Cincinnati Bengals Film Breakdown: Terrible Scripted Offense and How To Fix It

Cincinnati is 0-2 and their offense has struggled early in games.

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Sep 21, 2023 8:54 AM EDT

In this story:

There are a plethora of issues currently plaguing the Bengals offense, but one of the worst is their issue with scripted plays.

Scripted plays are the first 15 plays that an offense runs at the start of the game. Typically these plays are designed to be easy wins against the defense, which forces them to adjust. The Bengals have scored zero points off of their scripted drives and only picked up a single first down in two games.

The Ravens scripted drive on Sunday picked up five first downs and scored a touchdown to end it. The Bengals ran a total of six plays in the first quarter. That type of offense won’t cut it in the NFL.

Cincinnati needs to get more out of these scripted drives. Let’s take a look as to why these drives are failing and what the Bengals could do going forward:

Scripted Plays Week 1

The Bengals first drive in Week 1 moved the ball 16 yards and picked up the only first down of the four drives being examined today. After a failed throw on an RPO, the Bengals attempted a swing screen to Joe Mixon.

They got the look they wanted on this play with the Browns in single-high coverage. This is probably a decent gain if Ja’Marr Chase is able to block the nickel as well.

On 2nd-and-10 you should be looking to get at least five yards. This play ends up gaining one yard. The design is fine on the play although with no one accounting for the play side linebacker, the play will not be an explosive play or even a first down unless Mixon can make him miss.

The play goes from an easy couple of yards into nothing because of Chase’s block on the nickel. Tee Higgins does an alright job with the boundary corner, but the nickel is the one that ruins the play. Chase’s angle on the block seems to be intent on pushing the nickel to the sideline rather than trying to cut off his angle to the ball carrier. This works fine if Chase is able to drive the nickel and sustain the block but he doesn’t do that. If he is not going to sustain the block, then Chase should get between the nickel and the back so that he becomes an obstacle for the defender to try to work through. This is not elite design or anything close to it, but the play fails because of the execution.

That failed play set up 3rd-and-9, but they were able to convert.

The shift from Chase from left to right and back again gives Joe Burrow the tell that this is zone coverage.

With the boundary safety cheating down he can see that this has a good shot of being a post snap rotation from two-high to single-high. On the snap that safety rotates down, the field safety rotates back to single-high and the Browns are playing Cover 3. The Bengals have a corner out combination on this play with the design being for the out the entire way. The corner is there to just clear the coverage so Chase has room on his out route.

Trenton Irwin does a very nice job on this play to pick the corner. He knows he isn't getting the ball and instead frees things up for his teammate by running at the outside shoulder of the corner. This gives Chase room to run after the catch so he can pick up additional yardage. Solid design and even better execution on the play from the Bengals.

After an incomplete pass and a run for five yards, the Bengals are set up in a third and manageable. It did not go well.

There are design and execution errors on this concept. This is a drive concept, which is great against two-high zone. There is a way to run this that is also good against man coverage, but the Bengals don't run it that way. Instead of the 12-yard in route just running straight, that player should take an outside release and pick the shallow route’s man. If the Bengals ran drive this way, then the shallow route would have room to run instead of being in a foot race with the defender. There would be no need for time from the offensive line either as Burrow can almost essentially grip it and rip it without even taking much of a drop.

The execution error comes from the offensive line on this play. The Browns are in a 5 down look, which the Bengals respond by going 5-0 or man protection. This leaves Myles Garrett against Ted Karras one-on-one with no help. That’s not ideal. The better answer for this look is to ask the running back to pick up Anthony Walker (No. 5). That would free up Cordell Volson to double team Garrett. It's important to always get two bodies on the defense's best player on key downs.

This second and long screen does not come with a design issue, it’s just execution. This moves the offense to 3rd-and-1, but it could have very easily been a first down with better execution. Both the center and the right guard for the Bengals block the same defender on the screen. They got a perfect look for this screen with the Browns defensive line all sprinting up field to rush the passer and only the linebackers to worry about. It’s 2-on-2, but the Bengals make a mistake.

The design on this play seems solid. Shift left to right for the man/zone indicator and then if it’s man there is a pick play set up. It’s not going to gain much yardage without an error from the defense, but it forces them to communicate, work through a pick, and make a tackle all within one yard. If this ball is put on Smith Jr. then it should be a first down. Instead the throw is high and inaccurate. Without an accurate ball, the defense has enough time to respond to the pick. It’s not caught but even if Smith could bring that down he’s most likely not picking up the first down. This failure is mostly an execution failure from the quarterback.

Scripted Plays Week 2

Both of the Bengals drives in the first quarter went 3-and-out. This first one had promise. They opened with a 7-yard screen that set up 2nd-and-short, but then there was an issue.

This is a good run and it picks up the first down. Unfortunately, right guard Alex Cappa was called for holding. For an offense that has been sputtering to start games, this holding call is brutal. Now instead of a first down, the offense is trying to deal with a 2nd-and-long situation. It’s hard to put the blame on the coaching staff for this play.

The Bengals are stuck in a 3rd-and-long situation after 2nd down.

There is no real design issue on this play. Another play that’s hard to blame on the coaching staff. Burrow makes a fantastic read and throws a good pass to Irv Smith Jr. down the sideline. Smith just doesn’t get both of his feet in bounds.

There’s no need to jump on this play. Smith can sit down and catch the ball with both feet in bounds. The jump makes it more difficult for him to get both of his feet in bounds. Just an unfortunate outcome and a missed opportunity on the play.

The next drive starts with a failed run on first down for one yard. They run this on 2nd-and-9:

This is not a 2nd-and-long play. The players could execute better, but it would be bailing the play calling out. If this was the first down play, then that’s fine, but on 2nd and long you need to pick up enough yardage to get to 3rd and manageable.

In theory, Chase could make that defender miss and turn this into an explosive play, but in reality this is not an optimal call for the situation. This sets up a 3rd-and-long, which the Bengals are unable to pick up. Third-and-long is an extremely tough way to live as an offense.

Why The Script Is Failing

An offense doesn’t fail on scripted plays to start the game as badly as the Bengals have without it being more than one culprit. There are design issues from the staff on some of these plays, there are execution errors on multiple plays from the Bengals players, and there is also a play calling issue on a couple of these drives as well.

The most overblown of these concerns is the design issue. The drive concept should have had an answer for man coverage with a rub and an outside release from the player running the 12 yard in, but other than that none of the concepts shown above have a damaging design flaw. There were opportunities on most of these plays for the Bengals to pick up a first down. Every team across the NFL is running the same or similar concepts on offense. Once in a while you get a new look or idea, but the creative design of McDaniel and Shanahan comes more in the window dressing and how they set up the play rather than the concept itself.

Baylor head coach and former Wisconsin assistant coach Dave Aranda boiled all offensive concepts down to 8 basic ideas:

The Bengals love getting to isolation concepts because of the talent in their receiver room, but they utilize all of these ideas. The drive concept is a “middle area attack” with a 2-way vertical stretch pattern. The throw to Smith is a 3-way stretch pattern as part of an outside vertical stretch. It’s just the Burrow threw the “decoy” clear route because it was available to him.

The issue with the coaching staff has been the actual play calling. The designs are fine, but the staff appears to be dialing up plays regardless of situation at times.

It was a major issue on the second drive in the Baltimore game. That was a sudden change for the Bengals after Justin Tucker’s missed field goal. Sudden change events commonly lead to a strike down the field.

The Ravens deep ball to Zay Flowers happened on a sudden change after the interception at the goal line. It’s the time to be aggressive. Instead, the Bengals dialed up a wide zone concept for one yard and then a screen for no gain.

That screen doesn't even account for both players in a two-on-two situation. They're essentially just trying to get their player one-on-one with a defender. Taking out the sudden change part of it, this is still play calling that is unaware of the situation. If it was 2nd-and-short, then that type of screen is an OK call. Both the wide zone call and the quick screen are okay calls on first down. Calling them back-to-back felt like Zac Taylor was reading off his script as if the first play worked to get them into a 2nd-and-short situation. It was one of the biggest wasted opportunities in the game. Punting in a situation that starts at midfield is a disaster. It's inexcusable to go 3-and-out in that situation and give the ball back to the Ravens offense.

Lastly, the Bengals execution during the scripted portion of the game has been lackluster. Almost every play presented here has an execution error that causes the failure. Two offensive linemen blocking the same guy on a screen, not changing the protection to account for a stud over the center, a holding call on what should have been a first down and more. It’s not just one player that is causing these issues either. It’s a different player with each error. They don't need to execute flawlessly to be a good offense, but having an execution error on nearly every play shown is unacceptable.

Not to mention that this is a very small sample size. There have only been four drives so far that I considered scripted for this analysis. Some of those drives were a foot away or a holding call away from becoming something better. The small sample that the Bengals have put on the field is terrible, but it's still a small sample and that's worth taking into consideration.

The answer is fairly simple here. The coaching staff needs to be more aware of the situation when calling plays and the players need to execute those plays better. Both of these can be attributed to rust in a way. It’s early in the season and neither the staff or the players have been able to get into a groove. They’re stuck in a rut with these early game plays.

They actually had this issue early last year as well as they did not score an opening drive touchdown until Week 3. In nearly half of their games after those first two weeks, they scored on the opening drive with a touchdown in seven of those as well. There are better days to come for the Bengals early game offense. This team doesn't start the year fast. There is hope that one day they will get a full offseason from their starting quarterback, but that has not happened yet. Expect the scripted plays to work out sooner rather than later for this offense.

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