New York Giants Week 6: Keys to Beating the Cincinnati Bengals

This weekend's game is winnable for the Giants if they can accomplish these three keys.

Stephen Lebitsch | Oct 11, 2024

Oct 6, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll stands on the sidelines during the second quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Coming off their tremendous win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5, the New York Giants are 2-3 and heading back home to MetLife Stadium. They will be looking to build some winning momentum for the first time this season in primetime against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Despite being one of the most successful teams in the AFC in recent seasons, the Bengals haven’t had the same story in 2024. The Zac Taylor-led team has hit a rough patch to open the year, losing four of their first five contests, including two to franchises that missed the postseason last fall.

It’s been a strange start for a franchise still loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. They have had their own set of injuries and off-field distractions that have impacted the winning product that many have come to expect in Cincinnati. Even then, the Bengals are still a dangerous football team that can light up the scoreboard if they get all three phases of the team to gel together for 60 minutes.

In three of the last four seasons behind quarterback Joe Burrow, the Bengals have owned one of the NFL’s top-10 offenses and have outscored opponents by as high as 96 points in differential. This season, their unit is ranked 4th and 9th in total points and yards, respectively, and can be electric from the air with their talented cast of wide receivers.

The Bengals have scored 33 or more points in their last three games and have been powered by the strength of their quarterback’s arm and arsenal. Cincinnati ranks sixth or higher in all major passing categories, including first in passing touchdowns, and is one of the sharpest teams in converting on late downs and inside the 20-yard-line.

That said, the Bengals do have some deficiencies in other areas of their roster that have stifled their early record, namely on the defensive end. The Giants could take advantage of them with another solid outing like the one they posted in Seattle, just managing their first game above 25 points and 420 yards of total production.

With the two sides squaring off for their 12th meeting all-time and the first with Burrow under center, the Giants have another three keys they must tackle to steal a big rare win on Sunday Night Football.

Keep the Ball Moving

The Giants might have found some success moving the football in both phases against the Seahawks, but they should have an even better matchup to add on against the Cincinnati Bengals, who haven’t been able to slow down anything.

While the Bengals can hang around with any opponent using their high-volume passing offense, they often need it to justify their weaknesses elsewhere. They currently average 370 yards and 28 points per game, both numbers inflated by their performance in Week 5 against Baltimore, but they also give up the same to slightly higher stats with 370.2 and 29 points on the other side.

Their defense can sometimes force a quality turnover to help the cause, but currently allow the 31st and 26th worst total offensive numbers to opponents. The result has been an average of 214 yards and 7.1 yards per play through the air and an even scarier 151.4 yards and 4.6 yards per rush on the ground for a -277 team differential in the latter.

The Bengals' defense has struggled to get their opponents off the field. Cincinnati ranks 26th or worse in average drives allowed and keeps its unit on the field for over three minutes per enemy possession. It is one of the worst teams in halting third- and fourth-down conversions and gives up points in the red zone on a whopping 66.7 percent of its trips.

Last Sunday, the Giants pushed the football at 5.9 yards per play, their second-best average of the season. They bested both of the Bengals’ marks allowed to opposing teams with 7.6 and 5.1 yards in the passing and rushing game, respectively and kept Seattle’s group off the field for most of the second half to dominate the clock.

If the Bengals come out and continue these trends on Sunday night, there should be no reason why the Giants can’t consistently move the ball again. It’s clear that Cincinnati hasn’t figured out many answers to slowing down the other team, and it presents New York with a huge opportunity to stack points on the board with a foe that can just as easily put them up to make up for it.

The Bengals have a respectable pass-rushing product, headlined by their duo of edge rushers, Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard. The duo has four sacks between them and could cause fits, but they will be facing a Giants offensive line that has improved each week.

The Giants can really make a statement under the lights against a Bengals team that most can’t believe is sitting at 1-4 if they simply keep the ball moving and punch in the end zone. It could take another near 30-point performance and a mirroring of the defensive outing we saw last week on the West Coast to get the job done.

Pressure Burrow

Despite the Bengals’ rough start, Joe Burrow has been playing some really good football.

The former No. 1 overall pick in 2020 has had a couple of his seasons marred by stint-ending knee and wrist injuries during his rookie year and last fall. Still, when healthy, Burrow has been one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks and a threat to take over a game every Sunday.

In the two campaigns in which he played in all 16 games, Burrow completed 68.3 percent of his throws or higher for at least 4,475 yards and 34 touchdowns, which is good for top-5 status in his position. He has amassed 125 completions for 1,370 yards, 12 touchdowns, and two interceptions in five games this season, ranking him sixth on the quarterback leaderboard and first in the touchdown category.

With his second-best average throw of 7.9 yards per play, Burrow is still slinging it and on pace for another impressive season as the Bengals’ lead signal caller. He hasn’t finished a game below 232 yards passing since Week 1 against New England and has put up ten touchdowns in the last three contests to keep Cincinnati competitive in their early losing stretch.

Last Sunday, Burrow had one of the best games of his career, posting 30 completions for a season-high 392 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception in the team’s 41-38 overtime loss to the Ravens. He has yet to face the Giants in his career and will enter the primetime matchup with some gusto that could fare well against a young secondary.

Thus, the Giants need to bring some pressure against Burrow and see if they can stifle his operation in the pocket. If he gets to move around freely for most of the game, he has the mobility and arm strength that can extend plays and wreak havoc on New York’s ability to remain in the ball game, making the players' job in the interior very important again.

Compared to the Seahawks’ front, the Bengals have some decent protection and rank 17th in the NFL with a 59 percent pass block win rate. However, they only boast one top-20 offensive lineman in any blocking categories, and that is left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who leads his position with a 97% percent win rate and 23% double-team win rate.

The rest of their offensive line should be up for grabs, and for the Giants' front four, it would be another big performance if they could get home to Burrow and make it harder to focus on what his receivers are doing downfield. The unit has had two outings with seven sacks tallied in the last three weeks and sits atop the league with 22 total takedowns that have been a major component of the Giants’ recipe for success.

The Giants' defense has yet to show up in a dominating fashion in their first two games at MetLife Stadium. Getting in Burrow’s face is a great way to change the narrative and fight for a rare win at home.

Containing Ja’Marr Chase

When the Bengals are looking to push the football through the air, there is no doubt their No. 1 target to contain is wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.

Since he was drafted fifth overall out of LSU in 2021, Chase has been one of the Bengals’ top pass-catching options and one of the elite ballhawks in the NFL. In 50 career games, the 24-year-old has caught 297 passes for 4,210 yards, 34 touchdowns, and an average haul of 14.2 yards–all good enough to finish among the top-20 receivers in his three pro seasons.

This fall, Chase is currently the second most productive pass catcher in the league, behind only Nico Collins of the Houston Texans. He has caught 29 balls on 36 targets for 493 yards, five touchdowns, and an average catch of 17.0 yards, which leads the Bengals receiving room and is almost 100 yards ahead of the next closest player in the AFC in Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas Jr (397).

As has been the case his whole career, Chase takes most of his snaps as Cincinnati’s lead wideout but can also do some work from the slot, where he has a 33.3 percent clip this season. He’ll be lined up outside to spar with No. 1 corner Deonte Banks, who is coming off one of his best performances against DK Metcalf in Seattle, where he limited the Pro Bowl wide receiver to two catches for 17 yards under his watch.

The key to containing Chase’s impact is lessening the damage he can do in the intermediate to deep yardage game. The Bengals like to deploy him in a similar role as Malik Nabers in the Giants offense, where a mix of speed, elusiveness, and solid ball skills allow him to play for nearly any target and take it long distance to the endzone.

According to PFF’s metrics, Chase does the majority of his damage from the outside left spot and in between the numbers, particularly within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage. In the shorter areas, he has a 14 of 18 stat line for 132 yards and 69 yards after the catch and has a few of his contested catches there, meaning he is very crisp and rarely drops the football when he’s called upon to make the quick plays that often bring conversions.

Expand him a little further into the intermediate range between 10 and 20 yards depth, and Chase’s numbers grow to 6 of 7 for 142 yards, one touchdown, and 59 yards after the catch as he commonly finds his groove in many comeback and crossing routes over the middle. If he takes a deep shot, it’ll likely come from the left sidelines, where he has gashed opponents once for 41 yards and a touchdown this season.

Regardless of who is defending him, which could also be a rotation of Nick McCloud and Cor’Dale Flott, who share some outside duties, the Giants’ goal should be to force Chase into earning his pay from closer to the line of scrimmage. The shorter his touches on the Bengals’ drives will translate to less damage on the backend, especially when the Giants can use their zone defense to swarm the extra bodies to him and swallow up the potential extra yardage.

The Bengals certainly have some other players who can make the big moments happen if Chase is removed from the picture, but removing the No. 1 threat is part of a formula that has worked for New York in its two victories this season and could do the same on Sunday night.

Keep the Ball Moving

Pressure Burrow

Containing Ja’Marr Chase

READ MORE ABOUT THE GIANTS' WEEK 6 GAME AGAINST THE BENGALS