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Photo
supplied by bengals.com
On defense, Bengals defensive back Leon Hall is one of the best in the
NFL.
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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
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