Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons for win vs. Browns in Week 12

1. Getting Into The Backfield

The defense also had themselves a good day — especially when it comes to getting into the backfield. Four times, Cincinnati brought down Cleveland quarterbacks. The damage didn’t end there; to go with the sacks, the team also managed 8.5 tackles for loss and 11 quarterback hits.

These numerous plays in the backfield helped undermine what little good Cleveland did manage on offense. George Iloka made a tackle for loss on Cleveland’s first drive; the Browns would soon settle for a field goal. Michael Johnson got one the next drive; the Browns eventually missed a field goal. Carl Lawson and Chris Smith split a sack to end the next drive, and then the other three came on second-half drives which ended up providing Cleveland with just three points.

This was a great effort from all across the unit too: five players ended the game with at least a half-sack, eight different players hit Cleveland’s quarterbacks at least once, and ten different players spread across every level of the unit were involved in those tackles for loss.

That defensive line is clearly the crux of the unit, however. Cincinnati’s four sacks in this game all went to defensive linemen, and the group has 26 of Cincinnati’s 33 sacks on the year (No. 3 in NFL in total sacks; only Jacksonville and Pittsburgh have more).

Geno Atkins leads the charge for the unit and has yet again been one of the most dominant penetrating interior linemen in the league (36 tackles, 6.5 sacks; PFF Edge overall grade: 91.8), but even more important may be the defensive end rotation. Carlos Dunlap, Michael Johnson, Carl Lawson, Chris Smith, and Jordan Willis each have taken at least 254 snaps so far this year, and they’ve all graded out as at least average in their PFF grades.

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The ability to consistently get pressure and muck things up with their front four has been integral to what success Cincinnati has managed to find this season, and the way the stats were spread among the group against Cleveland exemplifies just how deep and impactful the group has been in 2017.

If Cincinnati has any hope of beating Pittsburgh this week, the unit will need to continue reaching these sort of impactful heights. If not, their slim playoff hopes will be all but extinguished yet again.