Bengals Know Myles Garrett Could Wreck Their Game Plan, Must Contain Him on Sunday

The Bengals are looking for their first win in Cleveland since 2017.

Elise Jesse | Oct 18, 2024

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) pressured Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) as Cincinnati Bengals center Ted Karras (64) blocks in the first quarter of an NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland. / Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Cincinnati Bengals

Myles Garrett will be playing through pain in Week 7 when Cleveland hosts Cincinnati, but don’t expect his production to stop of slow down. The dynamic talent has 4 sacks on the year, even though he's playing through foot issues.

He’s been a thorn in the side of Joe Burrow since the 27-year-old quarterback entered the league. Garrett welcomed the then-rookie QB into the league in Week 2.

Burrow and the Bengals were in Cleveland trailing 21-13 in the third quarter and facing 3rd and long situation from their own 12 when Garrett busted through the right side of the line with fellow defensive lineman Porter Gustin. Garrett stripped the ball out as Burrow went to make a throw and Gustin sacked him, while Joe Jackson ultimately recovered the ball near the 1-yard line.

The hit was so hard that Burrow laid on the turf for an agonizing for seven-seconds before Browns defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson walked over to help the young quarterback to his feet.

The Browns would score two plays later thanks to Nick Chubb. You might look at the Browns' 1-5 record and subsequently notice how their offense has had trouble scoring out of the teens in 2024, but Garrett and Chubb still exist in Cleveland.

“You see some of his rushes where you don’t think that he can move to that spot as fast as he does and he gets it done,” Ted Karras said about Garrett. “He’s been at the top of the league since he came in, a guy we all have a lot of respect for, we know well, so we are going to have to stay within ourselves and play with our technique and not let him get going.”

Garrett owns eight sacks on Burrow throughout his career, taking a single play off of paying extra attention to Garrett would be a death sentence. Cincinnati’s offensive line allowed four sacks for 25 yards in Week 6 against arguably one of the best defensive lines in football this year.

Going from dealing with the Giants defensive from to the Browns is a tall order but one that Karras believes his line is ready for. The team also knows that every guy on the line will be forced to try to deal with Garrett at some points thought out Sunday’s upcoming game.

“Dexter (Lawrence) and Myles (Garrett) are 1A, 1B,” Karras said. “Myles Garrett I have a ton of respect for, he can line up anywhere on the field he kind of shuffles his dance card to try to get different one-on-ones so we’re preparing for all of that. He’s a dynamic talent, been around for a long time and I think our tackles are up to the task but everyone is probably going to have to take a turn at some point.”

If you like Pro Football Focus stats, go ahead and take a look at the top-performing edge rushers in the game right now. You’ll find a list of edge rushers with a 90.0+ overall PFF grade. Over the last two years Garrett has been near the top behind Aiden Hutchinson at no. 1.

“They have a dynamic front with one of the best players in the league at all three levels," Karras continued. "They’ve got Myles, they’ve got Jeremiah, and Denzel (Ward). They have speed all over the field and Dalvin Tomlinson, Shelby Harris, they’ve got a lot of guys who have played a lot of good football and are dangerous defensive players so we are going to need to bring our best."

Go back to the first game of the 2023 season, Garrett was lined up over center doing crossover basketball moves waiting for the play to start. Once the ball was snapped it took Garrett no more than two seconds to Collapse the pocket and force Burrow to his right where he’d ultimately face a sack. The weather was blamed for Cincinnati’s 24-3 loss in Week 1, but the real storm came from No. 95.

"Really good defense, great front, good secondary, so we're going to have to be smart with the ball, take our explosives when they are there, stay on track,” Burrow said. “We can't get behind the sticks, because of how good their front is. It will be a challenge, but we're going to be ready for it.”

While the ultimate goal for Cincinnati is climbing out of a 2-4 hole, there’s another monkey on the team's back the size of the Dawg Pound, six years of losing at Huntington Bank Field.

"We haven't had success against this divisional opponent, so that's always frustrating and something we're always striving for,” Burrow said. “We need to go get this one.”

A win would put the Bengals at 3-4 and give them their first win in the AFC North. The cliche rings true in this division, you’ve got to throw out the record when watching AFC North games because the intensity is always present when any of these four teams face each other.

“People have been down on us, obviously people are down on them, but this is the Cleveland Browns. We haven’t won in Cleveland since I’ve been here," Karras said. "We have to be ready for an AFC North Slugfest because that’s what it is going to be.”

The Cleveland weather forecast tells us it will be a beautiful sunny, fall day in Cleveland on Sunday, but the Bengals know to expect to see damaging storms from Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and his most potent weapon, Myles Garrett.

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