Photo by Madison Morris - packers.com
Packer player at practice
After a much-needed bye, the Packers will get the next best thing to a bye with a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengals are the closest thing to a team designed exclusively by talk radio callers, with stars at the positions you know, and some of the worst regulars in the NFL playing in the trenches. Despite the flawed roster construction, quarterback Joe Burrow managed to keep the Bengals respectable, however they lost him to a severe toe injury in week two and could miss the remainder of the season. Since Burrow’s injury, the Bengals are 0-3 and have been outscored 113-37.
Cincinnati still features two of the best receivers in football in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, but without Burrow it hasn’t mattered. Backup quarterback Jake Browning was forced into action for seven starts during the 2023 season and played reasonably well, but it seems the league has him figured out. Browning’s reasonably accurate for a backup, but he holds the ball too long, and he lacks NFL arm strength. In his three games this season, he’s been sacked nine times, and thrown eight interceptions.
Tough Spot
Browning is also in a tough spot because the Bengals cannot run the ball at all. As a team they average 57 rushing yards per game, the lowest mark in the league. Lead back Chase Brown has just 160 yards on 65 attempts for a laughably low 2.5 yards per attempt. While third down back Samaje Perine has statistically been better, he only has nine carries on the year, and they have almost all been give-up runs on third and long.
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But none of this is really Browning or Brown’s fault. The Cincinnati offensive line ranks dead last in run blocking grade according to Pro Football Focus, and third to last in pass blocking. Joe Burrow is a rare talent capable of making lightning quick decisions, and covering for a poor offensive line, but that line is the reason he is not playing, and that line will continue to undermine the rest of the offensive talent. They have made some noise about benching Browning for the Packers game, but it’s hard to see how it would matter.
The Bengals don’t really have a better option. The Packers are quite familiar with their third string quarterback Brett Rypien, who last played for the Los Angeles Rams in 2023. Rypien just happened to fill in for an injured Matthew Stafford against Green Bay that season, and completed 13 of 28 passes for 130 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. Keep in mind that this performance came against Joe Barry’s underwhelming defense, and after this game Rypien was essentially out of football for a year and a half. The Packer defense is much improved from the 2023 version, but I suspect Brett Rypien is not.
Defensive Side
On the defensive side of the ball, the Bengals can at least rely on Trey Hendrickson to provide a solid pass rush, and Jordan Battle has been a solid safety, but every other position has struggled. With no legitimate rush outside of Hendrickson, opposing offenses have been able to double him and pick on the Bengals’ cornerbacks for big plays. It’s been a disaster of a season for a defense that has allowed the 3rd highest point total in football.
The Packers also made good use of the bye week as offensive linemen Zach Tom, Aaron Banks, and Jacob Monk all practiced after missing significant time earlier in the season. Even receiver Christian Watson, who suffered a severe knee injury late last season, has been spotted running at practice and may not be far from a return. A healthy line should mitigate whatever disruption Hendrickson might bring to the table.
The only real reason to worry about this game is Matt LaFleur’s rather uninspiring 4-5 record in games after a bye week, including a few losses against teams as undermanned as Cincinnati. In 2023 the Packers lost to an extremely uninspiring Broncos team 19-17, and even last year, while they did beat the Bears after the bye, it took a blocked field goal on the last play of the game to do so.
It may just be statistical noise, but for a coach with LaFleur’s reputation for creative game-planning, it’s odd that the team seems to come out flat when given extra time to prepare. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of risk in this game, and even a flat game plan should be enough. When the Packers struggled with the Browns, Cleveland could at least hang their hat on an upper tier defense. When the Packers tied the Cowboys in a 40-40 shootout, at least it was against a team with the best passing EPA per play in football. The Bengals are 14.5-point underdogs, and they rank 30th on offense, and 31st on defense in every major efficiency statistic. The Packers are healthier than they’ve been all season. There is no excuse for this game to be close.
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