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Cincinnati Bengals Week 1 Breakdown: Erick All and the Most Effective Personnel Grouping

Let's take a look at one bright spot from Sunday's game.

Mike Santagata

Cincinnati Bengals halfback Zack Moss (31) celebrates his touchdown in the 3rd quarter with teammates Cincinnati Bengals tight end Erick All Jr. (83) during their home opener against the New England Patriots at Paycor Stadium Sunday, September 8, 2024.
Cincinnati Bengals halfback Zack Moss (31) celebrates his touchdown in the 3rd quarter with teammates Cincinnati Bengals tight end Erick All Jr. (83) during their home opener against the New England Patriots at Paycor Stadium Sunday, September 8, 2024. / © Cara Owsley / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Bengals had a major let down in the season opener, as the New England Patriots came into their stadium and won despite being huge underdogs.

The Bengals' offense had four three-and-outs on the day, while also losing a drive because of a fumble at the goal line and a turnover on downs. The Bengals passing offense had a success rate of 39% (22nd percentile of all games since 2001), an EPA per play of -0.23 (15th percentile), picked up a first down on 21% of plays (5th percentile), and had an average depth of target of 5.6 (9th percentile).

However, the Bengals' run game had a success rate of 54% (93rd percentile), EPA per play of 0.2 (94th percentile), and picked up a first down on 38% of plays (97th percentile). It’s just that they only ran the ball 13 times total with their running backs. There was actually one personnel grouping that had a success rate on the ground of 85.7%, averaged 5.43 yards per carry (despite 2 plays of 3rd and 1), and scored the only touchdown of the day. That personnel grouping was 12 personnel (one back, two receivers, two tight ends) with the tight ends being Drew Sample and Erick All.

Analyzing This Personnel Grouping

This personnel grouping may not be overly exciting to a fan because it doesn’t have Mike Gesicki on the field, but there’s only one football to go around. What use is it to have a bunch of pass catch only players on the field if the defense is just going to play soft and defend the pass game? The Patriots played quite a bit of soft Tampa 2 coverage for a majority of the game. It’s one of the reasons why every pass was so short. The defense backed away to take away any deep shots and would rally to make the tackle after the ball was thrown. The easiest way to break a team out of these soft coverages is to pound the rock.

Even against the Bengals’ run game 12 personnel look, the Patriots played 2-high on a majority of plays that were not a short yardage situation. It’s a large reason why the Bengals ran the ball extremely well in this personnel grouping.

Soft looks plus their best run blockers were on the field. They were successful on six out of their seven runs from this grouping picking up a first down on five out of the seven runs from this grouping. That includes a quarterback sneak but that’s awesome either way. To give the staff credit, they tried this grouping on their second drive but that’s when the only unsuccessful run came as they picked up one yard on 1st-and-10.

On the other hand, there was no reason to abandon this grouping until the 3rd quarter because of one bad run. With this grouping being successful on 6-of-7 runs, that means that all other personnel groupings had a success rate of 16.7% on runs. That lone run being a duo play from a tight look for eight yards. This also means that only first downs picked up through the run game were with both All and Sample on the field.

Simply put, if the Bengals want to punish teams for playing them soft, they should get into this personnel grouping and pound the rock.

A Closer Look At Erick All

By now it’s known that Drew Sample is a great blocking tight end. Just watch what he did to the defense on the touchdown run:

You may notice on that play (counter solid) that All whiffs. While the results from Sunday were fantastic, All himself was more up and down. That was not his only whiff of the day.

You can see he’s just a little out of control on this counter solid play. He lowers his head and tries to make contact with his shoulder rather than his hands. That can work but it leads to more varied results like this play. This play is also just dead on arrival anyway though as the Bengals seemed confused as to whether they were running this to right off the guard in the B gap where Volson goes or outside of the tackle tight end double where All goes.

With that said, those were the only two plays that should be categorized as poor from All as a blocker. In fact, he made a good block on counter on the play before the touchdown run:

He uses the same technique as he comes in with his shoulder, but he does a better job of tracking his target to make sure it lands. He delivers a jolt on contact and it could be considered the key block to making this run successful along with the Trent Brown and Alex Cappa double team.

All’s best block came when the Patriots matched this personnel grouping with nickel and he got to block safety Jabrill Peppers:

That’s how it should look when a tight end blocks a safety. All’s tenacity as a blocker is visible on this play as he continues driving the safety after the play is all but over. He does a great job on this play of getting his helmet to the inside of the safety and then running his feet to keep driving him. He keeps his hands latched to the inside of the defender and that makes sure that he will stay attached to him throughout the play.

Lastly, let’s look at his blocking on the backside of inside zone

Here he does a nice job of sealing off the linebacker as he makes one of the key blocks on the play.

Brown and Sample have a great double team. Cappa does a very nice job of taking the linebacker in the hole to create this opening as well, but if All does not seal off his guy, this run would not have gone as well as it did. He gets his helmet in the right spot and his hips in the right spot, but this block could have been even better if he got both feet in the ground before he made contact. You can see the Patriots defender jolts him just a little bit when contact is first made.

If All gets both feet in the ground before making contact, this would be less likely. He actually does a better job of this on the next run:

Helmet, hips, and feet are all excellent on this play which leads to a good block. Only criticism being that his feet do die on contact just a bit which eventually leads to the defender disengaging but overall this is a nice block.

All is a rookie tight end and becoming a great blocker takes time. Right now he’s solid at blocking and that’s more than you can say for any of the other tight ends on the roster other than Sample.

He should continue to play and grow as time goes on and maybe you can even reward him if he continues to block well with a play fake off of the counter solid play. Let him run past that end and throw it to him in space. It would behoove the Bengals to play 12 personnel with All and Sample more and lean into their run game more especially with Tee Higgins missing time due to a hamstring injury.

Not only will this allow them to run the ball effectively, but it also will help All get more live reps to develop him as a player. Either way, things are trending up for the Bengals fourth round tight end.

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Mike Santagata

MIKE SANTAGATA

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