Cincinnati Bengals Film Breakdown: Germaine Pratt is Becoming a Star

The 26-year-old was dominant during Cincinnati's win in Pittsburgh.

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Nov 23, 2022 9:15 AM EST

Germaine Pratt is the unsung hero of the Bengals' defense. After another stellar day at the office with eight tackles including two for a loss against the Steelers, it’s time we recognize him as one of the reasons the Bengals' defense has played so well the past two seasons.

Pratt broke out as a solid linebacker last season, but he seems to have continued his progression into an even better player this season. His run defense, athleticism, and intelligence shines every week.

Let’s dive into the film to see just how good he was in Pittsburgh.

Fast Fits

The best area of Pratt’s game was his run defense. On Sunday, he was aggressive and fast against the Steelers. It could be due to him knowing some of the tendencies and plays that they were trying to run, as he mentioned to the media, but either way, he played an excellent game. He was consistently “fast fitting” on the backside of zone concepts.

A fast fit is taking the opportunity to run through an opening in the offensive line on zone plays. Typically this is due to one of the linemen giving some help on the backside while his adjacent teammate is executing a reach block to the play side. Pratt not only took these opportunities often, but he also commonly succeeded in taking the running back down as well. It’s high level linebacker play that requires aggression, athleticism, and intelligence.

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On this play, Pratt executes a fast fit through the backside A gap in-between the center and backside guard. The guard gives some extra help to the 3-technique on his side while the center is attempting to reach the nose in a 2i alignment. That extra yard or so of the 2i vs the 1 technique is critical here. Pratt gets some help from the Bengals front on this because they play their nose as a G rather than a shade. That means the nose tackle is now just inside of the guard, rather than just outside of the center. Because the nose is an extra yard or two outside, the center is selling out to reach him and it opens up a hole on the backside A gap that Pratt takes advantage of. Hendrickson does just enough so the back cannot bounce it and that allows Pratt to get home. Pratt then finishes the play with a nice tackle on the second year running back.

Similar to the last play, Pratt executes another fast fit. This time he is taking the opening in the backside B gap. The linebackers are bumping with the jet motion from the Steelers so Pratt moves all the way from a 10 (off ball between center and guard) to about a 50 (off ball between tackle and tight end) and it does not seem like the Steelers are considering him as a threat to make this play. However, Pratt proves them wrong as he fast fits through the backside C gap and takes down Harris for a minimal gain.

On this play, Pratt is once again on the backside of a zone run play and takes advantage by aggressively attacking downhill. He runs off of the backside tackle on a split zone concept from the Steelers. Typically that sift block from the tight end is supposed to seal off the backside end, but because Pratt is coming downhill hard, the sift comes for him instead as the first threat. This play also works well because Zach Carter wins over the top and penetrates against the backside tackle. Carter forces the cutback, Pratt occupies the sift block, and it’s an easy stop for Trey Hendrickson as the backside end. Great team defense from the Bengals who are trying to aggressively stop the Steelers' run game.

Jet Sweeps

The Bengals like to use Pratt in a variety of ways. Sometimes he plays the WILL spot on the defense where he can work off the ball and come downhill quick, but other times they move him around. One of the spots they like to utilize him is as an on ball outside linebacker as part of their “penny front.” The Penny front is a subpackage with five guys on the line of scrimmage and one linebacker off of the ball. This front has picked up some steam around the NFL and for good reason.

The Penny front allows for the defense to play a bear front (3T-0-3T) while also keeping 2-high integrity on the back end. This front asks a lot out of the nose tackle and the outside linebackers, but schematically it works to stop the run effectively while devoting extra resources into the coverage.

One of the weaknesses of this front is that there is only one player to flow at the second level. The Steelers tried to attack this by using a jet sweep. Generally, the end is not even blocked on jet sweep plays because it should hit outside quick enough that they do not factor into the play.

The offense would rather get the second level blocked so that they could possibly spring a big play. Here the Steelers are trying to sell their wide zone concept that we saw in the last section. This leaves Pratt unblocked as the offensive line is working away from him. It was a mistake to leave Pratt unblocked. He immediately recognizes the play and springs into action. He nearly gets a hand on the ball carrier as he runs by, but cannot reach him, however, he still forces him to bounce it further outside. For some reason, the wide receiver just leaves the press corner unblocked and Pratt works with him to make a vice tackle on the ball carrier. It’s a tackle for loss and a great play from the Bengals' run defense.

While the Bengals give up the short yardage first down, it’s Pratt’s recognition and athleticism that stops this play from becoming something more than that. The Bengals are selling out to stop the run on this play and the Steelers smartly attack that with a jet sweep. Pratt is aligned around a 30 (off ball between guard and tackle) after the bump from the motion. Not every linebacker is able to be a factor on fast hitting perimeter runs in this situation, but Pratt quickly reads what is happening and shows off his former safety athleticism to make the stop. It’s just beyond the sticks, but it’s still a great play from the 4th year linebacker.

Feel In Zone

Finally, we get to the area that I think Pratt has improved upon the most as a pro. Pratt’s feel in zone coverage was one of the weaknesses of his game the past couple of years. Last year he did a great job when he had to match with players or played man coverage, but his zone drops would be to cover blades of grass rather than moving with the eyes of the quarterback and route distribution. There were signs earlier in this season that Pratt made a leap in terms of his feel in zone coverage. He made a fantastic interception in zone coverage against P.J. Walker and the Panthers where he melted with the quarterback’s eyes and dropped to about 25 yards of depth. In this game against the Steelers, it showed up again.

On this play, the Bengals are playing Cover 3 sky with Pratt as one of the hook defenders. Pratt is away from the passing strength here against the Steelers 4 verticals variation. This 4 verts variation uses the wing on the right side to run YY verts. YY verts is both tight ends running vertical with the interior tight end just on a seam while the outside tight end widens and then works downfield.

Four verts beats Cover 3 on a chalkboard because there are too many vertical routes for the defense to handle. This is not the case here on the field though because of Pratt’s drop as the weak hook. Pratt recognizes that he’s getting a vertical route behind him and Kenny Pickett is reading his side. He makes this throw very difficult because he drops to 15-20 yards of depth right outside of the end zone. Pickett then has to try to layer this ball in the small window between Pratt and the post safety Bates who does a nice job of getting over the top.

Pickett ends up air mailing it and it’s an incomplete pass. Pratt’s feel for the vertical route behind him makes this play. If he just drops to 10-12 yards of depth like on a chalkboard, then Pickett has a much easier throw, but because he continues dropping more this throw becomes nearly impossible.

Again here is Pratt playing high level zone coverage in the red area. The Bengals are running a Cover 2 defense while the Steelers are attacking it with a Y Cross concept. Once again on a chalkboard this concept should beat this coverage, but Pratt makes a very good play. The mugged up look sometimes makes it difficult for these linebackers to get to good depth in their drops, but Pratt does an excellent job of gaining depth quickly. The idea behind this concept is to occupy Pratt with the cross and the underneath route so that they can hit the dig behind it. Pratt does not take any of the bait knowing he has help elsewhere and gets into the dig window. Pickett is then forced to take the checkdown, which he underthrows.

This is superb zone coverage from Pratt. It’s an area he has improved on quite a bit as a pro and he continues to save the defense touchdowns.

Pratt is a guy that does not get the recognition he deserves. Too many fans and outside analysts think he’s just the other linebacker to Logan Wilson, but he’s actually a very good player and deserves respect in his own right. His intelligence and feel for the game have developed to the point where his athleticism can truly shine. He’s playing fast and the game seems to be moving slow for him. It’s exciting to see where this could end up as the season progresses.

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