There were a lot of impressive performances on the defensive side of the ball in the Bengals’ 17-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns.
Demetrius Knight Jr. finished the game with 10 tackles and a pass defensed in his Bengals debut. Jordan Battle was flying around the field, recording twelve tackles and an interception. Dax Hill lined up all over the field for the Bengals. He ended the game with nine tackles.
Logan Wilson looked like he did the season the Bengals went to the Super Bowl. He added seven tackles and two passes defensed. When he went out with an injury during the game, there was a noticeable difference in the performance at the linebacker position. He also had a team-leading defensive grade of 89.4 per PFF. While all of those performances were impressive for the Bengals, I wanted to take a deeper look at some of the performances on the defensive line for the Bengals.
TJ Slaton was the Bengals’ first outside free agent signing this year. The Bengals gave him a $15.1 million deal over two years.
The hope when signing Slaton was that they would get back to being able to stop the run this year. He certainly contributed to making that a reality in the first week of the season. Cleveland was held to only 49 rushing yards in the game for an average of two yards per carry.
Slaton was stacking up the line of scrimmage, freeing up linebackers to play fast, and made a much larger impact than his three tackles in the box score might indicate. His ability to dictate the line of scrimmage battle should not be overlooked in helping the Bengals come out victorious. That showed up several times when re-watching the game.
BJ Hill missed a lot of camp with an injury. There were no signs of that hindering his play on the field this week. Hill finished the game with seven tackles and a sack. He was stout against the run all game long. He combined with Trey Hendrickson on two separate occasions to bring Flacco down in the backfield. That was one of the best all-around games I can remember seeing out of him as a Bengal.
Shemar Stewart was selected with the seventeenth overall pick this year for the Bengals. The move was a big swing for many based on his limited sack production in college. When watching his college film, he generated a lot of pressure. His athleticism was also something that could not be denied.
If you just look at the box score, you would think Stewart disappointed in his NFL debut. That is why stats can be misleading at times. Stewart was highly disruptive throughout the game. He had a pass defensed that was negated by a questionable illegal contact penalty. He consistently applied pressure and forced Flacco to get the ball out quickly, throw it away, or helped lead to sacks by his teammates.
If Stewart plays at a similar level to the one we saw on Sunday, the stats will come. His ability to create havoc could be key to maintaining a top fifteen defense this season.
Trey Hendrickson was Trey Hendrickson. He was constantly providing pressure on the Browns, as evidenced by his pass rush win rate of 41.7%. As a reference point, Myles Garrett led the NFL last season with a win rate of 23.1%.
Kris Jenkins, Mike Pennel, Myles Murphy, and Joseph Ossai contributed as well. The performance by the defensive line helped the Bengals sneak out a win in Cleveland.
On to Jacksonville!!
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