Coley Harvey, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

The Film Don't Lie: Bengals

A weekly look at what the Cincinnati Bengals must fix.

This is going to sound like nitpicking, but heading into the Bengals' Week 3 game against the Titans on Sunday, Cincinnati will need to tweak its interior run protection. The reason this might sound nitpicky is because in actuality, there's very little the Bengals have to address coming out of their Week 2 win over the Falcons. Overall, the run game was sound. The passing game worked smoothly. They were good on third down on both sides of the ball. The defense put intense pressure on Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan and did a good job snagging three interceptions in the secondary. The Bengals had obvious issues with kicking this week, but we've addressed those already.

The film doesn't lie about the Bengals' comparative difficulty running between the tackles. They averaged 3.6 yards per interior rush, and 4.9 yards per rush around the edges against the Falcons. Including the season opener, the Bengals have averaged just 3.5 yards up the middle this season. Rookie center Russell Bodine still is working on his run blocking as an NFL lineman. That was evident in the minus-4.7 run-block grade Pro Football Focus handed him after Sunday's game; the only negative grade a Bengals' offensive player was given.

^ Back to Top ^