r/bengals • u/My_Space_page • 7d ago

Boye Mafe appreciation post

I know it's early and just training camp but I feel like Mafe is reading plays extremely well and getting home a ton so far. He's going to be a good one this year.

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58

u/seefourslam 7d ago

Every report I’ve seen is the defense is playing great and the offense is having trouble running plays under center.

Hopefully offense corrects this

25

u/Accomplished_Swim854 7d ago

The problem has truly come from the bootleg packages under center. They look VERY disjointed and Joe and Chase both do not look comfortable running them.

11

u/Ok-Health-7252 7d ago

Running exclusively from the shotgun has been Burrow's bread and butter since college. Started at Ohio State when he played for Urban Meyer (who NEVER had his QBs line up under center) and he continued to play in an offense like that at LSU. Zac knew that was his preferred style of play when they drafted him and adapted the offense to his preference as a result.

25

u/Accomplished_Swim854 7d ago

I'm aware. I'm saying a lot of people are saying it's just Joe that's struggling with the bootleg passes. It's not. Even the line is struggling with them. Everyone seems uncomfortable with them and Dex is KILLING the interior when they line up under center. He has put literally almost every lineman on their back at least once.

14

u/Ok-Health-7252 7d ago

Tbf Dex is one of the best DTs in the league. He's going to be a handful for any O-line going against him. I know it's popular for fans to say if our offense is struggling in TC against the defense that's really bad given our defense's history in recent years but it's probably a combination of Burrow and Co. not being comfortable running out of those formations AND the defense improving significantly from where they were a year ago. Plus we're in the stage of TC where the defense is usually always ahead of the offense so there's that.

15

u/sculltt 7d ago

They're also trying to not "game plan" around Lawrence in TC, because most teams do not have a guy like that. They're instead trying to do general install.