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Joe Burrow Film Review: Analyzing the Pick-Six That Propelled Bills Past Bengals

Remember sitting in math class drawing plays in your notebook in middle school? This is where that idea came from.
Max Toscano|
Dec 7, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford (47) runs the ball for a touchdown after an interception against the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
Dec 7, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford (47) runs the ball for a touchdown after an interception against the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

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Cincinnati Bengals

I promise you that there have been enough bespoke designs and ideas drawn on whiteboards this season to fill an entire 17 game NFL schedule of the dumbest things you could ever imagine.

Luckily for teams, 99% of the time these things don't make it out of the meeting room, or at least the next day of practice. The Bengals snuffed out their faint glimmer of hope and killed a winning performance with a 1% play. The easy thing here is to blame the quarterback.

How could you make that throw?? How could you not get it over Christian Benford?? Why the sad little Trae Young floater????!?!?!? Unfortunately, all of that has an explanation, but it would be much less humiliating if it did not and Joe Burrow's brain just malfunctioned. It was all necessary, but the play itself wasn't. Let's talk about what (at least I think) actually happened on the game changing pick-six that propelled the Bills past the Bengals:

Blitzin' Benford

The fateful pick-6 wasn't Benford's first impactful play off the edge on Sunday. Late in the first half he smoked Burrow on a well-disguised pressure that completely fooled him. With the driving snow not helping his peripheral awareness, he teed off. It gets confusing from here though, because it's not as if they were sending him over and over. The Bengals did, however, clearly anticipate it on the 4th quarter interception.

Blitz the Reduction

There is something of a creed among defensive coaches that, if the offense reduces (tightens to the formation) the split of the X (short-side outside WR), you're getting a prime opportunity to blitz the CB. They aren't wrong. A reduced split gives the CB a shorter distance to the backfield without giving away that he is blitzing because he may simply just be aligning with the WR. It's better to do under center than in the gun because the QB can't react if he's turning his back on a play fake, and if it's a run, it gives you a free hitter in the backfield.

Ironically, this is something the Bengals used to do with Mike Hilton at NICKEL if the SLOT (as opposed to the CB and X) were tight to the line for the same reason. It brings an extra possible blitzer into the box without you having to artificially and obviously position him there. There were even games where he would trigger consistently against a tight slot and be a constant menace in the backfield for the Bengals on both the frontside and backside of runs (man those were the days).

The Bills have a tendency, at least this season, the involve the corner against reduced outside WR (X or Z) splits, especially if the offense is in 11 personnel or is in any 3x1 set with a single WR and no TE to that side. Even more especially if the situation hints at a run. Such instances include possible clock control or short-yardage. In the Bengals' case, it was probably the time of game and of course, formation despite the offense running out 12 personnel.

The Play

So now that you understand the real thing the Bengals were trying to achieve/punish, we must go over why, besides the obvious reason of the result, it was really, really stupid. The Bengals obviously have this tagged to this specific call in the game to attack it.

The Bills hadn't blitzed the corner to attack the run at any other point, just the above in an obvious pass situation, so Taylor was obviously picking a moment where he really thought they would respond to a single reduced WR this way. The idea is to alert to it pre-snap and replace the blitzer with the ball. It's called a "packaged play" when you tag a route to a run scheme and, if pre-snap conditions are met, the QB pulls up and throws it. A RPO, as opposed to one of these, is more based on a post-snap read of a conflict defender, though the term is often used interchangeably for packaged plays.

Now, packaged plays are not dumb, they are pretty common. That's not the issue, the issue lies in the realities of this one.

Pre-snap, with the alert on, Burrow sees the safeties shift over, which is going to trigger the read, which is the correct one.

The problem is that you're going to get someone coming down to replace the CB over the WR because you can't leave him unattended, if it's a PAP that's a free touchdown and PAP exists. This necessitates that the QB get it to him quick, as all of these packaged plays dictate.

CB blitz
screenshot

There's ANOTHER problem. With the CB path directly into the face of the QB, he must try to get it over him. You can't truly float it because that will take too long and you can't throw it on a line because it'll hit the CB in the face. You have to loft it just right, without time to get a proper grip which is especially an issue in a SNOW GAME!

At the end of the day, you have to just hope the corner closes his eyes and doesn't jump. Despite technically being a "scheme answer," this is a grossly impractical idea, and there's a reason it isn't done. I'd expect the bored 8th grade math student not to figure that out, but an NFL staff? Sure it looks very ugly for Burrow, but he's executing the design as constructed and called, it just happens to not be a real football play.

Defensive coordinators love it when you throw screens into free edge pressure in any case, because as coach outlines above, the path is the coverage. The physics and timing don't allow this to work.

There's a reason you don't see all your funkiest fan-brained play ideas on TV on Sundays. This is what it looks like in reality, sorry to both middle schoolers and Bengals fans everywhere.

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Max Toscano
MAX TOSCANO

Max Toscano breaks down football strategy. Prior to joining Bengals On SI, he interned with the coaching staff at the University of Connecticut, assisting the defensive staff in opponent scouting as well as assisting the Head Coach and GM with analytics on gameday. Max's areas of specific expertise include Quarterbacks and Tight Ends, including also hosting a publication dedicated to the tight end position. He also writes for "And The Valley Shook" on SB Nation.

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