The Cincinnati Bengals are on to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 4, but it’s important to look back to last week to see how things might go.
After all, one of the lowlights from the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3 was simple: The same old defensive problems as last year popped up.
Three question mark areas for the Bengals went unchallenged this past offseason:
- Jalen Davis as the slot starter
- Jordan Battle starting at safety
- The struggling linebacker spot
All three struggled massively in Pittsburgh. Jalen Davis coughed up an early touchdown before exiting with an injury. Battle apparently toughed it out through an injury while taking poor angles and missing tackles. He’s sitting on a 37.6 PFF grade so far, ranked 86th out of 89 safeties.
At linebacker, while Demetrius Knight has shown some improvement compared to his rookie year,
he’s still struggling with angles, assignment control and tackling. Hence, the 52.3 PFF grade, ranked 51st out of 71 linebackers. Then there’s Barrett Carter, who seems to be part of an opponent's gameplan weekly, especially through the air.
And look, the Bengals rebuilt the defense this past offseason. They can’t fix literally every spot in one offseason, that’s impossible. But there are no fallback plans. Kyle Dugger is dealing with an injury, so he won’t replace Battle. Davis’ injury means Dax Hill needs to kick inside to the slot, which means starting a backup boundary corner. And the Bengals did literally nothing to improve the depth at linebacker, so a Swayze Bozeman or Oren Burks isn’t an upgrade, or perhaps a lateral move.
If nothing else, it’s important to know that the three of the more questionable, unaddressed areas on the defense will indeed be something opposing teams target each week. For the Bengals, it’s adapt quickly in creative ways, because the more film that gets put out on these issues, the more they could grow.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Predictable Bengals defensive problems create big concerns
