On Sunday the Cincinnati Bengals will start their season against the mediocre New England Patriots. Not many people expect much from New England this season but that does make this game dangerous in its own right. While these are obviously professional athletes, the concept of a trap game will always exist. For those who aren’t aware, a trap game is when a team enters a game overconfident and unfocused against a far weaker opponent, and at the professional level, focus is arguably the most significant attribute to winning a game.
Cincinnati Bengals Aim to Pound the Rock Against the Patriots
There are plenty of potential strategies that Cincinnati could use to exploit the weakness of the Patriots but at this point, arguably the best strategy will be to attack the opposing defense with the ground game. While it may come as a surprise considering the fact that this defense was ranked fourth in the NFL against the run last season, this is a team that has lost two of their best players on their defensive front after edge defender Matthew Judon was traded and defensive tackle Christian Barmore suffered blood clots that may put his career in jeopardy.
Without either Judon or Barmore, this is a group that lacks experience up front and after revamping the offensive line, Cincinnati should make it a goal to show the rest of the league that this is no longer a solo threat offense. Therefore, the offensive player to watch this week is going to be running back Zack Moss. While this team may utilize a committee with Moss and second-year back Chase Brown, look for Cincinnati to enter this game with a smashmouth mentality and follow the old adage ‘four yards and a cloud of dust’. That being said, Chase may be the more explosive back but Moss will be the go-to choice between the tackles.
With underwhelming nose tackle Davon Godchaux as the only legitimate option as the center of the New England defense, this will be a huge game for the interior of this offensive line to master combo blocks up to the linebacker position. Once the effective combo block takes Godchaux off the line of scrimmage, there will be virtually no way for Moss to get anything less than four or five yards per play. With this strategy, this team can add a dynamic option to the offense and keep the rest of the league honest for the remainder of the season.
Once this team adopts the smashmouth approach, the implementation of this high-powered passing game and the explosive ability of Brown should generate some serious chunk plays against a staggered defense. That is why the best teams in the NFL typically run a play-action-based offense: it is obviously far easier to attack a defense that doesn’t know what to expect. Over the past several years, Cincinnati’s offense has gotten far too one-dimensional and this is the perfect opportunity to finally change that.
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