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Film Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly From the Bengals' Loss in Washington

There was plenty of good and some bad in Cincinnati's 17-13 loss to Washington.

Mike Santagata

The Bengals took a trip to Washington last week where their season effectively died last year with Joe Burrow’s gruesome injury. While Burrow did not play in this game, every other starter did. So did anyone improve from the first game against Tampa Bay? Were any more wrinkles shown on offense? What’s up with Ja’Marr Chase? 

Let’s watch some tape to answer these questions and more.

Starter Standout

There was one starter in particular that stood out to me on film: DJ Reader. He was doing a fantastic job both in the run game and as a pass rusher. I did a deep dive on Reader earlier this year and I remember coming away mildly impressed with his ability as a pass rusher. He went against the best players that Washington had to offer along the offensive line as well, so he was not just bullying backups.

This is an impressive play by him against crack toss. Typically a play like this to the outside takes the nose tackle out of the play just by being so far outside, but Reader shows a high motor and ability to stop it. He starts the play by engaging right guard Brandon Scherff with his backside arm. This allows him to keep his distance and his chest clean so that he can run down the line. Chidobe Awuzie does a good job of forcing this run back inside where Reader is there to make the play. It was an impressive play for the 0-Tech to get all the way down the line and make the tackle. It's something that you don't see often.

Reader is going up against Washington’s left guard. He bullrushes him to condense the pocket. Something that he has commonly shown on film. He then disengages from the block with a club-rip combo to knock the offensive lineman over and rip to get through. Since he is completely free from the left guard he is able to come in at Ryan Fitzpatrick and give him a 330 pound shot. Not only condensing the pocket but also ending it in a quarterback hit is a very nice rep for the big guy.

Here he is bullying the Football Team’s offensive line again. This time it's their center. The Bengals are using an N-T or NUT stunt which is when the nose tackle crashes to one side and then that side’s 3-Tech stalls and loops around the nose. It works pretty well here as Reader is able to pick off Scherff giving Larry Ogunjobi a free run at the quarterback. I also want to look at what Reader does after he sets the pick. He continues his bull rush on the center until he pushes him back into the quarterback. Not only did he set up his teammate, but also he got some pressure of his own by condensing the pocket.

Lastly, he's going up against Washington’s center again. At the line of scrimmage, the two players crash into each other. Reader gains the upper hand by extending his arms and essentially bench pressing the center. He then locks him out and gets ready to make a play. He gets the first hand on the running back to start the tackle. The Bengals eventually get the ball carrier down prior to the first down marker giving them a turnover on downs.

Changes on Offense

A quick update on the wide zone portion on offense:

Looks like the Bengals are still using it. Also continuing the condensed splits of putting wide receivers tight to the offensive line. Thirdly there is jet motion away from the wide zone on the first play, which has been a Sean McVay staple since he took over the Rams. I assume there is more to come with wide zone that we have not seen yet, but in the preseason you need to work on your bread and butter plays and they certainly have been spending time on the wide zone.

This was interesting to see from the Bengals on offense. It seems like the shotgun run game will keep the insert plays that they utilized last year. Insert zone and insert iso depending on if the Bengals are zone blocking or gap blocking. On insert zone the concept is essentially inside zone, but you can lock the backside offensive tackle on the backside end and insert a TE behind him to block a linebacker. Insert iso is slightly different in that instead of inside zone they gap block which typically includes a double team on the nose tackle and everyone else locked on their guy. The tight end will then block whoever is declared as the MIKE backer and the running back will follow him.

I would like to see a different angle of this play, but it does seem that this is a play fake off insert iso. There is a lot of fun concepts that can come with play action using inserts with the tight end so I am excited to see any that have been added this year. This one looks a little bit like drive or levels which is just a vertical stretch in the middle of the defense. Allen throws the ball away from that concept to a comeback from Tee Higgins. Higgins got separation, but Brandon Allen threw a bad ball, which was a common theme from the night.

Here we get another staple of the Bengals' offense last year, which is an inside zone RPO tagged with a speed out. Used to attack off coverage from the cornerback, the inside zone action will pull in the underneath defenders to isolate the speed out. If they stay where they are it’s an easy hand off, but if they come in hard like this the quarterback can pull the ball and throw the speed out. It is a pretty common play, but this play and the insert plays are two things that will differentiate the Bengals' offense from the Rams' offense.

This pick play was also a staple of Cincinnati's offense last season. It is essentially a pick from the outside guy, but he will try not to actually make contact so there is no penalty. The inside guy should hesitate and stay on his spot so he doesn’t push the cornerback downfield while waiting for the pick. After about one second he cuts around the pick on a rail route. This play is also known as Raven and while the Bengals don’t try to work the rail or swing guy upfield everything else about this image is correct.

The read for the play is simple, but Allen messes it up. If the cornerback covering the slot goes under the pick, the throw should be upfield with touch. If the cornerback covering the slot goes over the pick (like here), he should put the ball on the rail runner’s back shoulder with some zip. If the cornerbacks switch assignments then you’re kind of screwed, but that is what the dashed line is for on the arrow route. 

Here is an example of Burrow and Mixon running this play correctly for a huge gain.

The Bengals actually run this play again here as part of a larger concept. See how the No. 2 and No. 3 wide receivers inside at the top of the screen run the pick and rail/Raven concept. The cornerback goes under this time and the correct throw is made, but just slightly off. The cornerback also does a heck of a job to stick with the wide receiver through the rail route despite going under the pick. 

The wide receiver running the rail probably could have helped himself a little bit by running his route tighter to the pick man, but it’s a really nice play from the cornerback. It seems as if they combine the Raven concept’s rail with a post from the No. 1 outside as kind of a peel or post wheel combination. I really like the design of this play and kind of wish they didn’t use it in a preseason game because with better players using it, the Bengals might have gotten a chunk gain in a regular season game.

This was an interesting wrinkle from the Bengals. I don't remember any pass protection last year that involved pulling guards. What this does is that it helps to sell the play action more, because linebackers are typically reading from the guard to the back. This could mean that the Bengals are installing some more power concepts with pulling guards as well. I don't recall seeing us run power or counter this preseason so far, but I am interested to see if this particular pass protection is an indicator for a very diverse running game similar to Bill Callahan’s (Frank Pollack’s mentor and Brian Callahan’s father) in Cleveland.

Ja’Marr Chase’s Drops

We have gone this far ignoring the real elephant in the room for the second preseason game. The one thing everyone who watched this game was talking about was Ja’Marr Chase’s drops. This has been an issue throughout camp as well, but it finally permeated into a complete meltdown on the field on Friday when he dropped all three of his targets. 

I think he will be fine, but there is no reason to sugar coat it. It’s not because Brandon Allen is throwing the football. If it is, then it's concerning that the fifth overall pick can only catch passes from one guy. None of these were extremely difficult catches. They were all catchable balls. Let’s take a look at all three drops.

This was Chase's first drop. The Bengals line up in a bunch set with the running back to the bunch side. This combined with the running back working a swing route to that side essentially creates a 4x1 look which was common at LSU. The importance of the 4x1 set for the Bengals here is that it isolates Chase against the cornerback he is going up against. 

The rest of the defense will pretty much be caught up with all of the action going on to the four side while he gets to work one on one to the one side. It’s just a slant route from Chase and with the cornerback playing pretty far off of him, he easily gets open. The defensive back does not care about a 5-7 yard slant route because this is on 3rd-and-16. He will just rally to the ball and make the tackle to bring up 4th-and-long. It looks to me like Allen may be trying to put this ball to the backside of Chase because he sees the cornerback screaming down at him and wants to save him from taking a hit. This make for a somewhat tough catch, but one that you would expect Chase to make. 

Instead, he drops it, which set the tone for the entire night. All the Bengals wanted to do was make some more room for Kevin Huber’s punt. It should be an easy pitch and catch with a low possibility of a first down. Instead it’s dropped and the Bengals are stuck punting out of their own end zone.

Another drop and another play where part of the focus is to get Chase isolated against the cornerback one-on-one. It looks like a quick post of some sort, but without the all-22 angle I cannot tell what route he is running. Not as heavy on isolating him as the last play, but he is the only wide receiver on this side and he is running a route to beat the leverage of the cornerback he is facing. The defensive back is giving him outside leverage, so the inside should be easier to win. 

Chase beats the corner off of the line of scrimmage and then gets open. Allen puts the ball right on him, but he drops it. To me this seems a bit like a focus drop. He saw the safety flash in front of him and he dropped it losing concentration on the ball. I did not see this all that often at LSU and am not overly concerned about concentration drops being a huge issue.

This play is another 4x1 isolated look from the Bengals. They definitely wanted to isolate Chase on the outside and see if he could beat his competition. This was the drop that concerned me the most in the game. Not because it was a drop, but because something negative that happened to him throughout college showed up on film. He struggled to get off of the press coverage from the cornerback. He tries to sell that he’s going deep, but the cornerback is not buying this. It lets the corner settle and play Chase tight here. He gets a ball thrown his way and it hits him in the hands. Just like the other two passes he was targeted on, Chase drops another one. I thought he displayed good hands in college and while I do have some mild concerns now, I am not ready to say it will be an issue going forward. The bigger problem to me is that he was unable to separate from Washington's fourth cornerback to get open on 3rd down.

These were the main three things that stood out to me on film for the second preseason game. I am excited to see just how Zac Taylor and Brian Callahan will design the offense for Burrow this week. 

Will they have him under center running wide zone like everyone else or will they wait to show that in week one? Will they let him throw any 5 step drop concepts? Probably not, but I still want to see what the Bengals coaching staff lets their quarterback do in his first NFL action since the middle of last season.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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