away from the back. On this play, the offensive line slides toward the 3 technique because it’s Jones. This creates a double team on Jones. Alex Cappa can lose to the inside because he knows that he has help. It puts Volson in a spot where he needs to win one on one, but he does so. Good protection and Burrow never feels heat.

Same under G front again from Kansas City and Cincinnati once again responds by sliding to Jones rather than the 2i. Jones cannot beat the double team as Cappa does a good job of not allowing him to win on the outside, but this time Volson takes a loss against the 2i. That’s not an easy block for the rookie. He has to step down to get in good position and has no help. The ball is out quick so it does not matter too much, but that’s one of the drawbacks of always sliding to Jones. It’s still worth it because you’re not giving the Chiefs game-wrecker a chance to get home though. Both tackles here do a fantastic job as their assignments are not within 4 yards of Burrow.

This is another under G front although this time the 2i is to the right side and the 3 technique is to the left side. The Bengals slide towards Jones, but here the Chiefs decide to drop 8 into coverage. They drop the end over the left tackle, which gives Jonah Williams the opportunity to squeeze down against Jones. They essentially have a triple team on Jones there with Williams squeezing down, Volson blocking him, and Karras sliding toward him. You can see in the image below that their eyes are all on Jones.

all eyes on 95

Williams takes over on Jones, which allows Karras to work back to the right side to provide help on the nose tackle. Volson then looks for work himself which leaves Williams one on one with Jones. Williams does an incredible job on this play to keep Jones away from Burrow after he takes over. La’el Collins pushing Dunlap to about 10 yards away from Burrow also deserves a mention because that’s fantastic pass protection.

The Chiefs are in a double mug look here with both linebackers walked into the A gaps. On all of the other examples so far, the Bengals have been in 5-man protection, but this time they get to 6-man protection with a chip on each end. They need to work down the field on this play so they bring in some extra help. Karras is once again sliding towards Jones and provides inside help once he sees that No. 32 is not a threat to rush the passer. 

Volson is losing to the inside, but it doesn't matter because he has the center coming toward his side to provide help. On the opposite side there is a beautiful twist pass off between Cappa and Collins. Cappa knocks out No. 51 and then Collins does a nice job of pulling him over so Cappa can get in better position to take the looping end. Williams holds up for plenty of time and Burrow is able to let this thing rip by the time he finally loses against Dunlap. Great protection all around to once again allow Burrow to sit in the pocket unbothered for about four seconds.

Chiefs are once again in that under G front although this time there are a few wrinkles. The linebacker is walked down in the B gap outside of the 2i and they also put Jones at 2i for this play, rather than at 3-technique. The center still slides toward Jones and he gets help from Cappa once the linebacker drops out. Not that Karras needed it, but those body blows add up. Once again everyone else nails their one-on-one blocks across the board. It’s 5-man protection so there are three one-on-one opportunities, but the Bengals' offensive line dominates each of those matchups.

One-On-One With Jones

There were a couple of opportunities for Jones in this game to actually go one-on-one and it was up and down for the Bengals on those plays.

In 5-man protection, the center has to block the head up nose tackle against this front. That creates one on one opportunities across the board including one for Jones over Volson. Jones uses a shimmy club swim combination to beat the rookie left guard cleanly. Burrow gets the ball out before this could have an effect on the play, but this showcases why the Bengals spent a majority of this game sliding to Jones.

On the flip side, there was another opportunity for Jones to go one-on-one with Volson and the rookie came out on top. Here the Chiefs walk the linebacker down to the A gap opposite of Jones. This forces Karras to respect him as a threat and he slides toward the linebacker. Once the linebacker drops out, he can provide help against Jones, but there really is not much need because Volson held his own. The Bengals cannot get a double team on Jones on every snap so they need performances like this rep where a guard can hold up against him.

Slowing Jones With The Run

The Bengals also used the run game to slow Jones down. By forcing him to respect the run, they can make sure that he is unable to just fire off the ball and shoot upfield.

This play was the biggest example of how the Bengals were able to force Jones to slow down against the pass. This is a “crunch” concept which is essentially two concepts in one. It’s “wham,” which is a concept that lets the defensive tackle go before he gets crushed by a tight end, and it’s also "trap." Mitchell Wilcox makes the block of the day against Jones here who did not expect the wham block to come for him. Setting up Jones with this play early made him respect the run more than normal. Getting hit by one of these wham blocks when it’s unexpected is a terrible feeling and he cannot allow the Bengals to do it again.

The Bengals also attacked Jones by forcing him to take on double teams repeatedly. Here he does a good job, but exerting all of your energy on these plays makes it more difficult to rush the passer later on. Look at the double team on the other side as well. That’s exactly what the Bengals were hoping Collins and Cappa could provide when they were first signed here.

Same idea on this play. Both of these run plays are the duo concept and that will generally allow the offensive line to get a double team on both of the defensive tackles. Once again, Jones does a very nice job against his double team, but taking on two guys like that exerts quite a bit of energy. It’s not always about trying to take advantage of Jones proclivity to work up the field, but also about adding up body blows on him.

Overall, I thought the Bengals had a very sound game plan against Jones in this contest. It’s a very intuitive and basic thought, but doubling Jones every snap that you can is effective. With the Bengals tendency to utilize 5-man protection schemes, it’s a bit harder to do, but they showed how it can be effective and the offense flourished because of it. Add on the body blows and run game attack and you can see why Jones did not have the game that Chiefs fans were hoping for in this game. There could be a new wrinkle from Kansas City in the next contest to get Jones one-on-one more often, and that will be something to watch if these teams square off again in the playoffs.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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