the bistro off broadway
text
Photo supplied by bengals.com
On defense, Bengals defensive back Leon Hall is one of the best in the NFL.
 
Blueprint resurfaces for stretch
bengals.com

After the Bengals vacuumed the top five Giants passing game in Sunday's 31-13 victory at Paul Brown Stadium, cornerback Leon Hall said it all started with defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer's game plan.

But all Zimmer used is the blueprint that started the year in an all-purpose strategy crafted during the offseason. A relentless four-man pass rush that cut down on gambling blitzes. A sure tackling corps of linebackers. A seasoned and versatile secondary that could adjust to any game plan and injury.

Voila.

The Bengals stifled future Hall of Fame quarterback Eli Manning on four sacks, 20 quarterback hits, and two interceptions. A Giants offense that came into November fourth in the NFL with 29 passes of at least 20 yards didn't get one longer than 16 on Sunday. A New York passing that game that feasts on yards after catch got stoned in the middle of the field with 19 of Manning's 29 completions going for nine yards or less.

"We should have done that in some of these other games," Zimmer said Monday. "It's what I expected all year long. I expected us to be like this … I just expected us to play like we played (Sunday)."

Zimmer was talking about the pass rush, but he could have been talking about everything else.

Hall was the linchpin of double coverage that held Giants leading receiver Victor Cruz to three catches for 26 yards. Middle linebacker Rey Maualuga's game-high 12 tackles combined with rookie WILL backer's Vontaze Burfict's eight kept the middle clear even though the Giants surprised Zimmer and tried to spread the Bengals defense out by running more nickel formations than he anticipated. After 35 career interceptions as a cornerback, Nate Clements got his first as a safety.

Start where it always starts: up front. And start with the guy that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis says makes the defensive line rotation go.

Lewis is always trying to get under left end Carlos Dunlap's skin to motivate him out of patches like the recent four-game stretch he had no sacks and very few plays. On Sunday it worked with one of those games you think the enormously gifted Dunlap can always have with 1.5 sacks, three hits of Manning, and a fumble recovery.

"He played a lot better. We changed a little bit of what he was doing. He had success in practice with it and it carried over into the game," Zimmer said of technique and scheme changes.

"Both maybe. We tried to get him going a little bit more. He’s becoming more mature. He’s still going to have little issues here and there, but he’s 100 times better than he was he rookie year."

And then there was the old newcomer. Defensive tackle Pat Sims, the 327-pound run specialist who hadn't played in nearly a year because of nagging injuries and logged 24 snaps for 33 percent playing time. Sims showed why his teammates call him "The Dancing Bear" because of his big-man athleticism when he grabbed his first NFL interception off a Manning harassment. Lewis noted how natural he looked hauling it in.

With Sims a visible presence backing up Domata Peko and Geno Atkins, Zimmer has a pleasant dilemma. Second-rounder Devon Still went to the bench to make room for Sims, but Still has had an impressive enough rookie year the Bengals don't want him going very far. Known more as a pass rusher when he got here out of Penn State, Still is making people think he can be a lot more than that.

"We thought (Sims) might help more in the running game, which he did; on some things he helped," Zimmer said. "On the base blocks when they blocked him one-on-one he was pretty good, but he’s got to do better on the double teams. He didn’t do as good on those.

"I don’t know how it’s going to shake out the rest of the way, how much he plays. It will probably depend on who we’re playing that week, and what is necessary for the defensive linemen. Maybe it was good for Still to sit down for a week … it’s about the time through a college season. I don’t know, it just might be. We’ll see."
At linebacker Maualuga played his best game of the season and the Bengals got another big-time effort from Burfict.

Don't look now, but this rookie is the guy that seems to be leading the team in attitude and actions. Burfict played 85 percent of the snaps even though he was clearly limping around as the Bengals were aggressively mauling the short passes. After leaving briefly in the second half with an elbow injury, he returned to finish wearing a pad. Wide receiver Hakeem Nicks saw him. Nicks came in averaging more than 14 yards per catch but barely got eight Sunday on nine catches after the backers got through in the middle.

For this story and more, go to Cincinnati Bengals



 
senior scribes
senior scribes

County News Online

is a Fundraiser for the Senior Scribes Scholarship Committee. All net profits go into a fund for Darke County Senior Scholarships
contact
Copyright © 2011 and design by cigs.kometweb.com