Cincinnati Bengals: Takeaways from Week 15 Win vs Raiders

Geno Is Still A Monster

The Bengals are a team which has kept constant on multiple fronts this decade, both good and bad. Marvin Lewis has been in place as head coach since 2003, longer than anyone not named Bill Belichick. Andy Dalton and A.J. Green have headed the offense since they were selected with the franchise’s first two picks of the 2011 draft.

For five straight years (2011-15), the team was a part of the playoffs — and for five straight years (as well as seven total in Lewis’ tenure), they fell right out of the playoffs in ignominious fashion. On an individual level, there’s an argument to be made that there’s nobody here who has been as positively impactful for this franchise in recent years as Geno Atkins.

Since being drafted here in the fourth round in 2010, the 30-year old defensive tackle has been a superstar in every sense of the word. He’s not the first interior linemen to become a pass rushing force, but he was at the forefront of the current era of dominating defensive tackles blowing apart the pocket and racking up sacks.

Atkins has at least three sacks in all nine seasons he’s played, six-or-more in all but two seasons, and double-digits in three of them (including this one). He’s gotten at least one sack in 54 of his 135 career games (that’s one every 2.5 games — and that’s including the 17 where he didn’t start) and has garnered two-plus in 10 different instances.

He’s one of just 25 defensive tackles (and 92 defensive players overall) to eclipse 70 career sacks, and stands as one of just 14 active defenders to currently stand above that mark. On top of that, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) has graded him no lower than 73.5 in any season, 80.5 in all but two of them, and seen him eclipse 90.0 (a.k.a. elite status) in three different seasons.

This year — and this game versus Oakland especially — has been yet another example of how good he can still be even as passes 30.

He began the season with six sacks in five games. Not coincidentally, that coincided with the Bengals’ 4-1 start to the year. He had been mostly silent as Cincinnati struggled (one sack in the next eight games), but truly woke up against the Raiders to have the best game of his career. Atkins set career highs in sacks (3) and tackles for loss (4) while throwing in six total tackles and three QB hits.

Aaron Donald may be everyone’s favorite destructive force on the interior these days, but Atkins showed here that he still deserves to be ranked highly in the defensive tackle hierarchy.

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