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Bengals Film Breakdown: Trey Hendrickson vs Terron Armstead Will Be a Battle on Thursday Night Football

This matchup in the trenches could determine the outcome this week at Paycor Stadium.

Mike Santagata

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Trey Hendrickson played the best game of his career this past Sunday against the New York Jets. It may not have been the greatest competition, but he was able to generate a ton of pressure against Joe Flacco resulting in three sacks and three forced fumbles. 

He goes from facing a below average tackle and his backup to one of the best offensive tackles in the entire NFL on Thursday with Terron Armstead coming to town. 

Will the momentum he built in Week 3 translate into some wins against the Dolphins? Let’s dive into one of the marquee matchups of the game.

Trey Hendrickson

The Bengals' star edge rusher wins in quite a few different ways. He’s a good, powerful athlete with an explosive get off. His bread and butter is to convert his speed into power by putting his head down and two handed bull rushing through the offensive lineman after selling a speed rush with his get off.

Here he showcases this speed to power move to open up George Fant’s inside shoulder. It’s just a screen pass, but he is able to draw a holding penalty to move the offense back 10 yards. All that the tackle needs to do on this play is to let Hendrickson get upfield, but Fant oversets and Hendrickson is able to punish that.

This play doesn't draw a hold or end in a sack, but this is how plenty of Hendrickson’s pass rushes go. He's able to walk back the offensive tackle to the quarterback with his speed to power move. It’s difficult to prepare for a pass rusher who can effectively run through or around you as an offensive lineman. Hendrickson has that ability and mentality, which makes him tough to block.

Hendrickson’s ability to get off the ball is fantastic and he's very slippery as he rushes the passer. He is able to beat not only the tackle, but also the tight end’s chip on this one. 

It’s difficult to see, but it appears that he finishes off the play with a chop on the offensive tackle's outside hand and a rip to disengage. This ability to consistently beat the outside hand of the offensive tackle is key to winning the edge. Not only does he get there, but he finishes the play with a strip sack. 

Hendrickson once again won the corner against Fant with a chop-rip combination. He has a high level ability to string his moves together to create a smooth combination that is difficult to block. The chop on this play knocks down the outside hand of the tackle and then the rip is used to disengage and finish the play. Once again he finishes the play with another strip sack.

Now against the Jets backup in this game, but another showing of Hendrickson’s ability to string multiple moves together. This time he utilizes a swipe to rip combination rather than a chop to rip. He uses a variety of moves that make him one of the better hand combat technicians in the league.

Hendrickson shows great anticipation on this play. He knows he's going to get a jumpset from the offensive tackle. He responds with a perfectly timed swipe move to beat the hands of the tackle and then once again uses a rip to disengage.

Hendrickson was a monster in this game against both Fant and his backup. He was able to generate some pressure and draw a holding call with his signature speed to power move. He also won around the outside quite a few times with his ability to beat the outside hand and string moves together. Despite the competition, this was definitely one of Hendrickson’s most impressive games of his career.

Terron Armstead

The Miami Dolphins backed up the Brinks truck for former Saints left tackle Terron Armstead this offseason. Armstead has responded by continuing his dominance at left tackle. Despite a different scheme and different running mates, he still looks like one of the three best offensive tackles in the NFL and most recently he pitched a shutout against Von Miller and the Buffalo Bills. Let’s get into what makes Armstead so impressive.

Armstead’s greatest trait is still his athleticism. Here he does something that pretty much no other offensive tackle can get away with. He takes away the space by jumping out horizontally before taking more of a vertical set while on an island with Miller. Armstead currently holds the record for fastest 40 yard dash at the combine at 4.71 seconds. This 0.000001% athleticism for his size shows up on film like this play. Also, you can see that Armstead has plenty of strength with how he is able to push Miller around the back of the pocket.

This one is more of a traditional vertical set, but Armstead is able to beat Miller to the spot and then is able to still get into his chest despite the swipe. Another great rep and a win for the veteran left tackle.

On this play, Miller tried to test Armstead’s anchor by running through him. Armstead is on a vertical set which gives him plenty of space and takes away the outside from Miller, but it does condense the space between Armstead and the quarterback. 

The ability to quickly anchor and not take any knock back in this situation is paramount. Miller gives him a shimmy first before trying to plow through him. Armstead showcases a great anchor on this play as he does not concede any ground to Miller. This gives the quarterback confidence in stepping into a throw to this side.

Lastly, Armstead showed that he is still a great run blocker in this game as well. The Dolphins are running a zone toss play with intention to create a cutback lane. While the other men blocking on this play leave something to be desired, Armstead drives his guy clear across the formation and ends up dumping him onto the ground. This is a dominant win in the run game for Armstead showcasing the strength and athleticism that has made him an all-pro.

Armstead is an incredible player. He's one of the best offensive tackles in the entire National Football League and should provide a real challenge for Hendrickson to overcome. The former teammates are projected to see quite a bit of each other in the upcoming game so let’s look into this match up in a little bit more detail.

The Match Up

When it comes to talent, Armstead has a slight advantage over Hendrickson. While Hendrickson is one of the best edge rushers in the league, Armstead has the upper hand as one of the true elite of the elite talents. Armstead’s athleticism, strength, and technical ability really shine despite the new circumstances in Miami.

Stylistically, Hendrickson may run into some issues with how quick Armstead is out of his stance. Hendrickson wins the edge on quite a few of his pressures and that is going to be difficult against Armstead. 

Even if he can win the edge, Armstead’s strength will most likely allow him to run Hendrickson around the hoop. Then to go with his quickness, he has a great anchor. Hendrickson loves to bull into guys and convert speed to power, but Armstead rarely gives the opportunity for the pass rusher to catch him off guard in this scenario.

This is not to say that Hendrickson can't beat Armstead. Hendrickson is a very talented player. While he may not have the advantage, he can still beat anyone in the league when he is at his best. For example, he beat Rashawn Slater for a clean sack last season.

Also, Armstead is coming into this game injured just like he was last week. He didn't practice on a short week with his toe injury, but he is expected to play. If he isn't 100%, his health could play a role in this game. Furthermore, there does appear to be a process to create some pressure along the left side of the Dolphins offensive line.

One of the great things about football is that it's a team game. The pass rush is not simply pass rushers against offensive lineman straight ahead and having only a physical battle. There are blitzes, stunts, and twists that can challenge an offensive line mentally and with their communication. The TEX stunt or T-E specifically seems to be a way to create some pressure against the left side of the Dolphins offensive line.

A TEX stunt is a play in which the defensive tackle will try to push both towards the quarterback and outside into the offensive tackle. For some teams, the entire point is to crash into the hip of the tackle before rushing the quarterback. For others, it seems to be that they just want the defensive tackle to get penetration to the outside and to rush the quarterback. The role of the end on this play is to hold the attention of the offensive tackle before looping to the inside of the defensive tackle. Many times, this creates a free run to the quarterback for the end like on the play above.

The left guard for the Dolphins is not the strongest player and seems to struggle with knocking out the penetrator on these plays for Armstead to overtake them. It also seems to be somewhat of a communication issue with two players who have never played next to each other. Whatever the issue is, it appears to be a possible weakness to exploit as of this moment.

If the Bengals want to create pressure on some key third down situations, they should utilize one of their stronger players to the inside of Hendrickson and then allow him to rush into the hip of Armstead while Hendrickson loops around for the free pressure. This way they are not just asking their best pass rusher to beat the Dolphins best pass blocker one on one. They can challenge other players with Hendrickson and stress the communication of a new offensive line. The Bengals actually did utilize a similar stunt when they faced Trent Williams and the 49ers to free up Hendrickson.

The main difference here is that this is a 3-man twist from an overload front. The idea however, is still the same. Occupy multiple offensive linemen so the end can loop around for pressure on the quarterback.

Hendrickson is the engine of the Bengals pass rush and they don’t really move him around to hunt for weaker matchups. While Armstead does have a stylistic advantage in this game, the Bengals could attack the left guard and their communication. If they can win with their pass rush up front on the defensive line, then they can create havoc and force turnovers or sacks.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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