From Cincy’s Crumbling Defense to Mahomes’ Mystique: What’s Really Going On? | MAILBAG
From Fangio’s Eagles Redemption to Jacksonville’s Dysfunction: The NFL’s Wildest Week Yet. What is Sustainable and What is a Mirage?
Another Football Friday has arrived, and that means another opportunity to tackle your questions this week!
Among this week’s answers are an executive’s take on what has become a disaster in DUUUVAL for the Jaguars, Vic Fangio’s potential shortcomings as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, and an offensive coach’s perspective on Patrick Mahomes and a Chiefs offense that hasn’t looked very Mahomesian despite an undefeated start, and more!
Let’s hit it!
What is going on with the Bengals defense are the Chiefs frauds or did the Commanders just have a really great game? (The_git_gud_grrl on Threads)
The Bengals don’t seem to have much of an identity on defense right now, and never has that been more evident than watching Jayden Daniels morph into the second coming of Patrick Mahomes and Peyton Manning on Monday night.
Worse than allowing 254 passing yards and two touchdowns to Daniels, Cincinnati was gashed for 108 rushing yards and surrendered an Austin Ekeler rushing touchdown.
Outside of rising to the moment against the Kansas City Chiefs, but ultimately falling short on a last-minute Mahomes game-winning drive, the Bengals’ defense has offered little resemblance to the ghost of its recent dominant past while sitting 30th in sacks through the first three games.
It’s bad in Cincinnati right now. Very bad.
To get a true schematic perspective on what’s ailing Cincinnati right now, I posed your question to good friend, colleague, and long-time road dog to many a Super Bowl, NFL Combine, and Senior Bowl,
who recently launched a tremendous Substack you should check out at The X’s and O’s.Doug goes deep on the Bengals’ woes:
Nobody but Trey Hendrickson is pressuring the quarterback.
Hendrickson has been one of the NFL’s best pass-rushers this season. He has totaled three sacks, three quarterback hits, and eight quarterback hurries. Outside of him, though? Very little going on. Hendrickson is responsible for 35.7% of Cincinnati’s total quarterback pressures, which is the highest rate for any team. Sam Hubbard, who has been great as Hendrickson’s erstwhile underrated bookend, has just seven total pressures and no sacks this season. Only defensive linemen Zach Carter and Jay Tufele, as well as defensive back Dax Hill, have sacks this season beyond Hendrickson’s efforts, and that’s one each.
If you can’t consistently pressure a quarterback beyond one guy, that guy is going to start getting the lion’s (or the Bengal’s) share of the blocking attention. If that happens, and Hendrickson’s pressure totals start to diminish, that will be a REAL problem.
Most of the Bengals’ most-targeted defenders are getting cooked.
Cincinnati was wise to sign former Ravens deep safety Geno Stone to a two-year, $14 million contract this offseason, Actually, given Stone’s seven-interception season for Baltimore in 2023, I was shocked that he wasn’t able to procure a bigger contract. Stone isn’t one of those DaRon Bland/DeAngelo Hall/Marcus Peters guys where the stuff beyond the interceptions is average noise. And he’s been great in Lou Anarumo’s defense, allowing three catches on five targets for 16 yards, a pass breakup, no touchdowns, and an opponent passer rating of 65.4.
Outside of Stone, though… opponents know that they can make hay against Cincinnati's defensive backs. Cam Taylor-Britt made waves when he was able to intercept a Patrick Mahomes deep pass to Xavier Worthy after insisting that all Worthy did was to run fast in a straight line, but he also gave up a deep touchdown to Rashee Rice in Kansas City’s Week 2 win. Taylor-Britt has allowed an opponent passer rating of 95.8, and that still puts him on the good side in his own secondary.
The aforementioned Dax Hill has given up an opponent passer rating of 124.4. Linebacker Germaine Pratt, 103.7. Safety Vonn Bell, who’s always been better closer to the box, 101.4. Cornerback Mike Hilton, 95.4.
As is the case with the front, there isn’t even a beta guy to match with the one alpha – we are in tertiary territory here.
Overall, I think that the Bengals are struggling mightily to do what every modern defense must do to succeed – tie pressure to coverage. There’s only so much scheming defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo can do when the personnel isn’t playing up to what was expected of them before the 2024 season.
Things are truly bad when an offense is averaging 22.6 points per game and the franchise is still in search of its first win of the season.
Fortunately, the Bengals play the Carolina Andy Daltons this week, but it may take more than one get-right game to right this sinking ship in Cincinnati.
Which is the “real” Eagles D - the one that got run over like roadkill the first two weeks, or the one which held New Orleans’ high flying offense to 12 in week 3? (bar0ke on Threads)
The Eagles have to be absolutely thrilled about Sunday’s effort in New Orleans.
New Orleans had previously scored 91 points through their first two games, and Vic Fangio’s defense held the Saints to just 12 points while stifling running back Alvin Kamara, and swarming quarterback Derek Carr all afternoon.
Sunday was an encouraging development for a defense that is still looking to put all the pieces together for an entire game. Even in New Orleans, the Eagles’ defense still allowed the Saints to put together three drives of 50+ yards, but Philadelphia’s red-zone defense largely held by surrendering a touchdown on just one of three trips inside the 20-yard line.
Still, it remains to be seen whether Week 3 was real or a mirage.
There’s some healthy skepticism about the Eagles from people I trust inside the league.
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