Bengals, Week 3 — What Repeats: Motion Went From Last to Fifth

Last week this show wrote down a Cincinnati offense that moved less before the snap than anyone in the league. That line lasted seven days. In Pittsburgh, the Bengals used motion on 41 of their 74 charted plays. That is 55 percent, the fifth-highest rate of the 32 offenses this week, where the median was 46. A week earlier in Houston it was 21 percent, last of the 32. Last season it was 42. One of the figures this show had filed as a two-week trend did not fall a third time. It more than doubled, past last season's number and past most of the league.

The throws behind all that movement were the cleanest of Burrow's three games. Charters marked 32 of his 37 throws catchable. That is 86 percent, tied with the Jets for second of the 32 offenses this week, behind only Kansas City. In each of the first two weeks it was about 74 percent, and across last season Burrow was at 79. One of the 32 catchable balls was dropped. None of the 37 was charted interception-worthy, a ball a defender should have caught, and none was thrown away. Six of the 37 were contested, a receiver and a defender arriving together. That is 16 percent, twelfth in the league this week, and it is the third straight game well under the 25 percent Burrow threw into last season. That one has now held long enough to keep.

Where the yards came from is the part worth keeping too. Cincinnati used play-action on 10 of 40 dropbacks, 25 percent, tied for sixteenth with Tennessee. After ranking last in the league in Week 1 and 20-sixth in Week 2, that is the first time this season the rate has reached the league median. It produced almost nothing. Burrow's eight play-action throws went seven for 26 yards, the longest a 12-yard completion to Chase. His other 29 throws went 21 for 256. The three-yard touchdown to Chase was the one play-action throw that scored; the 28-yarder to Higgins and the 25-yarder to Gesicki both came off a straight dropback. The strip sack that ended the game was a play-action dropback, and the charting does not put that sack on Burrow.

The boxes turned over as well. Pittsburgh showed six or fewer defenders in the box on 12 of Cincinnati's 16 designed runs. 75 percent, fifth-highest of the 32 offenses this week, against a median of 41. Houston had shown six or fewer on 18 percent of them a week earlier, and last season the figure was 67. Those 16 runs gained 70 yards, 4.4 a run, thirteenth in the league, about half a yard a run better than in Houston against the heavy fronts. So the loaded boxes looked like a Houston plan, not a league verdict. Screens went from the fourth-highest rate in the league to none at all, zero on 40 dropbacks. Pittsburgh sent five or more pass rushers on 12 of those 40, 30 percent, thirteenth this week and right around the median, after nearly half of Burrow's dropbacks in Week 1 and a fifth of them in Week 2.

Now the defense, and the run side leads because it reversed hardest. A week after allowing 2.1 yards per designed run in Houston, the second-lowest figure in the league, Cincinnati allowed 6.4 on Pittsburgh's 20 designed runs. That is the most of any of the 32 defenses this week. The median was 3.9. A hundred 28 yards on 20 runs, and it came without a heavy front: Cincinnati showed six or fewer in the box on 13 of the 20, 65 percent, sixth-highest in the league, after 53 percent in Houston and 63 across last season. Jaylen Warren's 26-yard run to the Cincinnati six in the fourth quarter, the one that set up the field goal that won it, came against a six-man box. His 35-yarder in the second quarter came against seven.

The four-man rush held for a third week. Cincinnati sent five or more pass rushers on seven of Pittsburgh's 36 dropbacks, 19 percent, 20-seventh of the 32, after 14 percent in Week 1, 10 in Week 2 and 18 across last season. It still sacked Aaron Rodgers twice, both on third and five inside the Cincinnati 20 in the fourth quarter, and the charting puts one of the two on Rodgers. What did not hold is what the throws looked like. 24 of Rodgers's 33 throws, not counting a spike, were catchable, 73 percent, thirteenth this week, a week after this defense held Houston to 59 percent, second-lowest in the league. Three of the 33 were contested, nine percent, in the bottom half of the league, after 30 percent in Houston, third-highest. One throw was charted interception-worthy, a deep ball for Pat Freiermuth with 11 21 left in the fourth quarter that fell incomplete. Jordan Battle's interception was not it. The charters marked that throw catchable and the play a drop. And Rodgers found the fake this defense could not handle: six of eight on play-action for a hundred 28 yards, 16 a throw, against 13 of 25 for a hundred 64 on everything else.

The stat lines have settled, so here they are, scored half-PPR. Ja'Marr Chase caught nine of 12 targets for 98 yards and a touchdown, 20.3. Tee Higgins, six of seven for 90 and a score, 18 even. Burrow, 28 of 37 for 282 three touchdowns, +2 carries for 13, 22.6. Mike Gesicki caught all three of his targets for 37 and the go-ahead touchdown, 11.2. Chase Brown ran 13 times for 61 and caught two for eight, 7.9. For Pittsburgh, Warren went 17 carries for a hundred 27 three catches for 49, 19.1, and Rodgers was 19 of 34 for 292, three touchdowns and the interception, 22.7.

One note on the yardstick. Every "last season" above is a different Bengals roster, and this is the last week the show measures against it. From here the comparison is Cincinnati against its own games this season.

The thread, from the top, for anyone new. Cincinnati went six and 11 last season. This season it beat Tampa Bay 33 to 27 at home, won 20 to six in Houston, and lost 30 to 27 in Pittsburgh. Last week's notebook had three lines, and two of them broke. Motion, the lowest in the league, went to fifth. The heavy boxes the run game was seeing went to the fifth-lightest. The four-man rush held, and it produced two more sacks. Two things that were not in the notebook belong in it now: Burrow's contested rate has stayed well under last season's for three games, and the run defense that allowed the second-fewest yards per designed run in the league one week allowed the most the next. Cincinnati is two and one, the one figure that has not moved is the pass rush, and the Jaguars come to Cincinnati on Sunday.

That's your Bengals — every game, by the numbers. This is Muffed: we do the same deep dive for all 32 teams. Follow the Bengals show wherever you're listening, so next week's recap lands the moment it's out. No theater. Just the football.

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_Data via nflverse. Charting: FTN Data via nflverse._