NFL Week 7: Interesting defensive trends from Bengals’ snap count vs Steelers

The Cincinnati Bengals came off their bye week and struggled versus the Steelers in their biggest game of the season. Andy Dalton and the offense started strong with two touchdowns in the first half, but the team failed to get anything going offensively in the second half. The Bengals defense came out and allowed two quick touchdowns, but after that they held Pittsburgh to only field goals.

The Bengals are dealing with several injuries. Tyler Boyd and John Ross were both inactive for this game, and Tyler Eifert is officially out for the season now. Adam Jones also didn’t play. Still the Bengals could’ve performed better than this.

Snap count takeaways:

• Bengals were forced into their base defense. You can tell by the amount of snaps that Vincent Rey (32) and Kevin Minter (11) got that the Bengals went with three linebackers most of the day. It wasn’t the Bengals fault though. The Steelers came out in two tight end sets or even brought out a full back and ran the ball until the Bengals proved they could stop it. Le’Veon Bell ran the ball 35 times for 134 yards.
• The Bengals rotated the the defensive tackles. Geno Atkins (41) and Pat Sims (40) played the most snaps, but Atkins only played 59 percent of the snaps. Ryan Glasgow (24) and Andrew Billings (13) got plenty of time. Michael Johnson (56) also kicked inside in passing situations, but most of his time was spent at defensive end due to the Steelers running the ball so often. This also means Carl Lawson (17) was phased out of the game because he can’t be out there on running downs.
• Jeremy Hill’s snaps to touches is ridiculous. Hill played eight snaps, but he ran the ball four times. Four of the Bengals 14 rushes from running backs went to a player who is a short yardage back at best for this team. Giovani Bernard (23) and Joe Mixon (22) easily out snapped him, but for some reason the Bengals are still wasting drives trying to get Hill going. Meanwhile, Mixon didn’t get a carry in the second half despite having a 6.9 yards per carry average in the first.

• Cody Core (21) was the No. 3 receiver this week. Brandon LaFell (46) kicked inside to the slot on three receiver formations to fill in for the loss of Boyd. During Core’s 21 snaps he failed to record a catch. He caught an amazing sideline pass, but he failed to get both feet in bounds. Alex Erickson (9) had a big 22 yard catch for a first down in his limited time on the field. It was also the first time we saw rookie receiver Josh Malone (13) on the field. One of his targets ended up being picked though.
• William Jackson (59) earned the starting spot next to Dre Kirkpatrick (66). Darqueze Dennard (39) still played over half the snaps, but it is clear that without Adam Jones the team prefers Jackson to be in that spot. Jackson didn’t give up a single reception when covering Antonio Brown either, so he may have that spot even when Jones returns.
• The Bengals are continuing their offensive tackle rotation. This week Andre Smith (30) and Cedric Ogbuehi (31) essentially were tied at the bottom while Jake Fisher (43 played most of the game. Hopefully they will have some stability at the position soon.
• Trey Hopkins (51) played the whole game. The bye week did him good as he split time with T.J. Johnson last week. Johnson didn’t record a single snap this week though.
• Despite the injury to Minter early in the game, Jordan Evans only received one snap on defense. If Minter is out for awhile it may be in the Bengals best interest to see what they have in the rookie linebacker. Evans was very impressive during the preseason.