Joe Burrow rated out among the league’s top quarterbacks in several categories in 2021. Sixth in passing yards. Eighth in passing touchdowns. Second in passer rating.
There’s only one category where Burrow ranked No. 1, however. It’s one the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t especially eager to bring up: no one in the league was sacked more than Burrow’s 51 times in 2021.
That is a number that will cast a shadow over the Bengals’ first trip to the AFC Championship Game since 1989. It was nearly the fatal flaw that derailed their 19-16 walkoff win over the Tennessee Titans Saturday.
Burrow was hit early and often against the Tennessee Titans and their 21st-ranked quarterback pressure rate. He suffered three sacks and five quarterback hits before the halfway mark of the second quarter. That didn’t include the pair of sacks he took on plays overturned by questionable play clock management (a delay of game and late timeout).
This was not a question of blitzes and no-win situations. The Titans rarely sent more pass rushers than the Bengals had blockers; the Bengals are just very, very bad at this:
Look at Joe Mixon in the backfield during the first quarter sack below. He literally does a double-take. He’s played with this team for the past five seasons and even he can’t believe how bad its blocking has gotten:
the only explanation is Joe Burrow owes his right tackle money pic.twitter.com/8uubNyTXKK
— Christian D'Andrea, 2021 PAC champion (@TrainIsland) January 22, 2022
Harold Landry had a career-high 12 sacks this season and Isaiah Prince, playing one of the two most important pass-blocking positions on the offensive line, pretended he didn’t exist. Between sacks, knockdowns, and the shoddy refereeing that allowed him to be crashed into on plays that weren’t technically plays, Burrow was hit 14 times … in the first half alone.
He finished the game with nine sacks and 13 QB hits on 45 dropbacks. Add in two carries, and every time Burrow took a snap and didn’t hand the ball off there was a 51 percent chance he was going to get rocked.
The offensive line took most of the blame, but Burrow’s inability to scuttle plays and penchant for running backwards out of pressure played a role as well. Take away a zero-yard gain on a scramble that was officially ruled a sack and he lost an average of 8.5 yards per sack.
The second-year quarterback still put up big yardage numbers (348 yards on 37 attempts), but his blown-up stats were largely the product of some explosive runs after the catch (110 between three catches from Joe Mixon, Ja’Marr Chase, and CJ Uzomah alone) rather than plays that were allowed to develop downfield. He attempted only five passes of 10+ yards all game.
This was a shame. When he had time to pass his receivers were able to find plenty of room against the Titans’ undermanned cache of cornerbacks:
Instead, Burrow — a quarterback who threw nearly as many deep balls as screen passes in 2021 — was relegated to quick-developing routes and hoping his wideouts could create magic. His average depth of target through the regular season was 8.1 yards downfield. Against the Titans it was only 4.1 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
When he had to throw, things went pear-shaped. Three of Tennessee’s sacks came on third down. Three different drives had touchdown potential dashed into field goal attempts or punts thanks to momentum-killing negative yardage. Bud Dupree’s sack early in the fourth quarter led to a loss of 16 yards and turned a scoring opportunity into a punt in a 16-16 game. One drive later, the Bengals faced third-and-8 near midfield with a chance to take the lead in the final two minutes and instead did this:
great movement here from the Titan pass rush — they get the Bengals confused enough to double Denico Autry, so when Trey Hopkins passes on Jeffery Simmons to his OL help in order to take on a blitzer, Simmons gets a free run and his third sack pic.twitter.com/4ciBfVePPp
— Christian D'Andrea, 2021 PAC champion (@TrainIsland) January 23, 2022
Cincinnati was able to win despite this because the Titans lacked the capacity to fight back. Tennessee’s pass rush was roughly the only thing working in its favor Saturday afternoon. Ryan Tannehill threw three interceptions, including one with 20 seconds left that set up the Bengals’ game-winning field goal. Derrick Henry ran for only 3.1 yards per carry and was significantly less valuable than backup D’Onta Foreman, per RBSDM.com:
This was a perfect storm that allowed Cincinnati to escape on a day where it scored only one touchdown. That won’t be the case no matter who is looming in the AFC Championship Game. The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, who’ll play for the other spot in next week’s playoff game, each have significantly better quarterbacks than Tannehill. What’s more concerning: they both have significantly better pass rushes as well.
The Bills ranked first in the league with a 30.6 percent pressure rate. The Chiefs clocked in at sixth with a 26.4 percent mark. Those same Chiefs also hit or sacked Burrow 14 times when these teams met in Week 17, though that didn’t keep Cincinnati from a comeback win at home.
Cincinnati is going to give up a lot of pressure in the AFC title game. If Saturday’s performance is any indication, it’s going to chop away at the team’s deep- and intermediate-range passing game:
The Bengals will be underdogs on the road no matter who they face next weekend. They’ll have to balance an offensive line that allows its quarterback to get hit on roughly half his dropbacks against a defense suddenly tasked with facing an opponent who won’t repeatedly shoot itself in the foot. Getting to Super Bowl 56 is a massive ask.
But so was winning a playoff game on the road while giving up nine sacks.