Cincy Jungle
The Bengals lost another heartbreaker this weekend. Let’s take a look at how they deployed their players in Week 14.
Of course, their usage was very different. Sample had no catches. Fant had one for 15 yards. Gesicki, however, had six receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown.
Gesicki’s 6 targets were the third most on the team behind only Tee Higgins (11) and Ja’Marr Chase (8). Unlike Higgins and Chase, Gesicki caught every single target. As a result, he tied Higgins for the most receptions for the day. His 86 yards were the second most on the team behind only Higgins (92).
Chase Brown’s 40 snaps may have nearly doubled Samaje Perine’s 22, but unfortunately, his production did not match. Brown averaged less than 2 yards per carry, running the ball 12 times for a mere 23 yards. Perine took half as many handoffs but led the team in rushing yards (31) nonetheless. Perine’s physical running style may have been more suitable for the matchup and the cold environment.
The defensive snaps were relatively consistent with what we have seen in recent weeks. For the third week in a row, Kris Jenkins has out-snapped TJ Slaton on the defensive interior. This week, Jenkins’ 44 snaps were behind B.J. Hill’s 48 and ahead of TJ Slaton’s 41. This is an interesting approach against Buffalo’s highly effective run game. You would have expected to see more of Slaton as well as McKinnley Jackson, who only took two snaps this week.
It is unfortunate to see this usage of Jackson, who played only 11 snaps combined over the past two weeks after playing 16 snaps in Week 11 and 19 snaps in Week 12.
One recent defensive trend has persisted.
Jalen Davis took his highest snap percentage of the season after being promoted to the active roster. Davis has taken all of his 121 defensive snaps over the last three weeks.
