Here’s a scary one for Cincinnati Bengals fans to consider: The last quarterback to take 13 or more sacks over the first two weeks of a season and actually start more than 10 games was David Carr.
Carr, the first pick in 2002 by the Texans who was sacked 76 times as a rookie and 267 total times over a decade of play, most over his first four or five seasons in the league.
That’s a metric from Carr himself, who just had an excellent writeup on NFL.com about the issues plaguing Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
Of note, Carr points out that the play-calling simply isn’t moving the pocket enough:
“To fix their offensive woes, the Bengals must start helping Burrow out by moving the pocket. The easiest way to do that is through play-action, but this is something the Bengals use very little of. Burrow has used play-action on only 13.7 percent of his dropbacks this season, fifth-lowest in the NFL, per Next Gen Stats. Last year, his play-action rate was 18.7 percent, fourth-lowest league-wide.”
It’s not as simple as asking Burrow to get rid of the ball faster either, as Carr details: “And anyone wanting to argue Burrow is holding the ball too long should consider his average time-to-throw mark (2.58 seconds) is seventh-quickest in the league this season.”
Where the blame rests for this slow start is quite complex. The offensive line has been so-so at best against elite defensive lines so far. But the coaching staff hasn’t done well enough across the board, especially in scheming players open and giving the line manageable assignments this early.
As a whole, the blame rests on the coaching staff and only a smarter approach will increase the chances of better execution.
