We witnessed another pathetic performance by the Bengals offense in a 28-3 loss at Denver.
I try and use the PFF grades as a starting point for players to clip up each week when viewing the All-22. Those grades should never be the end all, be all, for judging the performance of a player.
Jalen Rivers
Jalen Rivers made his first start of his young NFL career at right guard. He was credited with allowing three pressures and a sack in the game. He finished with a 17.2 pass blocking grade per PFF. His run blocking grade was a 45.9.
The All-22 definitely shows some of that rough play. He did open up some running lanes when he wasn’t being asked to pull. That clearly is not a strong part of his game.
He has to be more consistent with his hand usage in pass protection. That was my biggest takeaway for what gave him issues against the Broncos.
I will not defend him and say that he had a good performance. What I will say, is that once you turn to a young rookie offensive lineman, you should probably give them more starts to see if they can grow. There were some things to build on.
Amarius Mims
Mims had a PFF pass blocking grade of 19.0. His run blocking grade was a 58.8. He was credited with allowing five pressures, two sacks, and recorded two penalties.
He moves so well at his size for the position. There is still a ton of talent with this player. He looked pretty good early in the game, then it all started to unravel. Right now, there is just no consistency from game-to-game and series-to-series for Mims.
What he continues to struggle with is the inside counter moves. If he cannot fix that, he will continue giving up pressures and sacks. There were also a couple of instances where the Broncos got excellent jump off the snap. Zac Taylor has to learn to get the play calls in quicker, because he is doing a complete disservice to his tackles in those situations.
Demetrius Knight Jr.
Knight finished the game with ten total tackles, six solo tackles, and his first career interception. There were a couple of plays that he was late to diagnose. He was also dumped by Courtland Sutton on a big run late in the game.
With that said, I clipped up some of the better plays I thought he made in this game. I continue to be encouraged by what I am seeing from the rookie linebacker. He has great range, can cover, and is developing his ability to blitz. It was also encouraging to see him making tackles out in space.
One of the more positive things is the energy and effort he plays with. He doesn’t have a chance to get his first interception, if he doesn’t run down and force a wide receiver out of bounds. On that play, Jordan Battle falls in coverage. If Knight doesn’t get him knocked out of bounds, he most likely scores a touchdown. A couple of plays later, he makes the interception.
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