Monday, December 10, 2001
No more scorn for pass rush
The pressure is on. And that's the good news.
The Bengals stretched their futility streak to 11 seasons Sunday afternoon — that's 11 years without a winning record, dating back to Paul Brown's death — yet amid the prevailing despair was an element of encouragement.
The Bengals tied a franchise record with eight quarterback sacks in Sunday's 14-10 loss to the
Jacksonville Jaguars. For all their problems, and there are many, Dick LeBeau's people are rushing the passer with renewed vigor and heartening success this season. They are reclaiming the trenches after a decade of being decisively push-'em-backed.
Faint praise being better than none, this amounts to progress.
Rookie defensive end Justin Smith tackled Jacksonville's Mark Brunell three times behind the line of scrimmage Sunday, and if this wasn't enough to win, it was nonetheless welcome. No NFL team in operation since 1991 has pursued the passer as poorly as the Bengals. None has been more in need of a legitimate stud at the line of scrimmage.
Smith has “Stud” written all over him, along with assorted tattoos. If he is not the best Bengals pass rusher since Coy Bacon, he is as quick and relentless as a Marine on a motorcycle. He's a difference-maker on a team desperately in need of something completely different.
“The biggest difference in our defense overall is the pressure we are putting on the quarterback,” LeBeau said Sunday. “What that does is give our young secondary people the chance to play out there and really learn on the job.”
Effective pass rush has a profound ripple effect on a football team. It reduces the amount of time cornerbacks must cover their receivers and affords them more chances at interceptions. It forces possession changes and creates daunting down-and-distance predicaments. It ends drives and facilitates field position. It plants the seed from which intimidation sprouts.
“When you get the quarterback on his back,” Justin Smith said, “he's worried about getting hit all the time.”
Fixing the Bengals' offense will take (at the least) several drafts and some prudent signings. Lesser quarterbacks than Jon Kitna have appeared in the playoffs, but they can't be counted on to carry a team. Neither can the Bengals believe their offense even marginally competent when receivers routinely drop catchable balls and running backs must make three cuts just to reach the line of scrimmage.
If the Bengals are to succeed in the short term, it will be because of big-play defense; because Smith and his associates create more opportunities than the offense can squander.
“Any time you have a lot of pressure, other teams have got to be aware of it,” defensive coordinator Mark Duffner said. “That's got to help the whole package.”
Between 1990 and 2000, the Bengals recorded 342 quarterback sacks in 176 games — less than two per game, and 196 fewer than the New Orleans Saints managed over the same span. Last year, the Bengals made 26 sacks, lowest in the American Football Conference and roughly one for every 20 enemy pass attempts. Those of us who referred to the Bengals' defensive line as the “Sack Pack” did so derisively.
But the addition of Smith, the return of linebacker Brian Simmons from a catastrophic knee injury and the late blooming of Reinard Wilson have provided the Bengals with more push. Sunday's eight sacks raised the team's season total to 38 — one for every 10 pass attempts against them. With four games to go, the Bengals are on pace for the first 50-sack season in their history.
“We've struggled with it in the past,” defensive tackle Oliver Gibson said. “So it's important for us to create some pressure. But when you lose, nobody really cares.”
Maybe not. But after 11 years of sustained futility, any improvement seems important.
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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SULLIVAN: No more scorn for pass rush
