After a defensive collapse in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati must neutralize Trevor Lawrence’s explosive playmakers to prove their early-season dominance wasn't a fluke and secure a winning record.
The Cincinnati Bengals are gearing up for their Week 4 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, and they’ll be facing a high-powered offense led by Trevor Lawrence.
Al Golden’s defense struggled against the Steelers in Pittsburgh last week, looking like a completely different group from the one we saw in the first two weeks of the season. The Steelers were not good offensively in their first two games, yet they scored 30 points against a defense that looked to have improved drastically.
It’s one bad game. Every team and every defense has at least one of those a season, and most have a lot more than one. What the Bengals have to do is put that poor performance behind them and come out firing this week.
As I said, the Jaguars have an explosive offense. Lawrence has been efficient, Parker Washington has had a breakout season at wide receiver, and Bhayshul Tuten has shown he’s quick and elusive in the run game.
Jacksonville can attack you in a lot of different ways, and the Bengals’ defense will have its hands full. However, Cincinnati needs to find a way to keep the Jaguars contained.
The Jaguars' defense has held teams to an NFL-low 12 points per game, so while most people are talking about which offense will put up the most points, I’ll be looking at which defense puts its opponent behind the chains, forces turnovers and makes the most plays overall.
While Jacksonville boasts the best scoring defense in the NFL, it has been average in yards allowed. The Jaguars rank 17th overall in yards allowed at 327 per game, so they are prone to giving up a big number on the scoreboard if the Bengals can take advantage.
I think they will, and that’s why it is so crucial for Dexter Lawrence, Bryan Cook, Boye Mafe and the rest of the defense to step up on Sunday. Whichever team’s defense makes more plays will move to 3-1, while the other will fall to 2-2.
Only time will tell if Week 3 was an outlier or a preview of what’s to come. I see Golden dialing up plenty of pressure to make Lawrence uncomfortable, Lawrence wreaking havoc in the run game and the secondary coming away with at least one takeaway.
Cincinnati invested in its defense over the offseason, and it’s time for those big additions to make a statement against Jacksonville.
