New England Patriots overpower Cincinnati Bengals 34-13 on Monday Night Football
New England Patriots improved to 4-0 on the season by defeating the injury and suspension weakened Cincinnati Bengals 34-13 on the road on Monday Night Football.
For the first time this season, Patriots started with the same offensive line for the second week in a row: Left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right guard Russ Hochstein filling in for injured Stephen Neal, and right tackle Nick Kaczur.
The Patriots’ blocking schemes against Bengals were more similar to the ones they used against Buffalo Bills than against the New York Jets and the San Diego Chargers in weeks one and two, which makes sense since the Bills and Bengls both use 4-3 defenses. However, I did get the impression that the Ptriots used more off-tackle runs against the Bengls than against the Bills. I can’t give you numbers or percentages, but that’s the impression I got.
Back-up offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan didn’t get snaps against the Bengals, which wasn’t all that surprising considering his fairly weak performance and limited role against the Bills in week three. It could also be that Belichick wants to ration his use of offensive linemen since about half of them are more or less banged up already.
Runningback Laurence Maroney was out with an injury, which meant Sammy Morris got to rack up 117 yards on 21 carries.
Wide receiver Randy Moss caught nine pass for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Tom Brady completed 25 of 31 passes for 231 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
Patriots’ first drive was short-circuited by a couple of weak plays by Kaczur. He half-missed a block on 1st & 10, forcing Hochstein to cut his block short, which limited an exposed Morris to a three-yard gain. On third and seven he was out-run to the outside by a pass rusher who forced Brady to hurry his throw. Stephen Gostkowski kicked field goal to put New England up 3-0
The second drive died quickly on a couple of penalties. It also had another blocking problem when the backside linebacker was left untouched and able to stop Morris after a gain of only one yard on the first play of the drive.
New England’s first touchdown was set up by a great run by Morris out of the Power-I formation right with a split end left. Fullback Heath Evans nailed the playside linebacker, Hochstein kicked outside to keep cornerback Deltha O’Neal out of the play, tightend Benjamin Watson made a block-looking hold on safety Dexter Jackson, tightend Kyle Brady crashed down on the left defensive end, and Kaczur sealed off the inside, leaving Morris untouched to scamper 49 yards before getting chased down at the two-yard line. It then took another three plays to get the touchdown as New England’s goal line clown formation with linebacker Junior Seau at fullback, Evans at tailback and outside linebacker Vrabel as tightend was unable to punch in the ball. Instead Brady had to throw it to Vrabel for a one-yard touchdown.
New England’s fourth drive, which started 10 seconds into the second quarter, got backed up immediately when Bengals’ highly effective defensive end Justin Smith forced Light to draw a holding penalty. On 1st & 20 Morris knocked Smith out of Light’s block, giving Smith a clear shot at Brady and forcing the quarterback to dump the ball off to Morris who was tackled for a loss of three yards. On 3rd & 23, Brady threw a pass over the middle that was intercepted at Patriots 37 yard line, setting up Cincinnati’s only touchdown of the night.
Patriots struck right back with a drive that mixed power and spread formations and saw Morris carry the ball on eight straight plays. There were a couple of glitches along the way. Evans missed a lead block, limiting Morris to a two-yard gain on 2nd and 3 from Cincinnati’s 2 yard line. Wide receiver Donte Stallworth held a block for a second too short on one off tackle left runs (he actually switched from blocking one defender to another, which was a pretty nifty move although not the best timed one), and on another Kyle Brady failed to control his downfield blockee, forcing the pulling Kaczur to pick up the block rather than attacking the defensive back who ended up tackling Morris (albeit after Morris had picked up the first down). When the drive bogged down near the goal line Patriots finished it off on third down with a strike from Brady to Moss, who was well covered but nonetheless made the catch anyway. It was in fact one heck of a catch but somehow Moss made it seem entirely effortless.
The play of the game, however, was probably the reverse Wes Welker ran to the left on 3rd & 3 on New England’s first drive of the second half. Welker was able to turn the corner and move the ball 27 yards to the the Bengals’ 47 yard line. The drive ended with a Morris seven yard line from the Power-I left split-end right on 4th & 1 from the seven. Watson helped clear the way with another block that looked a lot like a holding, or tackling, but officials have just about stopped calling those this year. The touchdown run was preceded by a stop by Smith on third down where he
The drive that ended with the Patriots second field goal came to a screeching halt when tightend Brady froze at the snap, allowing a Bengals linebacker to bet him inside and slip through the line and drop Morris for a loss on 3rd & 2. It was a pretty strange drive in general, where the Patriots went away from the power running game and instead used more open formations and more passes, in spite of the Bengals having only two linebackers left in the game.
Obviously the offensive line did a bang up job as it cleared way for 173 yards on the ground, but there were a few mishaps execution wise. I’d go as far as saying that Kaczur and Kyle Brady had their worst games so far this season. Now, that should be put in perspective: Both have been solid contributors so far, and were so yesterday as well, so it’s not as if they dropped from mediocre to disastrous, but there is room for improvement. Light struggled against Smith but by and large came out the winner of that match up.
Most worrisome is that Koppen appeared to get hurt on Morris’s touchdown run. Koppen did return for the Patriots’ next offensive series but it’s hard not to be concerned since the team’s interior offensive linemen are so banged up.
After the game Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis reportedly chewed out his players in a “profanity-laced tirade.” Among other things, Lewis screamed “if you don’t want to be on the team, don’t show up at 4 o’clock.” I don’t understand how Lewis can think his team got blown out on national television and somebody other than he is to blame. It’s his team, he built it. If he doesn’t like the players who are on it maybe he shouldn’t show up at 4 o’clock? The Patriots don’t just beat teams, they ruin them.
Cincinnati’s right tackle Willie Anderson, who had voiced a great deal of respect for the Patriots and a great deal of concern for his own going into the game, expanded on the difference between the two teams after the game, according to The Cincinnati Post.
“This is about as embarrassing as it gets,” said right tackle Willie Anderson. “We have to look at ourselves as a team. Those guys (the Patriots) are a bunch of grown men. They are a mature football team, and we have to figure out how to get to that level. We are constantly trying to figure out how to play like that. They are a good team year in and year out. They are a mature bunch of guys, an older team.
“We have to play better than that.”
Post columnist Lonnie Wheeler on how the stars of Cincinnti’s offense came up short:
Cincinnati’s problem had nothing to do with the absence of running back Rudi Johnson. In his stead, Kenny Watson averaged 4.2 yards on 13 rushes.
It had everything to do, however, with the Pats’ pestering of Chad Johnson, who entered the game leading the NFL in receiving yardage. He left it trailing Moss by 10.
During the week, Johnson had expressed his excitement over a game plan that he described as “very, very, very good.” By halftime, though, he was in a heated dispute with Carson Palmer, whose potential touchdown pass to Ocho Cinco was intercepted at the goal line. Seven points at the end of the second quarter would have significantly altered the nature of the game, making it a three-point affair at the break. It never again got that close.
Belichick took Lewis to school in the days and even hours leading up the game. While Lewis declared his team’s top runningback Rudi Johnson out last Wednesday, Belichick didn’t deactivate his number one runningback Laurence Maroney until 45 minutes before kick off, even after strongly suggesting to ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew that Maroney was going to play.
Kirkendall at Cincy Jungle takes a detailed look at Morris’s 49-yard run and also at how the Bengals went 0-for-7 on third downs. Well worth a read.
