With the constant presence of superstars like quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, there is no doubt that the core identity of the Cincinnati Bengals lies on the offensive side of the ball. After all, when Burrow is on the field, this is a team that is built to put up tons of points and then play a ‘bend but don’t break’ philosophy on the defensive side of the ball. However, there are moments early on in training camp that make it appear that the image of this team may be slowly shifting to the defensive side of the ball.
Cincinnati Bengals Looks Excellent in Goal Line Drills
One of those moments came on Monday afternoon when the Cincinnati defense set the tone early and appeared to overpower the Bengals offensive line at the line of scrimmage. On without a doubt the biggest play of the day, the first-team offense took on the first-team defense in a ‘backed up’ situation from the 2-yard line. On the snap, Burrow handed the ball off to recent acquisition running back Zack Moss who was instantly enveloped by defensive end Joseph Ossai in the end zone for a safety.
The full play can be seen below:
Five observations from Day 10 of #Bengals camp.
1. Joseph Ossai had a great day, even recording a rare training camp safely on a run.
“The only reason I was able to make that play is my guys got interior push,” said Ossai. “We’ve got some dudes in the middle of the line.” pic.twitter.com/dr8yHxoV78— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) August 6, 2024
During an interview with Bengals.com reporter Dan Hoard, Ossai gave his breakdown of the play in question.
“It’s a regular, routine play. Your eyes go down the line on the down blocks,” Ossai said. “It only bounced to me because the interior guys had such a good push and they had nowhere to go.”
Defensive Confidence on Display
There are two ways to spin this play. On one hand, this young, up-and-coming defensive front put on a tremendous stand at the goal line to allow Ossai to make a spectacular play behind the line of scrimmage. While Ossai goes down as the star of the play, defensive tackles B.J. Hill, Kris Jenkins Jr., and McKinnley Jackson all had excellent days manhandling offensive linemen at the point of attack.
As the presumptive leader of this defensive interior, Hill had some strong comments about the presumption that this is an offensive team.
“We just feel like there’s a lot of disrespect out there,” said Hill. “Talking crazy, overlooking us as a defense. We’re used to it, but we have a chip on the shoulder to show people what we’re about. Starting practice fast, doing your job fast, it takes care of everything else.”
It will be interesting to see this defense make plays throughout the year if this defensive front can step up to the plate and play at a high level this season. Questions have been raised about this undersized group after star nose tackle D.J. Reader left during the offseason for Detroit but the additions of Jenkins and Jackson during the 2024 NFL Draft appear to be making up for the loss adequately during training camp.
Should Fans Be Concerned About the Offensive Line?
While naturally, we should try to spin this as a positive on the defensive side of the ball, one can’t help but worry about the play on the offensive side of the ball. Ossai correctly states that the root cause of the disastrous play for the offense was lost ground at the point of attack by offensive linemen Cordell Volson and Orlando Brown Jr.
Given this organization’s obsession with size and bulk on the offensive line, these two players should be relishing this situation as an opportunity to explode off the line and move defenders off the line of scrimmage. In this play, they fail dramatically to either seal an edge or perform adequate down blocks for Moss to cut inside and prevent the negative play.
Over the past several seasons, this is a team that has struggled to develop the running game and the biggest reason for that has been the frequency of negative plays burying the offense on the early downs. Brown in particular has been a critical offender in terms of blundering technique causing issues. Another example can be seen in the play below when Brown turns his shoulders on a passing play, allowing the defensive end to cut inside and have an open lane to the quarterback.
Amarius Mims is either really good or Myles Murphy is another first round miss by Tobin because he can not beat him https://t.co/JQ5bRnM7Xk
— Josh Collier (@J_Collyay) August 4, 2024
We’re still early on in the training camp window and there is still plenty of time to solve problems on the offensive line. After all, it’s dramatically different pass blocking against your teammates in practice versus in a game when the play call is far more difficult to predict. It should be considered a major plus for the defensive line to be playing so well at this point in the preseason.
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