The Cincinnati Bengals stressed plenty of fans in the season opener with a putrid offensive showing in the loss to New England.
Turns out it stressed some experts, too.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky took the Bengals to task for the same-looking offense as always the day after that loss.
“There’s nothing physical about the Bengals,” Orlovsky said. “On offense or defense. It’s all finesse. I’m going to say the same stuff about the Bengals offense that I’ve said for the last year. I’m shocked that there was nothing different about this offense. It’s efficient and that’s it. That’s the only thing there…I expected different. I expected something to give me something more than catch-and-throw football. They don’t have tight ends that can block in the running game. The timing of their offense is not good. They play spread out shotgun football and think that they’re going to drive down the field at 15 plays at four yards per catch.”
Plenty of things worked against the Bengals in Week 1, including, but not limited to, Joe Burrow seemingly being uncomfortable in his first game back from injury, the lack of Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase’s absence all summer.
Even so, much of what Orlovsky said rings true (minus the blocking tight ends — Drew Sample is elite there). They’re also going under center more.
But the problem? The Bengals are running the offense Burrow wants. That’s fine when it works. But fans heard the same old excuses about being unable to get in a rhythm early and Burrow just taking what the defense gives him.
Clearly, other teams know to just give the offense the little stuff and make sound tackles to get Burrow off the field. As a result, a top-five passer not pushing the ball down the field pretty much at all leads to criticisms like this.
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