Bengals Film Breakdown: Why Jake Browning is Posting Historic Numbers With Joe Burrow Out

Browning is a big reason why the Bengals have won 3-straight games.

Author:
Mike Santagata
Publish date:
Dec 20, 2023 10:40 AM EST

In this story:

The Bengals have stumbled upon something that is rare in the NFL. They've found a high quality backup quarterback that can lead them to victory while the starter is out.

There are teams that struggle to find any quarterback that can do what Jake Browning is doing and he's the backup. Over the past four weeks the Bengals staff has been able to work through and find the concepts Browning is most comfortable with to help maximize his abilities as a drop back passer. Their overtime win over the Vikings was the culmination of that process and these concepts share some commonalities.

What Didn’t Work

Before we dive into what has become Browning’s bread and butter, it’s worth looking at what didn't work for Browning over this period of time. The first thing that didn't work were “pick a side” plays.

These concepts are staples of the Bengals' offense with Burrow, but after the first Steelers game, they have been axed from the offense. A good example of this type of read is this quick game concept:

The concept has an answer for both “middle of the field open” (2-high) and “middle of the field closed” (1-high), with the closed answer being the slant flat combination up top and the open answer being the trail concept to the bottom.

The ball has to come out fast because this is a quick game concept and it is designed for this ball to come out within two seconds. Browning opens up and looks to his left to the slant flat combination, but the Steelers have rotated to 2-high coverage. That makes this the incorrect read and because it’s quick game, he doesn't have enough time to reset his feet and work the trail concept to the bottom which is open.

This is an example of Burrow running the exact same concept for a big gain:

These concepts are some of Burrow’s favorites because he is a savant at pre and post-snap processing. Browning isn’t quite on that level and it makes these concepts less enticing to him. Instead, the Bengals have Browning working in mostly pure progression or progression with an option concepts.

Pure Progression

Pure progression and progression with an option concepts are plays where the quarterback reads it out 1-2-3 the same way every time. There isn't adjustment to the read based on the coverage look in the middle of the play. The quarterback drops back and reads to see who is open on the play. Each concept is generally designed to beat almost every coverage as well. The difference between the two is that progression with an option reads involves an alert deep route that is viable against certain looks and skipped against other looks.

One example of a pure progression that the Bengals got to against the Vikings was this throw to Ja’Marr Chase on a wheel route:

The concept should be read (1) wheel, (2) curl, (3) shallow and (4) checkdown.

Browning sees that his first read is open and throws it almost immediately after his back foot hits the ground. The running back is lost in pass protection during this play, which adds an extra layer of difficulty as Browning is getting crushed during the throw. It’s an incredible throw from Browning all things considered and something he appears to be fairly comfortable with.

However, Browning seems to be at his best on “progression with an option” plays. These concepts have built in “alerts” which are throws that you only make against specific looks. One of his best traits has been his willingness to correctly throw the alert on these concepts.

Let’s take a look at Tee Higgins’ first touchdown as an example:

Generally on spot/snag, the corner route is an alert on the play. Browning hangs on that alert despite the defender having outside leverage because he trusts Higgins to beat his man. Browning makes a perfect throw and it ends in a touchdown.

He was hitting the alerts on these plays quite a bit throughout this game. Another great example of this is the deep throw to Charlie Jones that should've been a touchdown.

The Vikings are rotating into a funky Tampa 2 look and the middle field player doesn't gain enough depth to run with the clear out on this dagger concept. Browning hangs on that alert when he sees this and then makes a great throw. The issue on the play is that Jones slows down on the route.

Almost every time this concept is called, the clear route isn't going to be thrown. It’s really just there to open up space for the dig route underneath. Due to that, wide receivers will sometimes slow up rather than run as hard as they can the entire play. Browning is expecting Jones to sprint and throws up what should have been a huge touchdown. Instead, it ends up incomplete.

Speaking of dagger, it’s one of the concepts that Browning has executed well and had plenty of success with against the Vikings. Check out all these different times that the Bengals got to the dagger concept and Browning found a way to make it work:

The dagger concept is good against almost every coverage. The main coverage that dagger does not have a good answer for is 2-man and that’s due to the defense playing inside leverage. Other than that coverage, the clear, dig, or underneath route should be open. It’s a three level high-low concept and that’s near impossible to defend. The main issue you run into is the pass protection for the play, but you can’t run the same concept on every play because the defense can start to cheat on it, however, this should be a staple of the drop back offense with Browning at quarterback.

The Bengals also hammered the Vikings with in the drop back game is the wrap/race/bulls concept, which is a simple two-man concept. There is a sit route and an in route behind it. It’s a two-man high low concept in the middle of the field and it worked wonders against the Vikings.

This has less answers than dagger, but is still a sound concept that the Bengals should lean on moving forward. Looking at both the dagger and wrap concepts, you can put together that Browning seems to be very comfortable working middle of the field high low concepts. He’s able to process and work the middle of the field and it might be what he does best.

The Bengals will likely lean on the run game, play action, and screen passes offense that they were very efficient using in wins over the Jaguars and Colts. However, either due to game script or situation, the Bengals will need to have a plan for the drop back pass.

They appear to be zoning in on what Browning is most comfortable with and can implement that into the offense going forward. With the offense in an entirely new place, Saturday's rematch against the Steelers should look much different than the first time these two teams played.

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