Our Defense Did That

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The Bengals may be on the road this week, but you can still experience football the Cincy way. Head to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to catch the game at a lively local sports bar, grab some game-day grub and explore everything else the region has to offer this fall. From your favorite craft brewery to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, there’s always a reason to make a trip to Cincy.

Final score 33-27 over Tampa Bay. Four forced fumbles. Four sacks. A defensive touchdown in the first quarter. Demetrius Knight Jr. scooped a Myles Murphy strip-sack and took it 27 yards to the house, and from there it was 21-3 before you’d finished your first beer. Bryan Cook forced a fumble and recovered one in the end zone. Boye Mafe had a sack and a fumble recovery. Barrett Carter led the team in tackles with eight, added a forced fumble, and posted a career-high 80.5 PFF grade.

Lawrence finished with one quarterback hit, zero sacks, zero tackles. He also led all defensive tackles in the NFL in Week 1 with a 36% quarterback win rate on true pass sets, was directly involved in the setup of three of the four fumbles, and forced Tampa Bay into running bootlegs all afternoon to avoid him. The Bucs totaled just nine yards on inside runs during the 35 snaps he was on the field. He rushed Mayfield 25 times. Jonathan Allen: “I never had a guy command that much attention.” Barrett Carter: “He’s a game-wrecker. An immediate culture changer.”

Now Texans GM Nick Caserio has weighed in. “I think the Vince comparison is probably pretty apt, just their athleticism. He’s a massive problem. When he’s going vertically it’s hard to contain him,” Caserio said. “He’s been double teamed more than any defensive tackle in the league. He presents a lot of problems.” Myles Murphy this week: “Having him in the middle, being a stump in the middle, creating a push, that’s not a stat line, but he’s creating a push all game. That’s exactly what we were looking for.” C.J. Stroud gets to find out firsthand today.

25-of-35, 254 yards, one touchdown, one pick-six that briefly made it a one-score game. The pick-six was ugly. Rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter dropped into the passing window and Burrow missed him, and Tampa Bay was suddenly within seven with a full quarter to play. What followed was the part that mattered. Dohnte Meyers broke a tackle for 18 yards on the first snap of the closing drive, Samaje Perine picked up 14, Tee Higgins made a diving catch over the middle on second-and-10, and the game was over. Zac Taylor has talked about the four-minute offense every day since April. Sunday was the first time it actually closed one out.

McPherson became the first player in Bengals history to make multiple field goals of 55 yards or more in a single game, accounting for 15 of Cincinnati’s 33 points and leading all NFL kickers in Week 1 scoring. His 58-yarder was the fourth-longest kick in team history. He was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, the fifth time in his career, which puts him third all-time in Bengals weekly honors. When drives stalled and the pick-six gave Tampa Bay a pulse, McPherson killed the momentum from 58 yards.

Three Bengals landed in ESPN’s top five at their positions in Week 1 win rate metrics. Dalton Risner ranked fifth among interior offensive linemen in run block win rate at 88%. Amarius Mims was fifth among tackles with a 92% run block win rate, and the line collectively ranked second in the NFL at 82%. Orlando Brown Jr. tied for 11th in pass block win rate among tackles at 93%.

Burrow was sacked at least twice in every previous Week 1 of his career. Sunday he went down once, against a defense that blitzed on 45.9% of his dropbacks and cranked that to 64% in the second half. Seven pressures allowed on 37 dropbacks, the lowest rate of any quarterback in the league in Week 1. Mims held Rueben Bain Jr. to zero pressures on 41 snaps and posted an 84.5 pass-blocking grade. The same five starters are back for a second straight year together for the first time in Burrow’s career.

Collins, a two-time Pro Bowler, caught seven passes for 75 yards and a touchdown in Houston’s Week 1 loss to Buffalo and will not play Sunday with a hamstring injury. Without him, C.J. Stroud leans on Jaylin Noel, Xavier Hutchinson, Kayshon Boutte, and Dalton Schultz. The Texans’ secondary graded 73rd in coverage at safety and gave up 7.9 yards per play to Buffalo, the most by any team in Week 1. DeMeco Ryans’ teams are 3-7 in the first three weeks of a season over his tenure.

Sun Sep 20, 1 PM, at Houston Texans (CBS)

Sun Sep 27, 1 PM, at Pittsburgh Steelers

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