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Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense struggled for most of their Week 1 loss as the Pittsburgh Steelers put new looks on the field and Burrow tried to play aggressively.
As the Bengals found out in a big way during the loss, opposing defenses have adapted and will throw many more two-high safety looks at them in hopes of preventing big plays down the field.
Offensive coordinator Brian Callahan actually pointed this out this week, saying there were times Burrow needed to just dial it down a notch and take what the Steelers gave him underneath.
“That ball got into a window that was really tight for the second play of the game,” Callahan said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “You don’t have to do that. There were other options there. You could’ve gotten rid of the ball, checked it down and hit Tee (Higgins) in the under route. Whatever that would have been, it didn’t have to be so aggressive so early.
Onlookers don’t need to be a coach to see that Burrow reduced the aggressiveness in the second half and the offense improved. By the end of it, he even led a few potential game-winning drives.
Now the idea is to take that second-half momentum and translate it to the remaining 16 games.
“He played fantastic in the second half. Really, probably from the mid second quarter on,” Callahan said. “He finally settled in, he was patient, took the completions that were there … he was lights out in the second half and overtime. When he needed to make plays, he made them. He made a really great throw off the scramble to Hayden Hurst there at the end to put us way down there on a really makeable kick range for us.”
There was always a chance this was the outcome in Week 1. Besides all other factors, teams have 16-plus games of footage on Burrow and the offense from a season ago. The Steelers aren’t really a two-high team, but they became one in an effort to counteract what happened last year.
Now the Bengals know what opposing defenses can and/or will do after what felt like a fourth preseason game and can make their own changes.
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