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Cincinnati Bengals Breakdown: Analyzing the Front End of Al Golden's Defense

The Bengals officially introduced Golden on Monday. What will he bring to the Cincinnati defense this season?
Mike Santagata|
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor introduced new defensive coordinator Al Golden at Paycor Stadium on Jan. 27, 2025.
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor introduced new defensive coordinator Al Golden at Paycor Stadium on Jan. 27, 2025. | Cara Owsley/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Cincinnati Bengals

Al Golden signed the dotted line and became the Bengals defensive coordinator for the foreseeable future. He was officially introduced on Monday.

Golden was the linebackers coach for the Bengals from 2020 through 2021. Under him, the linebacker duo of Germaine Pratt and Logan Wilson became quality starters. The unit didn't miss a beat when like Markus Bailey, Akeem Davis-Gaither, and Joe Bachie were forced into action. He did such a good job that Notre Dame hired him to be their defensive coordinator. After three seasons with the Fighting Irish, Golden is back and ready to take over the Bengals defense.

This is the first of a two-part series that will take an in-depth look at Golden's defense. Let's start with the front end of his defense:

Overview of the Front

Golden typically played a 4 down even front at Notre Dame. This is true in both his base downs and in his nickel. The Golden defense at Notre Dame would often have four defensive linemen and either two or three linebackers.

4-3 Over Front
Notre Dame

This is an example of the 4-3 base defense. It’s two defensive ends and two defensive tackles. The linebackers are lined up behind them in the bubbles of the defense. This would be called a 4-3 over front because the 3 technique is to the passing strength.

4-3 Under
Notre Dame

This is also a 4-3 base defense but this time the 3 technique is set away from the run strength. That would make this a 4-3 under front. Also the nose tackle is just a little bit wider to the inside of the guard rather than the shoulder of the center. That is called a "G" in many defenses making this a 4-3 under G front.

3-4
Notre Dame

Golden said in his press conference that he doesn’t want to be labeled as a 4-3 or 4-2 guy because it’s limiting. He hinted at having more in his bag and he did at Notre Dame. Here they’re playing an odd front 3-4 base defense. The main difference being three players inside of the offensive tackles and a head up 0 technique nose. Outside of the defensive line are two outside linebackers and there are two off ball inside linebackers as well.

4-4
Notre Dame

Here Golden even got into what I would consider a 4-4 defense to try to stop a very heavy offense. 

His nickel is similar to his base if you just remove one of the three linebackers.

4-2 Over
Notre Dame

This is pretty much the exact same as his 4-3 over front but it’s a 4-2 instead. Nose is also spread out to a G rather than a shade.

3-3 Nickel
Notre Dame

He also has an odd front version of his nickel in this 3-3 look. A linebacker is removed and replaced by a defensive back. That fits all of the fronts he generally plays on normal downs. There are some funky fronts used on 3rd and long like overloads, but those are situation specific.

Positions of the Front

With the structure of the front understood, let’s move to the players inside of the front and what they do.

4-3 Front Labeled
Notre Dame

DE is a defensive end who lines up outside out the offensive tackle. They generally play in a 3 or 4 point stance.

DT is a defensive tackle who lines up between the guard and the offensive tackle.

NT is a defensive tackle who lines up between the center and the guard.

V is what Golden calls a Vyper. They’re essentially another defensive end.

The Sam is the off ball linebacker to the strong side of the formation.

The Mike is the middle off ball linebacker.

The Will is the weak side off ball linebacker.

When the defense moves to nickel, they will remove the Sam and replace him with a defensive back.

4-2 Over Labeled
Notre Dame

This picture also shows that the Vyper isn’t locked into the weak/strong side of the defense and they are not locked into playing left or right either.

The Vyper

The Vyper is just a cool name for a second defensive end. In most instances (95% of the time) they do what a typical defensive end in a 4 down even front would do, but they do it from a 2-point stance.

This is what happens a majority of run plays. The Vyper is asked to set the edge of the defense here same as a defensive end in this scenario.

This is what the Vyper looks like on a majority of pass plays. Rush the passer from the defensive end spot. However there are probably 2-4 plays per game that the Vyper does something different.

Here the Vyper drops into coverage away from the blitz. They can drop back a little easier because they’re in a 2-point stance so when the defense wants to run some type of pressure where an end is replaced by an off ball rusher, they’ll typically drop the Vyper.

On some 3rd-and-long packages they’ll also move the Vyper to over a guard. Here it’s part of an overload front and the Vyper slants inside to open up a rushing line for the blitzing off ball linebacker.

There is no difference in weight for the Vyper and the defensive end either.

Vyper and defensive end depth chart
Notre Dame

Outside of the 5th and 6th string players, it seems as if everyone at both positions is between 240 and 265 pounds. Those weights will likely increase in the NFL but this just goes to show that the Vyper is really just a defensive end 95% of the time. The Bengals don’t need to go out and look for a different body type in free agency or the draft for this position.

React Attack

When there is no blitz, the run defense is what some people call “react attack”. This means that the defense is going to read out the blocks in front of them and try to defeat them. React to the type of block and then attack. The order for movement is also hands, hips, and then feet for this style of defense. This is in contrast to the “attack react” that other even front defenses such as the Texans and 49ers play. Those defenses are attempting to shoot upfield to create penetration and then reacting to the block type.

Here's an example of react attack defensive line play from Golden’s 4 down front:

Watch how no one is trying to fire off the ball and get up field on this play. Instead they’re playing the block in front of them and remaining gap sound while doing it.

Here’s an example from behind the defense:

Watch how the defensive tackle and nose tackle play on this rep. Hands immediately into the chest of the offensive lineman, eyes to read where the back is going, and then shedding where they need to go. They’re both playing what’s known as gap and a half technique on this. They’re not just playing the gap they’re responsible for but they’re also shedding to the other side to play a second gap when the ball declares. 

They also play this way when they are in an odd front.

You can see how the defensive line is playing the block in front of them rather than trying to fire off of the ball and get penetration here as well. This is how the defensive line played the run for Golden in South Bend. It keeps the linebackers clean, allows for more freedom in the secondary, and is safer than trying to ask those guys to fly up the field. This is also how Anarumo played his defensive line against the run so it’s not all that different.

Stemming

This is something that is different from coach Anarumo. Stemming is moving the defensive line prior to the snap and changing the front. The entire defensive line can shift from even to odd or odd to even. This will mess with the offensive line if they already declared the Mike and with blocking rules for the run game and pass protection.

After the quarterback makes a change at the line of scrimmage, the defense stems from an even front into an odd front. Zone works worse against an odd front than it does an even front and it shows here.

They will also stem the other way from odd to even.

Stemming here right before the snap means that the tight end is forced to block a defensive end one on one. It doesn’t go well for that tight end and the defense comes away with a run stop that they can at least partially credit to stemming the front.

Overall stemming is a useful tool that the Bengals did not really utilize with Lou Anarumo. Hopefully this is something that Golden is going to bring with him to Cincinnati.

Slants and Stunts

Stemming is a pre-snap motion for the defense but slanting and stunting is essentially a post snap motion for the defense. Slanting is taking the defensive line and moving them to a different position after the snap. Often accompanied by a blitz of some kind or at least sending a linebacker or defensive back while dropping a player on the front.

In this example, the entire defensive line slants to their right. 

A stunt is often an exchange between two players. As an example, the defensive tackle could slant toward the defensive end and the defensive end will then loop around him. It results in the defensive tackle now outside of the offensive tackle and the defensive end now in between the guard and tackle of the offense. This is what is known as a T-E or TEX stunt. The reverse with the tackle looping and the end slanting would be an E-T or an EX stunt.

These slants and stunts are useful in both the pass and run game as ways to stress offensive line communication and processing.

On one side the vyper and the tackle are performing a T-E stunt while the nose and the end on the opposite side are performing an E-T stunt. Neither one of these get home but it’s a great example of these stunts.

While working the end and tackle is the most common way to perform a stunt, there are other ways as well.

Here is a T-N stunt between the defensive tackle and the nose. This time it works because the tackle absolutely blasts his way through as the penetrator. Typically a stunt will pass or fail based on the penetrator’s success.

Don’t forget that these stunts also have some use in the run game as well.

Part of this play is a blitz, but it’s also the stunt that helps free everything up. There’s an E-T stunt on the left side and the right side is slanting inside to free up the blitzing linebacker. 

Two player stunts are more common but Golden even implemented 3-man stunts in his front.

Notre Dame starts in an overload front and then sends both the nose and linebacker on a slant to their left with the 3 technique looping around them. While the Bengals performed some stunts under Anarumo, it was not as frequent as what Golden was doing with the Fighting Irish. Anarumo also did not utilize 3-man stunts in the same way as Golden. This will be a little bit of a new wrinkle for the Bengals defense if Golden carries it over.

Pressures

If you know one thing about Golden’s time at Notre Dame, it’s that he liked to blitz. These blitzes can have extremely different structures though. A majority of his blitzes were 5-man pressures so that he could keep a safety deep. He also dabbled in 6-man zone pressures and Cover 0. That’s not to mention how he planned on playing man with the back. Sometimes there would be a green dog and sometimes the plan was to peel one of the ends. Let’s get into all of this.

The 5-man pressure was Golden’s most common blitz the past two seasons. He liked to send five because it allowed him to keep a safety deep with his man coverage.

This 5-man blitz involves some stunting as well. The linebacker penetrates and the nose loops around him. There are only three down linemen here so both linebackers are blitzing to create this 5-man pressure.

A green dog is when the linebacker responsible for the back in man coverage is told to blitz if that running back stays in to pass protect. This will make sure that the defense has the numbers they want on a blitz even if the offense tries to protect against it.

This is an example of a 5-man pressure with a green dog. Watch No. 34 as he goes a little bit slower and then rushes right at the running back.

Having a green dog means that the linebacker may need to leave his blitz path and pick up the back as well.

This really isn’t a pressure, it’s just a 4-man rush but they have a green dog on the linebacker. He starts to blitz and then astutely sees that the back is releasing. He does an excellent job of picking him up after he releases to make sure that the back is covered.

A peel pressure is another way to deal with a running back. On these pressures, the end is responsible for covering the back if they are free releasing to their side.

Watch how No. 10 on the right side starts to pass rush and then leaves so that he can run with the halfback. That’s what a peel is.

The peel player even has to cover the back on choice and angle routes which can become a little bit of an issue. It’s a good thing that Golden left a linebacker in underneath coverage here because the Vyper is not keeping up with that back.

Golden also would stem his front to open up blitzing paths for his linebackers as well.

That late motion from the defense after the quarterback checks at the line makes this play work. Everything in Golden’s defense can build upon itself and be used in multiple ways.

Here is an example of a cross dog pressure which Golden also would use last season:

This is a bit like a stunt between both linebackers. One goes first to penetrate and occupy the blocking while the other loops around them to get a free shot at the quarterback.

It’s not just the linebackers that need to be able to blitz for Golden though. Everyone was being sent by Notre Dame.

Here the nickel is sent on a blitz after the quarterback as part of a 5-man pressure.

Now they’re sending the safety and peeling the end as part of the pressure which really opens things up for that safety.

He will even send the outside cornerback on a cat blitz. Everyone needs to be ready to get after the quarterback because they may be asked to do so.

The most interesting part about every blitz in this section so far is that none of them have been all out pressures. They all have a safety deep or were part of a zone blitz. Golden will throw all out blitzes at an offense, but more often than not he was using these blitzes. That’s because the all out blitz is a little bit more of a liability if it doesn’t get home.

While these were all examples of blitzing for pass rush, there were plenty of times that Notre Dame would run blitz as well.

Here the safety is blitzing possibly as a check because of the jet motion from the receiver. It’s designed to stop that jet sweep rather than blitzing to get after the quarterback though. The safety makes the tackle in the backfield and it’s a splash play for the defense.

Run blitzes can burn you too though because you can slant out of the run fit and if there’s less second level defenders then it becomes the third level’s job to make the play.

Overall run blitzes are a gamble. There’s plenty of risk that the run will get past the blitzers but the reward is the rare opportunity to drive the offense backward on a run play.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Golden coordinated a great unit with Notre Dame. He’s shown over at least his last two stops that he’s a good football coach and he seems ready to take the leap to become an NFL defensive coordinator. A lot of the front’s mechanics will probably carry over from South Bend to Cincinnati with him.

The only thing that I expect less of is his blitzing. It’s not as viable to blitz as often in the NFL as Golden did in college. The quarterbacks are better and the hashes are not as wide to open things up. He should be more aggressive than Anarumo was, but I would not expect him to send five more often than he sends four. When he does blitz though, he should be prepared and ready to go based on what he was doing the last two seasons.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

Mike Santagata is an offensive line and film expert. He's written and analyzed Bengals film for the past four years. He also hosts the Always Gameday in Cincinnati podcast and is a regular guest on the Locked On Bengals podcast.

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