Film Breakdown: How Joe Burrow and Bengals' Offense Can Attack Ravens' Defense

Cincinnati's offense struggled against Baltimore in Week 18.

Mike Santagata | Jan 13, 2023

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Cincinnati Bengals

It’s not often that you get to play a team three times in one season. The last time this happened with the Bengals was the infamous 2015 playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While it’s possible both Cincinnati and Baltimore held back some in their matchup last week knowing that this rematch was probable, these teams know each other at this point, regardless of last week's matchup. The Bengals are a spread offense and while they will most likely throw out some interesting wrinkles that they did not show on Sunday, they are what they are. The Ravens defense is a quarters heavy defense. While they can also get to some interesting wrinkles that they were unable to use last week, the structure remains the same.

Even considering the possibility that the Bengals held back this past week, they had a few concepts and ideas that worked very well that they should get back to this week. There are also some concepts that they have used to attack quarters in the past that they did not utilize that they could come back to this week.

Quarters/Palms

The Ravens certainly do not only play quarters and palms coverage defensively, but it is their bread and butter. Quarters in its simplest form is a zone coverage with four defenders deep and three underneath defenders.

The 4-deep defenders take the 4 “quarters” of the field while the underneath defenders are responsible for the flats and the middle defender is the hook. The Ravens in their quarters defense are not just going to drop to a spot and sit though. They play match quarters, so they are going to match the offense while keeping the structure of the defense in this quarters look. The final distribution of the receivers creates the matches.

On the outside, the corners are going to match with the wide receiver unless that receiver works shallow. Anything vertical and those two are essentially man-to-man. The flat player is responsible for anything underneath from the outside receiver and anything shallow from the second most outside receiver (No. 2). If No. 2 goes vertical, he becomes the responsibility of the safety to that side. How a team deals with No. 3 can vary, but in general he is going to be the hook defender’s responsibility if underneath. They may ask that hook player to take him vertically or they may use the safety on the opposite side to “poach” that player.

The Ravens also at times will play palms rather than quarters. Palms is essentially quarters unless one of the inside receivers breaks outwards. If that happens, then it basically becomes cover 2 to that side.

In the visualization you can see that the corner will fall off of the vertical route to take the out in palms while in quarters the corner will stay over the top of the vertical route. The reason you may do this as a defense is that the quick out is a common way to attack quarters. The reason you may opt for quarters instead of palms is that it allows the corner to be on the receiver rather than a safety.

Working Underneath

Not a ton of the Bengals passing offense worked in Week 18. The only touchdown came on a dunk from Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow was not efficient throwing the ball. His -0.19 EPA/play puts him in the 20th percentile and his 5.12 yards per attempt was the lowest mark of this season. However, the Bengals did have some effective concepts on Sunday, the issue was that Burrow wasn't playing up to his standard.

Yeah Burrow missed the deep ball to Chase and he missed the deep ball to Higgins but these misses might have been the most uncharacteristic. No pressure, lined up, open WR and he just misfires. pic.twitter.com/V5TUaP4vBI
— mike (@bengals_sans) January 12, 2023

Throws like this typified the game for Burrow. Unpressured with an open receiver and he just misses. It was very unusual for him as he has been one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL since his rookie season.

Like I mentioned when discussing quarters vs palms, quick out-breaking routes can cause some issue for a quarters defense. The Bengals utilized a 3-man stick concept on this play to isolate Tyler Boyd in space against Roquan Smith. This is a quick game concept which means that Burrow will not have to hold onto the ball all that long.

Here is how a quarters coverage will match up with a 3 man stick concept.

The Ravens allowed the Bengals to isolate their receivers against Smith underneath during this game. As great as Smith is, he is out leveraged against a very good wide receiver. Trying to isolate their great trio of receivers on Smith is something that the Bengals could attempt to get to in this game knowing that Smith is typically the hook defender and responsible for No. 3.

pic.twitter.com/ev4bgx9eia
— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 13, 2023

As you can see in this play, the Bengals are able to generate an easy pass and catch for a good gain from quick game here because they were able to isolate Boyd on Smith. Boyd is running away from Smith’s leverage and there’s no real fear of either of the other defenders coming off and making a play on this pass because they are being occupied with other routes.

Similarly, the Bengals were able to isolate Ja’Marr Chase against Kyle Hamilton when facing quarters to the 2-man side of empty with a quick out as well on a fade-out combination.

pic.twitter.com/zQhbxBaoV6
— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 13, 2023

The Ravens here are playing an inside-outside bracket on Chase with the deep safety and the nickel corner, but it ultimately does not matter because the safety is too deep to make a play on this ball while the nickel is out leveraged. If not for the ball being batted at the line, this would be a simple pitch and catch for a solid gain.

Again, the Bengals were able to isolate one of their stud receivers against Smith and Smith was unable to hang with him in coverage.

pic.twitter.com/byPwDJYrme
— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 13, 2023

This is a levels concept, which has really become a staple in the Bengals offense. Cincinnati did not get to this too much in the game on Sunday, but watch as Chase is able to cross Smith’s face to beat his leverage. This might not work on a chalkboard due to the leverage of Smith, but it works on the field. The Ravens are poaching the backside safety because it’s Chase at No. 3 and they want to give help in case he goes vertical.

If the Ravens are going to willingly match up Smith or Hamilton with Chase or Boyd from the inside, then the Bengals should take advantage of that underneath. By utilizing empty formations and trips formations with either Chase or Boyd as the No. 3 receiver, the Ravens seem to willingly match that with Smith. That's an excellent matchup for the Bengals. If they want to go after Hamilton, then a choice route to the weak side from the slot where Boyd or Chase have the ability to cross face on a slant or to break out and work away from the leverage of the defender would also be a welcome addition to this Bengals passing offense. Either way, the Ravens are not going to follow the Bengals receivers due to the zone heavy/quarters defense that they play. The Bengals have shown a propensity to move their receivers and it would behoove them to do that in this game.

Isolation On The Outside

The other way in which the Bengals could exploit the Ravens quarters coverage is to take advantage of their matchups on the outside. The Bengals can isolate their receivers against the Ravens cornerbacks fairly easily in this situation because they are going to match them as they push vertically. The Ravens also try their hardest to stay over the top on against the outside receivers because they want to limit explosive plays. That creates an opportunity for the Bengals to get to some back shoulder throws that Burrow loves.

pic.twitter.com/mqYLIaURzv
— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 13, 2023

The Bengals did not get to this type of throw enough on Sunday as it’s one that Burrow and these receivers excel at. If the corner is going to fight to stay over the top, then the receiver should be able to get in good position at the catch point to box them out and make these types of catches. While the Ravens should be able to limit explosive plays with this style of defense, it becomes a situation of picking your poison defensively.

pic.twitter.com/q5Bs46UpGf
— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) January 13, 2023

While this ball does not go to Chase, look at how he’s essentially one-on-one with the cornerback. There is quite a bit of trust in the corner to be able to match Chase once he declares vertically. These opportunities to isolate their wide receivers against corners in quarters coverage are going to be there for the Bengals. Whether it’s a deep out, a back shoulder fade, or a comeback, the Bengals have a chance to attack these players on the outside.

Overall, the Bengals showed plenty on how they could possibly move the football through the air on Sunday. While the Ravens defense are certainly no push-overs, the Bengals showed the ability to attack the structure of this Ravens defense. All of these concepts were shown without even getting to some of the other areas that the Bengals have attacked quarters before.

The Bills are a quarters heavy team and the Bengals utilized a mills concept to score a touchdown which we did not see in this matchup. That concept and more are at the Bengals disposal for trying to take down this tough Ravens defense in conjunction with some of the matchup stuff they exploited on Sunday. It should be an interesting strength on strength matchup between the two teams on Sunday night.

Cincinnati and Baltimore run it back in the Wild Card round on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. ET. The game is available on NBC via fuboTV—start your free trial here.

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