Week 1 Tone Setters: Remade Bengals' O-Line Face Tough Test in Steelers' Defensive Front

Cincinnati added four new starters in the offensive line room.

Author:
Elise Jesse
Publish date:
Sep 9, 2022 8:21 AM EDT

In this story:

The AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals open their season with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. It will be a big test for their retooled offensive line.

Left tackle Jonah Williams is the only lineman that kept his starting job this season.

"It's a lot of new faces," Williams said. "It's been a smooth adjustment watching all of these new guys come in but I think we all kind of buy into the bigger picture of what this team is about."

Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Alex Cappa, and La'el Collins are in charge of protecting Joe Burrow all season long. They have to deal with All-Pro defensive tackle Cam Heyward (10 sacks in 2021), reiging Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt (22.5 sacks in 2021) and edge rusher Alex Highsmith (six sacks, 15 QB hits in 2021).

“This is the only defense in the NFL with 50 or more sacks in each of the last five seasons,” Solomon Wilcots said on The OT. “Last year they lead the league with 55 sacks and yet they were the worst when it came to stopping the run, they were dead last when it came to their run defense.”

Stopping a 6-foot-1, 220 pound back like Joe Mixon was tough for most of Cincinnati’s opponents last season as he torched his way through the AFC en route to 1,205 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns.

“That’s where it all starts in the run game,” Burrow said. “Across the league every offense wants to establish the run so you can open up the play-action and get teams out of the two-high looks so that’s why the offense starts with him.”

Williams and Wilcots also believe the Bengals will have to get the ground game going to be successful on Sunday.

"You've got to run the ball to win in the NFL," Williams said with a smile. "We have a great quarterback, great receivers, but we also have a great running back and a great line. Once we get the run game going, it's going to open up some of the pass game and it wears on the defense a little bit just to keep pounding on them."

“If Cincinnati can hammer away at the Pittsburgh Steelers run defense they will have to commit another defender to the box and that will open up things up on the perimeter for Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins," Wilcots said. "Tyler Boyd always plays big time against the Steelers so we’ve got to get him the ball too, but I think it starts with our ability to run the football."

History of the Rivalry

In years past the Bengals Steelers rivalry had a reputation for producing brutal injuries. In 2008, Hines Ward he delivered a hit on then Bengals rookie linebacker Keith Rivers, which resulted in a broken jaw. Terence Garvin's illegal hit had a devastating impact on current Bengals punter Kevin Huber in 2013. He suffered a broken jaw and a cracked vertebrae.

You might remember the first meeting between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh where Le’Veon Bell’s season was ended by Vontaze Burfict and the following Monday Steelers Vince Williams sent out a tweet that has since removed which read, "I catch Vontez on south beach im painting that boi on sight."

Burfict responded with a screen grab of the tweet and fueled the animosity even further tweeting, “Why wait then. You know where I’m at.”

The second meeting between the two in 2015 resulted in $138,000 in fines for both sides with former Steelers safety Mike Mitchell receiving the heftiest fine at $23,152 for a hit that knocked former Bengal Tyler Eifert out of the game. All of this preceded the AFC Wild Card game at Paul Brown Stadium.

A chippy, physical game turned dangerous late in the third quarter when Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier laid a hit on Giovani Bernard. Bernard caught a pass in the flat and Shazier met him with a helmet-to-helmet hit knocking him out of the game and a fight between the two sidelines erupted. We all know how that game ended.

Fast forward to 2022 and neither franchise seems to have a player known for dirty plays. There are plenty of physical guys on both teams, including Bengals safety Vonn Bell, but he's certainly not a dirty player.

Physical Matchup

Though Cincinnati boasts a much different roster, the ugly history of this rivalry has a way of putting fans on edge ahead of kickoff.

“I don’t think they can avoid it. These two teams embody that,” Wilcots said. “The AFC North is very different. These are teams that are very physical, you’ll notice there are no dome stadiums in this division and as the weather starts to turn the mentality of asserting your physicality on the other team becomes more primary.”

Burrow has never shied away from the physicality of the game. Though he was sacked more than any quarterback in 2021, he was first among NFL quarterbacks in completion percentage (70.4%) to go along with 108.3 QB rating and 34 touchdowns. Now, just imagine what Burrow and the rest of this offense can do if he has a clean pocket for longer than 3 seconds. The possibilities are endless.

"Every game calls for a different Joe," Burrow said this week. "If our defense is playing great, I gotta protect the ball, we gotta run the ball well, take the opportunities when they’re there, but don’t push anything. If they’re scoring on the other side of the ball, I might have to take some chances. If we’re not running the ball as well I might have to take some chances that normal I wouldn’t otherwise in a different game. Every game calls for something different.”

Burrow has a sublime way of taking the calls from Brian Callahan and Zac Taylor and morphing them into clear, concise instructions for the other 10 players surrounding him on the field in the huddle. His ability to communicate clearly and effectively is the start of a successful play.

"Obviously Joe is super talented and a great quarterback, everybody sees that and his presence in the huddle is really good," Williams said. "Once we get up to the line, if he's got to make adjustments, make calls, he's been great at doing that. He gets us all on the same page and it allows our talent to shine."

“You might say that it was just the tip of the ice burg what we saw from Joe Burrow last year," Wilcots said. "According to the PFF Data base he was the number one quarterback in the league when blitzed. He made you pay for it. If you came after him, he would make you pay dearly."

The stakes are high right out of the gate for Cincinnati and they are with number 9's trajectory.

"Anytime you have a divisional game, it counts as two in the standings," Burrow said. "So anytime you play the Steelers, Ravens or the Browns, you're going to want to get that one."

How long does it take Burrow to know which version of him is needed to win the game for Cincinnati? According to him, not very long.

"About a quarter, little less sometimes. You can kinda tell.”

Do he have a favorite Joe?

“The one that throws for 530 yards," Burrow said with a smirk.

The Bengals aren't sure which Joe they'll need on Sunday, but they're hoping to protect him much better than they did last season.

For more on the Bengals, watch the video below and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

Make sure you bookmark All Bengals for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

You May Also Like:

Bengals Film Review: Schematic Preview of Sunday's Matchup Against Steelers

Mike Hilton on Ja'Marr Chase: "You Can't Stop Him"

Bengals Unveil Uniform Combination for Sunday's Opener Against Steelers

Bengals Make Flurry of Roster Moves, Add Three Players