New York Giants - Bengals Preview

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to another preview from New York Giants on SI. I am Patricia

00:10Chayna, managing editor for the site, joined by Brandon Olson, who is one of our senior

00:15analysts, and Brandon, the New York Giants host Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night football

00:22at the Meadowlands. The Bengals, Joe Burrow, has never beaten a team in the NFC East. The

00:28Bengals have never beaten the Giants on the road. But what's your feeling for this game,

00:36Brandon? What's going to be the key deciding factor for this game?

00:40I think it's about exploiting what the Bengals don't do well. I don't think their pass rush

00:46has been great so far this year. And I think that they've been really susceptible to quarterback

00:50run game and I feel I will say that I know last week I was on this show saying, hey,

00:56you're paying Daniel Jones a ton of money. Part of why you're paying him is to use his

01:00legs, use his legs more. I would also urge you to please slide when you are going against

01:07everybody. You don't have to just try to bowl into everybody like Cam Newton. You can slide

01:12and still use your legs and be effective because I don't know about you, but when I was watching

01:17the game against the Seahawks, there were so many plays where he would kind of just

01:23it looked like he was looking for violence. And I was like, I get it. I want you to do it. But

01:29please, ma'am, you still have to be healthy to be able to be effective. And yeah, that's something

01:36that I think you can use. The Bengals give up, I believe, the second most rushing yards to

01:40quarterbacks per game. You can exploit that when you have one of the more mobile quarterbacks

01:45in the NFL. You know, it's funny. I was saying the same thing about him not sliding and using

01:52lowering his head and barreling into guys with his shoulder. And I was like, every time he did

01:57that, I was like, Oh, get up, get up, get up. But speaking of Daniel Jones, he had a really good

02:03game. He's actually been playing good football the last, basically since week two, his game has

02:09been getting better and better. Where do you see the biggest improvement he's made over the last

02:14few weeks? I feel like it's been his decision-making. I feel like he's just making quicker

02:19reads and just going, Hey, get the ball to this guy. Like he's just doing it. I feel like he's,

02:24you know what it is now that I'm thinking about, I feel like he's playing with

02:27more confidence than we've seen him play with. It's just don't second guess yourself. Just if

02:33you see something, get the ball to them. If you see the lane, run the ball there. I feel like he's

02:38been playing with more confidence and this team desperately needs it as well. And I think part

02:43of that confidence probably comes from the significantly improved offensive line. He's

02:47had much more time just compared to what we've seen throughout the entirety of his career,

02:53where it's been basically take a snap and start getting hit. And I think that the confidence

02:58has been a big area of improvement for him where he just makes decisions and goes after them.

03:04What about the play calling by Brian Dable? When you look at that, I mean,

03:08how much of a difference is that made? And what is Dable having Jones do differently that maybe

03:13Mike Kafka wasn't? I think Dable is just a supreme play caller. I feel like that was the

03:19thing where I know people have had plenty of question marks about him. I understand that,

03:23but that was one of the reasons that I loved the hire of Brian Dable was that his play calling

03:28ability is truly just awesome. It's really creative. He uses a lot of misdirection with

03:34pre-snap motion and you'll see a counter run with pre-snap motion attached. And then you'll see

03:40a play that looks like something you saw earlier and it's just got a little wrinkle added to it.

03:45I mean, we saw a flea flicker tight end screen, like that's just stuff you don't see frequently,

03:51but having a tight end like Theo Johnson allows you to do that. And I think that Brian Dable has

03:57been really finding success. I think the issue is finding sustained success, because I feel like

04:03that was something we saw with Brian Dable's first year, the offense was moving. They were

04:07finding ways, even when they were undermanned or out-talented by the opposing team, they'd find

04:14ways to move the ball, score points, and kill clock, help their defense out. And then the door

04:22kind of got slammed shut once opposing defenses really got used to that, except for the Minnesota

04:27Vikings that year that played them twice within three weeks and still couldn't do anything about

04:31it. But I do think Brian Dable really just, he makes throws easy. He makes reads easy. I love

04:36how he uses Wandale Robinson, who I know Wandale is going to be like, yeah, I have four yards a

04:42catch with 45 catches, but it gets you first downs. It gets you into the end zone. It's effective.

04:48It works. And I love his usage right now. All right. Let's talk specifically though about the

04:54Bengals. The Bengals are banged up on defense. They lost their top cover quarterback, Dax Hill.

05:00So if you're the Giants, where do you go to attack this Bengals defense? Or is it pretty

05:05much you can attack them anywhere and have a degree of success? I think there are multiple

05:11points. And I think that's one of the reasons that I have a little bit of confidence in this

05:14New York Giants offense this week is that I think you avoid Logan Wilson. Don't look at

05:20the PFF numbers that show he's been targeted 10 times and they completed all 10 of those passes.

05:25They're at the line of scrimmage passes that he's allowing. He's one of the better cover

05:30linebackers right now. But Jermaine Pratt has all the athletic ability, very little

05:37awareness in coverage. And I think that bites them consistently pick up first down so that

05:41like Theo Johnson could have a big game if Jermaine Pratt's lined up against him or if he's

05:45in Jermaine Pratt's zone. I think that Cam Taylor Britt has had his moments. He's had some games

05:51where he looks really good and some games where it's like, all right, maybe you should not talk

05:55the level of trash that you talk. But as a former corner myself, I love the confidence.

06:01We'll always support that part of it. Gino Stone has been horrendous in coverage. I don't know

06:08what happened with him coming over from the Ravens. I think with the Ravens, he was a very good

06:13safety and I don't think he's been playing like one this year. So I think there's multiple spots

06:18you can attack. Mike Hilton's likely coming back from injury. We'll see what he looks like. He

06:23hasn't been good this year. He's as weird as it sounds, he's 30. And in the NFL, that's if you

06:29even make it that far, it's impressive. But if you do make it that far, that's usually a drop

06:33off for a corner and he's fairly undersized. So I think that you can try to exploit that a little

06:40bit. I think there's multiple options to attack in the passing game. If you're Daniel Jones,

06:44you should be able to have easy completions with catch them on opportunities at abundance.

06:50Now, what about the offensive side of the ball? Joe Burrow playing really well. I mean,

06:55basically, I think he threw five touchdowns in the loss, the overtime loss to the Ravens last week.

07:03They got T Higgins, Jamar Chase. I mean, what's the plan of attack if you're Shane Bowen to stop

07:09that defense or excuse me, to stop that offense? I feel like it's a little annoying that I keep

07:16saying this, but I feel like it's just the teams that you're playing right now with the Giants,

07:21with the Browns, the Seahawks, just teams that are very pass happy right now. And they're very

07:25dink and donkey right now, your safeties, your, your corners, they have to come up and make

07:31tackles. That has to be a thing because the Bengals and Joe Burrow, especially throughout

07:36his entire career has been totally content. Just saying, okay, I'll take what's there. I don't

07:43care if it's a two yard pass, if there's room to run, I'll take it without hesitation. And that's

07:47one thing he does really well. I don't think Joe Burrow is an elite quarterback, but I think he

07:51does that at an elite level. And sometimes that gets the job done, especially when you have a guy

07:56like Jamar Chase, who once he catches the football, just explodes. It's insane looking at his stop

08:04start ability. And so I think that that passing attack needs to be slowed to an extent, but I

08:11think it's hard to slow. I will also say offensive line for the Bengals, not very good on the

08:16interior right now. They've invested a lot into tackles and their tackles are improved, but their

08:22interior offensive line has been horrendous. The chiefs with Chris Jones bullied them, just bully

08:28them on the interior and Dexter Lawrence. He said it against the Seahawks. I'm the best. And he's

08:34playing like the best right now. And there's prime real estate between Dexter Lawrence and Joe

08:42Burrow. And I think Dexter Lawrence wants to buy some of that up so he can close that gap quickly.

08:47I think he can wreak havoc. I know Kayvon Thibodeau not being there really isn't fun for your pass

08:52rush, but this should be a game where you should be able to generate a pass rush regardless,

08:58especially again with Dexter Lawrence's ability. And then finally, Brandon, what do you think the

09:03X-factor is in this game for the Giants? I think it's taking care of the football. Lou Anarumo,

09:08who I mean, obviously experienced with the Giants, was the defensive back coach here.

09:13He has, throughout his career, been able to confuse quarterbacks, take away the football,

09:18and that's been a big selling point. I remember at the senior role in 2021, I had a conversation

09:25with Pat Narduzzi, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers, and he was, Lou Anarumo was right there,

09:30but I wasn't talking with Lou, but Pat just made it a point to go, you look at this guy and he is

09:35going to be a head coach. He is just so creative defensively. He causes hell for quarterbacks

09:41mentally. He does it a lot and he creates turnovers. And that's what he's done throughout

09:45his career. And I think that you can't give them those opportunities because this is a Bengals

09:50offense that while their record doesn't really show it, they're one of the best offenses in the

09:56NFL right now. They score a lot of points and they can score them like that. And so I think

10:01you can't give them extra opportunities to do that when they're as explosive as they are.

10:07All right, everybody. So he is Brandon Olson, I'm Patricia Trena. The Giants

10:12host the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night. Make sure you keep it on New York Giants on SI for

10:18all our coverage and check it out. Also, we have plenty of stuff leading up to the game, including

10:23Brandon's breakdown on what to expect from the Bengals offense and defense

10:28in detail. Thanks for watching everybody and we'll see you next time.

New York Giants - Bengals Preview

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