Cincinnati Bengals Must Rebound from Adversity Against Kansas City Chiefs
Rebounding from adversity is the name of the game for the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
The team is well aware that their Week 1 performance was not up to snuff and won’t beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead on Sunday.
According to Pro Football Focus, Cincinnati’s offensive line was a bright spot, as the group finished with a pass blocking grade of 73.5. Newcomer Trent Brown didn’t get the best grade (48.8) and he took full accountability afterward.
“I would say that was probably the worst game of my career,” Brown told BengalsTalk.com. “I’m always going to be my biggest critic regardless if some people thought I played okay, decent, or not there’s always going to be something that can be better and that’s the perfectionist mindset that you have to have in order to make it for a long time in this league.”
The film from Week 1 was brutal starting with the very first drive. Patriots defensive end Keion White beat Brown with an inside rush move and a strip-sack of Joe Burrow, which happened on the second play of the game.
Brown has heard the criticism, but none of it lands as the offensive tackle has already given himself more grief over his play in week one than anybody else could come close to.
“It was terrible. it wasn’t technically sound, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t Trent Brown,” he said. “It wasn’t up to my standards so back to the drawing board and I’ve got to have a better showing this week.”
The Bengals must elevate to a higher level with Chiefs defensive front consisting of guys like Chris Jones, George Karlaftis and Mike Danna.
Jones gets double teamed nearly every play and still finished with one sack, one forced fumble and three tackles (one for loss) in the opener. He’s a guy who can make a lot of trouble for the offensive line and quarterback throughout a entire game.
“What you have to do is put the work in during the week and go out there and just play balls out on Sunday’s or whatever day you play and hope you like the result,” Brown said. “Guys like that (Chris Jones), they’re going to make their plays, they’re going to have their hands all over the game at some point or another so you just have to do what you can in between or after to do your best.”
Cincinnati’s offense knows they need to take control of the game and stay on the field as long as possible with the ball in Joe Burrow’s hands in order to have a shot at evening the record 1-1.
“We definitely have to control the line of scrimmage the best we can week in and week out,” Brown said. “We have to control the time of possession and we have to try to keep 15 (Patrick Mahomes) off the field I think. We definitely have to play complimentary football, we have to be on it in all three phases to help our defense, keep them off the field and keep them fresh, they need to true the ball over and play complimentary football all over, special teams as well.”
The loss was a complete dumpster fire in Cincinnati by most standards. Joe Burrow didn’t look comfortable in the pocket. He barely targeted Ja’Marr Chase, especially in the first half (2 targets) and didn’t seem willing to take the deep shots required to create explosive plays that have a reputation for swinging games in the Bengals’ favor.
He was asked about the way he rolls his wrist, scrutinized for the way he picked up a water bottle and while his words on Wednesday shut it all down, the NFL world is waiting to see how he will play against the Chiefs.
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