Beware of the Tigers 🐯
The New York Jets welcome in the Cincinnati Bengals and there are two Tigers, in particular, the Jets will need to fear. Head below to check out our game preview.
🗽Good morning Jets fans. It’s Friday, so we’d say it’s time to slack off at work a little bit, decide on the beers you’ll be sinking over the weekend and read our game preview. Without further delay, let’s get into it.
🏈Game Day🏈
Who: Cincinnati Bengals @ New York Jets
Where: Metlife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
When: Sunday 31st October, 1:00pm EST (5:00pm GMT)
Head to Head: 27 games, 17 wins, 10 losses
Offensive Rankings:
Points (Jets 32, Bengals 7)
Total Yards (Jets 31, Bengals 13th)
Passing (Jets 30th, Bengals 7th)
Rushing (Jets 32nd, Bengals 14th)
Defensive Rankings:
Points (Jets 24th, Bengals 5th)
Total Yards (Jets 17th, Bengals 15th)
Passing (Jets 16th, Bengals 20th)
Rushing (Jets 16th, Bengals 8th)
Turnovers:
Differential (Jets -8, Bengals -3)
Defensive Interceptions (Jets 0, Bengals 5)
Offensive interceptions (Jets 11, Bengals 8)
Injuries 🤕
The Bengals are relatively healthy with just their 3rd string RB Chris Evans unable to practice this week. Trey Hendrickson played through the shoulder injury last week against Baltimore and he appeared absolutely fine. Trey Hopkins got his standard rest day and he’ll be absolutely fine to go on Sunday.
For the Jets, Corey Davis was a new addition to the injury report and his status is worth watching. There is some confidence that C. J. Mosley will be good to go on Sunday and it’s good to see Tyler Kroft practicing, it’s about time he paid back the faith that Coach LaFleur has put in him.
The Bengals Offense 🐯
Passing
🏈 The Bengals have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL and it’s mainly down to two people, college teammates Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. Burrow and Chase both attended LSU and they’ve continued their connection in Ohio and despite the threat of Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine on the ground, the greatest threat to the Jets is their ait attack.
Joe Burrow has thrown 17 touchdowns this season through 7 games and 6 of them have gone to first-year rookie Chase. The Bengals are tied for the league lead in explosive passing plays, having had 8 passing plays go for 40+ yards and 29 go for 20+ yards. With such a young secondary, Ulbrich will have his work cut out to slow down this attack.
The Jets won’t be able to just key in on one player. The Bengals have Tyler Boyd (32 catches for 329 yards), Higgins (25 catches for 256 yards), and TE C.J Uzomah (17 receptions and 5 touchdowns). Burrow does like to throw to his favorite targets in Chase and Boyd, and 6 of the 8 interceptions have come when trying to force the ball to them.
Chase does spend the vast majority of his time outside (80% of snaps), but he can also hurt you from the slot (20% of snaps). When he can do things like this, it doesn’t really matter where he lines up:
Rushing
🏈 All of this before we even talk about Joe Mixon. He’s currently racing along at 4.4 yards per carry, clocking 539 yards and 4 touchdowns to go with 13 receptions and one touchdown. Brandon Bolden burned the Jets last week out of the backfield and if they’re not careful Mixon will do the same.
Despite the expectation that the Jets would be strong against the run, the Jets haven’t kept a single opponent to under 100 yards rushing through the first 6 games of the season. Some of that rests directly on the heads of the defensive lineman, but a lot of that also comes from an inexperienced and battered linebacker unit that has been slow to fill the gaps.
In terms of rushing the Bengals are similar to the Jets in that they run a majority of their plays in a zone scheme with around 25%-30% coming in gap. The Jets will need to be disciplined as Mixon is exceptional at cutting back and finding the right hole to explode through, having Mosley and Davis back will go a long way to fixing the issues against the run.
Offensive Line
🏈 In terms of the offensive line, the Bengals protect Joe Burrow only a fraction better than the Jets protect their QB’s. Cincinnati has allowed 17 sacks in comparison to the Jets’ 20. The best way to beat them is to get pressure around the tackles, right tackle Riley Reiff and LT Jonah Williams have allowed a combined 6 sacks and 26 pressures, this will be an area the Jets will look to exploit with JFM and Huff coming off the edge
The Bengals offensive line is a good run blocking unit without being elite. They are averaging over 5 yards a carry when they stretch the ball outside to the left so that’s going to be something the Jets will need to keep an eye on.
Offensive Coordinator - Brian Callahan
🏈 Son of former Jets assistant head coach and offensive line coach Bill Callahan, Brian and head coach Zac Taylor run a version of a west-coast offense, which utilizes a number of short and intermediate throws. Callahan took a few concepts from Joe Brady’s 2019 LSU team, which isn’t surprising considering Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase are now Bengals.
The Bengals Defense 🐯
Pass Defense
🏈 The pass defense of the Bengals has seen a marked improvement in 2021. In Jessie Bates (FS) and Von Bell (SS), the Bengals have a couple of thumpers on the back-end capable of coming up and laying on a big hit. Von Bell who is arguably the best player on the defense is rated by PFF as the 20th best safety in the league.
Their pass defense was helped by the signing of Chdobe Awuzie, a player currently ranked as the #2 cornerback in football this year. Although he has allowed a couple of touchdowns on the year, he also has 4 pass breakups while covering some of the best receivers in the game. Mike Hilton and Eli Apple have been just about serviceable, but the Bengals did lose Trae Waynes to IR, which convinced them to sign veteran Tre Flowers.
The real strength of this defense comes with the big men upfront. Off-season signing Trey Hendrickson has shown no signs of slowing down since leaving the Big Easy for the Jungle. He’s recorded 6.5 sacks to go with 23 QB hurries, and when you partner that with the play of Sam Hubbard (4 sacks and 17 hurries), George Fant and Morgan Moses are going to have to be at their absolute best to keep Mike White upright.
If you want to point out a weakness on this unit, then it’s going to be the youthful linebacking trio of Logan Wilson, Akeem Davis-Gaither, and Germaine Pratt. While they all have talent, they have struggled at times against teams like the Green Bay Packers who utilize a horizontal passing game, the Jets in an ideal world run a horizontal passing game, so there is an opportunity for Mike White there.
Between D.J Reeder (1 sack, 7 hurries), Larry Ogunjobi (2.5 sacks, 9 hurries) and B.J Hill (3 sacks, 4 hurries) the interior of the Jets offensive line will need to be on their guard, especially when facing up to stunts, a simple tactic that has proved problematic for the Jets to deal with so far in 2021.
Rush Defense
🏈 The Bengals can be a difficult team to run on, thanks in large part to the two big defensive tackles D.J Reeder and B.J Hill, both are hard to move and shed blocks to make tackles with ease. You have to imagine that GVR may be in for a long day considering the talent inside. The Bengals are allowing 4 yards per carry through 7 games which is good for the 6th best mark in the league.
You think you have a hole to run through and it’s closed immediately.
Vonn Bell is the kind of safety that comes downhill and makes plays on the ball carrier. He’s one of my favorite players to watch in the league and he’s at his best when coming in to play the run. Akeem Davis-Gaither is also a good run defender, but this matchup will come down to whether the Jets interior can move the big bodies of the Bengals defensive line.
Defensive Coordinator - Lou Anarumo
🏈 Anarumo brings over 30 years of coaching experience having started his coaching career in 1989 at Wagner College on Staten Island. Known as a defensive back specialist, Anarumo has been coaching in the NFL since 2012, mainly with the Miami Dolphins before a one-year stop in New York for the Giants back in 2018. Anarumo likes to play a Hybrid defense that often utilizes a single high safety (although he does go to a double shell often) and preaches a real physicality designed to combat the tough AFC North.
🌟 Star Player 🌟
Ja’Marr Chase
🏈Do you remember in the pre-season when Chase couldn’t catch a cold? Those days seem a distant memory now for Bengals fans.
Chase’s 757 receiving yards through 7 games are the most of any rookie receiver in NFL history. He has 3 drops on 50 targets, but the Bengals won’t mind that if he keeps doing things like this:
The connection between Burrow and Chase is obvious, the problem with defending him is he can hurt you from all over the field. He has 9 receptions of 20+ yards, 10 receptions between 10-19 yards, 13 receptions between 0-9 yards, and 3 receptions behind the line of scrimmage. The Bengals are doing what any good franchise does with a highly touted young receiver, they’re getting the ball into his hands.
That will do it for today. As always thanks for reading. We’re now officially on Twitter so please give us a follow and we appreciate any shares of The Jet Way.