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Film Breakdown: How Joe Burrow, Bengals Offensive Line Handled Vaunted 49ers Pass Rush

Cincinnati is 4-3 on the season following Sunday's 31-17 win.

Mike Santagata

In this story:

The Bengals offense was nothing short of incredible in Sunday's 31-17 win over the 49ers. They were efficient, explosive, and fun to watch. 

They put up 31 points against a tough San Francisco defense, which is the most that they have allowed all season. It could have been an even better performance if not for a missed field goal and a fumble near the goal line. The Bengals did this despite what appeared to be a mismatch [on paper] in the trenches. So how did they slow down the 49ers pass rush? Let’s dive into the film:

Game Plan

The Bengals knew that the 49ers pass rush would be coming after them with reckless abandon. The 49ers like to play a one gap defense where they fire off the ball and fly up field to get penetration. The Bengals used this to their advantage and forced San Francisco’s pass rushers to think. They did this with a well constructed run game and play action. Let’s start with the run game.

The first concept that they utilized the 49ers penchant for penetration against them was trap. Trap is a play where the offensive line will let a player through untouched to make them think that they are unabated to the ball carrier while an offensive lineman pulls from the opposite side to deliver a blow and open up a running lane. The first instance of this concept being called was tackle trap at Arik Armstead.

Armstead takes the cheese and gets upfield before Orlando Brown Jr. comes around on his pull to knock him backward. This is on the first drive of the game and it’s put in place to make Armstead think before flying up field. You can actually see the effect of this play later on in the game when the Bengals called another trap concept at him.

After getting blown up on the previous trap, this time he reads it coming and prepares himself so that he can make the stop. Even though this play was ineffective, it showed how the Bengals were able to slow Armstead down and make him think throughout the game. This helped prevent him from flying upfield and causing issues for the Bengals offense.

Cincinnati also had a plan for the 49ers defensive ends.

This is a bend zone play and the whole play hinges on Nick Bosa shooting off of the ball to get penetration. Bosa does exactly that and Joe Mixon is able to run through a gargantuan hole in the area that Bosa vacated. For a run play that is designed to go at Bosa, there is not much of a block that needs to be done. Drew Sample does a nice job of getting in the way and being a road bump, but his job was made easier because the Bengals used Bosa's aggressiveness against him.

There were multiple crack toss calls in this game and those are really in place to soften the edge more than anything. Crack toss can be stopped if the defensive end is aware of what is coming and tries to destroy the crack block. That did not happen on these plays as the defensive end instead took himself out of the play.

Some of this play’s effectiveness comes from the angle at which Sample is sealing the end, but it’s also because the end has no respect for the toss. Despite being reduced down inside of the tight ends, the end is still trying to get penetration rather than reading it out first. This makes Sample’s job very easy.

Later on in the game, they went at Bosa with crack toss from shotgun.

Bosa fires off of the ball to get penetration. Look at how easy Ja’Marr Chase’s job is on this play. Bosa basically takes himself out of the play once again and the Bengals get a positive gain because of it. On paper, Chase blocking Bosa is a mismatch, but when the offense knows that Bosa is going to fly off of the ball to penetrate up the field, they can use that against him.

They also went at the defensive line with this jet sweep.

Typically, the end is left unblocked on this play but the Bengals changed it to the 3-technique. The 3-technique on this play does exactly what the Bengals want by getting upfield and not honoring the jet motion and sweep whatsoever.

Lastly, there were a pair of called draw plays that took advantage of a defensive line that wanted to get after the quarterback.

Burrow called his own number on the first draw of the game with quarterback draw out of empty.

Watch the entire 49ers defensive line take themselves out of the play by trying to rush the passer. There are no linebackers in the box because they did not account for Burrow’s ability to run the ball and it turns into a first down.

Later on you can see a draw not work and it’s partially because the 49ers are now reading everything out before getting penetration.

Javon Hargrave does a nice job of staying home on this draw and it pays off for him. After the Bengals used the 49ers aggressiveness against them, they were less keen on getting penetration by any means necessary.

Not only did the Bengals create an efficient offense on the ground, but they also made the 49ers defensive line think a little bit before coming after the quarterback. This is huge for the Bengals pass protection in the game as it gave them a little bit of a leg up when they tried to pass the ball on early downs. 

If the 49ers are just pinning their ears back and attacking the quarterback, then the Bengals offensive line would've been at a disadvantage, but because the run game leveled the playing field some they were able to more effectively block for Burrow.

There were also a few instances of play action designed to slow the 49ers rush down. It starts with this halfback draw screen that they called early on in the game.

This play works because the end takes himself out of the play once again. Bosa has no intention of reading out the draw or screen. The Bengals slip the running back into the void that he left in the defense and make an easy toss to him for a chunk gain. Later on in the game, you can see how the Bengals ground game had an effect on the defensive line through play action.

Watch the 3-technique on this play as he completely stops to read out the action in front of him before continuing his rush. That is the effect of the Bengals ground game showing itself. Rather than trying to just beat the man in front of him, the defensive tackle is going to stop entirely to make sure that they stop the run first before rushing the passer rather than stopping the run on the way to rushing the passer. That makes the offensive line’s job just a little bit easier when they have to protect.

Late in the game they used this for a deep shot to Tee Higgins off of play action.

Knowing that the 49ers were honoring their run game, the Bengals went to a shot play off of play action. The 49ers fearsome defensive line does not get to Burrow despite ample time and it results in an explosive play. Overall, the Bengals coaching staff did a tremendous job with the scheme to help out their offensive line in a game where they may have been at a disadvantage on paper. 

The offensive line did their part. They performed at a high level and shined on film.

OL Performance

Everyone on the offensive line played their part in this game. The scheme was put in place to help them, but it still needed to be executed at a high level. If you go back through the previous plays, you will see an offensive line who is run blocking at a high level at both the first and second level. 

The offensive line executing the game plan on the ground was paramount in their success. The 49ers probably wouldn't respect the Bengals traps, tosses, sweeps, draws, etc. if Cincinnati wasn't efficient on the ground. Furthermore, the Bengals offensive line deserves their flowers for how they played protecting the passer in dropback situations as well.

Bosa had a half sack and two quarterback hits in this game, but that’s manageable. The important thing is that he did not take over the game. On this rep, Jonah Williams is able to block Bosa for the initial move and it’s only on the counter move (and shove from the defensive tackle) that he loses him. Blocking Bosa through his primary rush was key throughout the game though and something that both Williams and Brown did fairly consistently. Bosa got pressure throughout the game but it was pressure that was less valuable later in the play rather than immediate clean wins and free runs at the quarterback.

Cordell Volson is another guy who deserves a ton of credit for his performance.

Volson played above his pay grade. He faced Hargrave and Javon Kinlaw most of this game. He wasn't perfect, but he did more than enough in this game to warrant praise. Consistently he was able to take these players on in one on one scenarios.

Not only did the Bengals offensive line handle their assignments from a physical and technical perspective, but they also communicated at a high level and handled the stunts and twists that San Francisco threw their way throughout the game.

The Bengals have not handled stunts all that well this season, but in this game they did a tremendous job. It feels as if everyone is communicating at a high level and playing with one collective consciousness rather than having miscommunications or disconnects over who should be doing what. This play was the highlight of how they handled stunts, but the most important part of handling the stunts is that they did so consistently.

The Bengals offensive line played at a very high level throughout this game. They needed to step up against one of the toughest defensive lines that they will face all season. The game plan was put into place to help them out but that’s not to take anything away from how they performed. The game plan still needed to be executed at a high level and it didn't give them any help on obvious passing downs either. 

Overall this performance indicates that the Bengals improved offensive line can do more than hold their own in games like this. Sunday's performance is certainly something to build on with plenty of other tough defensive lines on the schedule this season. 

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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