NFL
Bengals Face Challenging Test vs Giants in Must-Win Matchup
The New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals were two of the nine teams that started the season 0-2. The Bengals took that a step further falling to 0-3 before picking up their first win of the season.
Both teams are working on digging themselves out of a hole, but the Giants have something the Bengals are lacking: a viable pass rush.
New York’s defensive line really came alive last week in Lumen Field when they took on Geno Smith and the Seahawks. New York mixed it up with the blitzes making it difficult for Smith and sacking him seven times. They lead the NFL with 22 sacks on the season.
According to ESPN Stats and Info 22 sacks is the third-most sacks through five games over the last 15 years. That number also ranks second in Giants’ history.
New York’s defensive line is the biggest thing that stuck out to Ja’Marr Chase when he started watching film this week.
“They’ve got a great D-line, two great ends right now,” Chase said. “They’re playing good football up front.”
The Giants defensive line production wasn’t a fluke either, they sacked Deshaun Watson eight times in Week 3.
One thing is guaranteed for Sunday night, the Gaints will bring the pressure and aim to make Joe Burrow’s life difficult. Cincinnati’s offensive line must be poised to mitigate the damage their liable to do in the trenches.
“Give credit to them and their whole defense man,” Mims said. “They’re great. They have a great defense but it’s our job to come in and get better and study our opponent so we can neutralize all the guys who are making the plays.”
Related: What Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns Bring to Giants’ Pass Rush
Dexter Lawrence II leads New York with six sacks through five weeks. His big play production garners a lot more attention than most guys in his position and he’s often double teamed. As it stands now, Lawrence only ranks behind Nathan Shepard and Folorunso Fatukasi seeing a double team 65.30% of the time on run defense snaps.
“The DB’s (defensive backs) were covering their butts off,” Lawrence said after their win in Seattle. “They were covering well, gave us time to get there. Geno (Smith) was looking for his second read, third read and that gave us time to get there.”
It will be an interesting situation for Cincinnati’s offense in Metlife Stadium. On one hand, we are seeing the most prolific and productive offense in the Burrow era as he ranks first in the league with 12 passing touchdowns, first in QB rating (113.6) and second in completion percentage (72.3). Burrow also gets rid of the ball faster than his peers at 2.2 seconds according to fantasypros.com advanced quarterback stats.
Cincinnati’s efficiency is working, but on the other hand, seeing this offense hold onto the ball a little bit longer and control the time of position could hugely benefit them.
The Bengals defense ranks towards the bottom of the league (26th) in total defense and they’re less than subpar against the run, ranking 30th in the league and giving up over 150 rush yards per game.
Possessing the ball and keeping the defense on the sideline could help their cause.
In order to take time off the clock and accomplish the biggest goal of all, which is to score touchdowns, Burrow will need a clean pocket on Sunday night and that will be a very tall order.
“If we stick with the plan and go out there and execute like I know we can then no matter who is on the opposite side of the ball we should be good,” Mims said.
As a whole, the Giants rank slightly better than average at 12th in net rushing defense, allowing 115.4 yards per game and right in the middle of the pack at 15th in pass defense giving up just over 200 yards per game.
“They’re a solid defense, disciplined defense,” Erick All Jr. said. “They’re really sound and they sit out in the zone a lot, you know they don’t blitz as much as teams we’ve seen recently but hopefully we catch them in the right zones and pick them apart.”
The team expected to start a win streak against the Baltimore Ravens, but that didn’t happen. Earning a primetime win could be the turning point of the season. They’re running out of time and that fact isn’t lost on the team’s best receiver.
“It won’t be too long before we turn this thing around,” Chase said. “I know we started off slow but we are right there.”
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