All-22 reviews of the Bengals game

[PoundingDog]

There are many of them, I just picked a not too technical one here from Thad Brown and Carl Jones. A few notes I want to point out.

1. It is noticeable the Bills have been focusing on taking away the best weapons. Metcalf in the Steelers game and Chase in the Bengals game. The difference is when Mecalf was shut down, the Steelers were cooked. The Bengals still had Higgins (healthy) and Gesicki, which made life miserable unless, I guess, you have the Texans defense - actually I'm not so sure how it would go if Bengals offense would play Texans defense in snow. Naturally, Jones mentioned he's wondering what would the Bills do against the Pats, specifically, Diggs.
2. Very good point on the pass rushers reducing their moves to one, especially the first half. This is where we really missed Bosa and the disappointment on Rousseau whose game is built on power.
3. Burrow was on his game, and with the weapon he has, it is HARD to stop. 2nd half, the Bills took chance on blitz. You win some, and you lose some but the point is you HAVE TO take chances then. By the same token, I'd say the Bills offense had to take chances on all those 4th downs. I myself and many in the media believed that is not sustainable, which I still believe 100% true. Against the Bengals in the situation we were in that game, it was the right move. But it should not be the right move against teams like the Pats that has a decent defense.
4. The point about Lewis, I see why the Bills claimed Slay and it is unfortunate he won't report to address maybe the biggest weakness in our pass defense. Maybe the new Safety they signed could help.
5. I don't think they gave enough credit to Thompson. In this defense, good to solid play of your MLB makes a big difference. The run defense requires everyone doing his job and we are getting that under Thompson vs Bernard. 
7.  

[ProcessTruster]

Not too worried about Diggs.   Benford has likely seen every move Diggs has 100 times, plus Diggs is slow.    The Pats TEs are the issue.   Be interesting to see if Thompson comes off for a better coverage option, at the risk of getting run on.   Should be fun.  

 

Again, it's all about getting a lead and forcing the opposition to throw it.   Hopefully, we can get back to that as that is how this team is (and has always been) built. 

[TheFunPolice]

thank God  Zach Taylor is a terrible HC or else these Bengals would be a problem in the playoffs. 

 

Luckily, they are never there. It is currently almost 3 calendar years since Burrow took a playoff snap.