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Anthony Cosenza of Cincy Jungle, our sister site covering the Cincinnati Bengals, stopped by this week to answer a couple of questions about his team before the Green Bay Packers face off against them in Week 6. If you want to read the companion article to this one, where Cosenza asks questions about the Packers, you can find that HERE.
Obviously, both offensive lines are banged up, but I wanted to start this conversation about Cincinnati’s new quarterback.
#1: So, you traded for a quarterback this week in Joe Flacco, who managed to beat the Packers in Week 3. What are the fan expectations for Flacco in his debut?
It’s really hard to say. Most fans want to believe that he’ll be markedly better than Jake Browning has been the past three weeks. However, Browning is working with a 6:8 touchdown to interception ratio, while Flacco has a 2:6 ratio this year.
Still, it’s more about taking more care of the football and having a quarterback who can not only make the right reads, but has an ample arm to push more big plays downfield. One could also make the argument that these are some of the best skill position weapons Flacco has ever had at his disposal, but he has to walk the walk, starting Sunday.
I will say that some of the Bengals’ big-name players, namely Ja’Marr Chase and Chase Brown, seemed to be in better spirits after the trade, with Chase applauding the team for not sitting on their hands and Chase complimenting Flacco on his play memorization and play-calling tempo in the huddle.
In summation, my personal expectation is for Flacco to be competent, not dominant. And, for now, that is what they need, for both Flacco to play catch-up, and to get off of this three-game skid wherein the Bengals have a minus-76 point differential in the losses.
#2: The offensive line is obviously a big talking point right now, not just in terms of the Bengals’ pass protection stats but also because of how little Cincinnati has produced on the ground. How much of that is the line’s blame, and how much do the injuries to guards Dylan Fairchild and Lucas Patrick have to do with that?
The Bengals’ offensive line has long-been a problem, and it predates Zac Taylor into Marvin Lewis’ final couple of years as head coach. The team is on its third offensive line coach in seven years, while a myriad of high draft picks and notable free agent acquisitions haven’t wholly fixed the longstanding problems.
There is a combination of factors at play, I believe. Cincinnati’s shotgun/empty-heavy system puts a lot of individual pressure on Cincinnati’s linemen, which is a system issue. Their longtime stance of devaluing guards,be it via free agency or the draft hasn’t helped and then you have the coaching development question as well. But, it’s also hard to imagine that steady players like Orlando Brown,...
