Cincinnati Bengals: Takeaways from Week 5 win vs. Dolphins

Loss Of Eifert Can’t Be Overrated

Here’s one thing which could turn out to be a fatal weakness for their team, however: the loss of Tyler Eifert could prove to be the sort of issue which plagues the Bengals all year. When this team has had Eifert available to them, they’ve been one of the league’s peak offenses not just this season, but throughout his career.

Back in 2015, the Bengals were better than any offense for the majority of the season — and had it not been for a thumb injury to Andy Dalton, they easily could’ve ended the year with the No. 1 offense. Despite him missing the final stretch of the year, Cincinnati still managed to be second in Football Outsiders’ offensive DVOA on the year — including No. 1 in passing offense by a dominant margin.

That success was due in major part to Eifert’s presence. He recovered from a sophomore campaign which ended after one game to put in a great third season. In 13 games, he caught 52 passes for 615 yards and 13 touchdowns. Pairing Eifert (a huge target over the middle and in the red zone) with superstar wide receiver A.J. Green, and this offense was not only potent but had league-leading level abilities.

The only issue with Eifert has always been his health. Injuries have stolen away the vast majority of his career: he’s never made it through a full 16-game slate, just twice in his six seasons has he even managed to suit up for more than half the year, and coming into 2018 he had missed more games than he’d played in. The hope was that this year, finally, he could find some luck and stay on the field.

To open the year, we got to see again what the offense would look like with a healthy Eifert in tow. In four games, he put himself on a monstrous pace: if he would’ve been on the field all year, he was on his way to career highs in targets (76), receptions (60), receiving yards (716), and first downs converted (40) — and his touchdown totals would probably have jumped into double digits again as well.

The offense as a whole was running as well as we’ve seen them do it in Cincinnati with Dalton under center: through four weeks, Cincinnati was fifth in offensive DVOA and top 10 in offensive DAVE, pass offense DVOA and rush offense DVOA.

The offense sans Eifert just isn’t anywhere close to the same level, however. They scored just three points before the final quarter against the Dolphins, and though they would score 24 in the deciding period the defense actually was responsible for the majority of those points. This goes back to the Atlanta game as well. Eifert got hurt on their first drive of the second half, and it took three mistake-filled drives to properly adjust on offense and do just enough to win it at the end.

The team has a deeper cadre of talented offensive players now, so it can survive despite not having him available in a way the team could not in previous iterations. Unfortunately, their ability to be great — and to do so with any consistency — may again be gone because of another Eifert injury.

It isn’t quite a death knell (Green is playing perhaps the best ball of his career, and Tyler Boyd has turned into a good complimentary option as well), but it bears watching as to just how effective the offense will be going forward as the Bengals get set to face their hated rivals from Pittsburgh.