Our own Jake Liscow, who has been with us since 2009 (with a bit of a break in between), is a regular contributor with Pro Football Focus as well as a weekly guest on Mo Egger's show every Wednesday afternoon on ESPN 1530. A few notes from Jake heading into Sunday's game, from a PFF perspective.
- Brian Robison, not Jared Allen, is the Vikings best pass rusher this year. Robinson has generated 78 pressures with 31 fewer snaps this year, compared to Allen with 57. Allen has one more quarterback sack. Brian Robison mostly rushes from the left side against Andre Smith, who has allowed 34 pressures this year and a pass blocking efficiency of 95.2 (which ranks 17th among all offensive tackles).
- Running back Adrian Peterson has run the football 51 times behind right tackle Phil Loadholt and generated 363 yards rushing.
- Toby Gerhart is averaging eight yards per rush this year. When Gerhart is in, the Vikings have handed the football to him 18 percent of the time. However, 48 percent of Gerhart's yardage have come on five carries that have gone for 15 yards or more.
- The Vikings rank No. 7 in overall pass protection this year, as a team. They've allowed 156 pressures on 555 passing plays. By comparison, the Bengals offensive line has allowed 117 pressures on 564 passing plays and rank second to the Denver Broncos in pass block efficiency.
- Former Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson ranks fourth in deep passing catch rate, completing 45.5 percent of his 22 deep targets. Of the players with ten deep catches or more, Simpson is one of two players to not score a touchdown on a deep ball.
On Pro Football Focus' 32 observations, they write about the Cincinnati Bengals:
Running back Giovani Bernard has seen 90 of his 144 carries go for 3 or more yards. That rate of 62.5% is second among running backs with at least 100 carries.