You gotta love a good punter!
The Cincinnati Bengals are 1-3 after their first win of the season in Week 4. They’ve just been outscored by 12 points in their three losses and have yet to be defeated by a team by more than six points.
It’s no secret that much of the problem for the Bengals has been their defense.
They’ve struggled to get pressure on an opposing passer, they’ve struggled to stop the run and, because quarterbacks have been able to sit in the pocket, the secondary has been vulnerable.
In fact, it wasn’t until Week 4 that the Bengals defense started to look like they knew what game they were playing, and they still allowed Andy Dalton to score 24 points with Diontae Johnson, Xavier Legette and Chubba Hubbard.
What happens when they face Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and Zay Flowers?
The Bengals are going to have to win a lot of shootouts this season if they’re going to go to the Super Bowl. It may be some time before the defense is at full strength or before they get their sea legs back.
That’s okay, because the Bengals offense has proven they can score nearly every time they touch the ball. Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins are a nightmare for any secondary, and with Burrow finally getting solid protection from his offensive line, covering the Bengals’ receivers becomes an even more daunting task.
No one can score a touchdown, or even a field goal, on every single drive in every game. There are some tough defenses out there, and the Bengals won’t be putting up mid-30s points in every game (I hope I’m wrong about this).
That’s where Ryan Rehkow puts on his Superman cape and potentially saves the day.
Having a good punter who can flip the field is so important. The Bengals haven’t had a consistent punter since Kevin Huber hung up his cleats after the 2022 season. The Bengals have tried Drue Chrisman, and they selected Brad Robbins in 2023, but neither has been stellar.
Enter Rehkow, who kinda won the punting job after the preseason, thanks to Robbins’ injury. He has been outstanding so far this season, though.
He’s graded as the 14th-best punter in the NFL so far this season, but he’s averaging the most yards per attempted punt in the NFL by an astounding four yards, and his longest punt of the season was 80 yards.
On Sunday in Charlotte, he showed off his rocket-powered leg once again.
Early in the third quarter, when the Bengals had a two-touchdown lead, they were pinned deep on their own 22-yard line. Rehkow blasted a punt 63 yards, which was received on the Panthers’ 15-yard line. Raheem Blackshear was only able to gain two yards on the return and was brought down at the 17-yard line.
Dalton led the Panthers on a six-play drive that ended when rookie safety Daijahn Anthony broke up a pass from punter Johnny Hekker on a fake punt.
If that punt is 15 yards shorter, maybe things don’t work out that way. The playbook is limited when you’re in the shadows of your own goalposts, and Rehkow’s ability to flip the field and give a struggling defense a long field to work with is a spectacular weapon for Zac Taylor’s team.
Long punts create long fields, and long fields usually end in either a punt or a field goal attempt.
It’s much harder to score when you’re driving the length of the entire field. There’s too much room for something to go wrong, and even if a team drives down into the red zone, by the time they get there, they’re winded.
If you knock 15 yards off of Rehkow’s punts, some of those returned punts turn into made field goals because the opposing offense started on the 30 instead of the 15. Then, some of those field goal attempts turn into touchdowns.
The Bengals activated Brad Robbins off IR on Monday. Hopefully, they will give Rehkow a chance to prove that the job belongs to him before they give it to someone else.
