Cowboys scouting report: Breaking down the Bengals defensive scheme
The Bengals defense has not been great as of recent weeks... which opens the door for the Cowboys on Monday. night.
The Dallas Cowboys may be on a winning streak right now, but it’s hardly been because of their offense. Cooper Rush and Rico Dowdle have both had their moments, but Dallas is still 28th in EPA/play and 25th in success rate even in the last two games. That could change Monday night against a struggling Bengals defense.
Cincinnati’s defense is led by coordinator Lou Anarumo, whose time with the Bengals has been an interesting one. When Zac Taylor was first hired as head coach, he was rejected by his first two candidates to run the defense, an indictment at the time of how low the league’s estimation of the job was.
Taylor ultimately settled on Anarumo, a longtime defensive backs coach who had just finished his first year with the Giants. Anarumo’s only experience calling plays at the time was also Taylor’s only experience calling plays, and it came on the same staff. When the 2015 Dolphins made Dan Campbell their interim head coach, the now Lions head coach eventually made changes on both offense and defense, picking Taylor to be the interim offensive coordinator and Anarumo to be the interim defensive coordinator.
In Cincinnati, the two reunited again, albeit under different circumstances. Despite Anarumo arriving to Cincinnati with many fans asking “who?” the veteran coach quickly made a name for himself. After finishing near the bottom of the league in Anarumo’s first two years, the Bengals defense took off in 2021, ranking 11th in EPA/play allowed. A year later, they jumped up to eighth in EPA/play. Suddenly, Anarumo was interviewing for head coaching jobs left and right.
That praise has cooled down considerably now. Last year’s defense took a big step back, placing 26th in EPA/play allowed. Coming into this game, they’re 29th and are allowing the second-most points per game. Over the past six weeks, during which Cincinnati is 1-4, the Bengals are 31st in EPA/play allowed. Contrast that with the gaudy offensive numbers this team is putting up and it’s easy to say Anarumo’s unit is the reason the Bengals are 4-8 right now.
Anarumo’s scheme in Cincinnati has been a hodgepodge of different schemes he’s coached under, particularly Vance Joseph, Kevin Coyle (who is a disciple of Mike Zimmer), and college football’s Brock Spack. Anarumo has combined a variety of simulated pressures that are common in the Zimmer system with the preference for Cover 2 and Cover 3 from Joseph, all while employing a philosophy of “positionless” defense that Spack succeeded with for years at Purdue.
Players often hold hybrid roles in Anarumo’s defense, which allows him to run nickel personnel at one of the highest rates in the league. Anarumo’s scheme is predicated on being able to adjust into just about any formation or concept you can imagine, but when the player ability dips, so too does the overall product.
That’s happened this year in a major way. Three of their top five defenders, in terms of snaps played, from last year are on the injured reserve; that includes two defensive backs. They also lost two starters in free agency - cornerback Chidobe Awuzie and nose tackle D.J. Reader - while the team opted to cut Nick Scott, a key rotational safety, for cap reasons. The loss of multiple starters at every level of the defense has hurt more than the Bengals anticipated.
Cincinnati has struggled to stop the run without Reader plugging up holes. They’re 28th in EPA/rush and 26th in run defense DVOA, and only the Giants have allowed more rushing yards over expected (RYOE) on the year. They’re giving up an average of 3.19 yards after contact per carry, sixth-most in the league.
The pass defense has been worse, somehow. They’re 29th in EPA/dropback and 30th in pass defense DVOA. Only the Falcons have fewer sacks on the year, and the team is 21st in pressure rate. Trey Hendrickson is the one exception to the poor play of the pass rush. Opposing receivers have averaged 3.9 yards of separation at the time they catch the ball, second-most in the NFL. And they’ve struggled to defend the big play, currently giving up the most touchdown passes of 20+ yards or more despite ranking just 11th in attempts of 20+ yards.
All of this makes for a very intriguing matchup against a Cowboys offense that has been doing just enough in recent weeks. The Bengals give up a lot in both facets of their defense, which should make for a big game for Rush and Dowdle and CeeDee Lamb. KaVontae Turpin has also seen some better usage on offense lately, and he could have a big game too.
The opportunity to score a ton of points is right there for the Cowboys, and they’ll probably need it too, considering how good the Bengals offense is playing right now. Whether or not the offense can get things going against such a bad defense will offer a perfect indicator of how real the Cowboys'’ current streak actually is.
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