Bengals Had No Answer for Chris Jones
On paper, Kansas City’s young secondary was outmatched against Ja’Marr Chase and the rest of the Bengals’ receiving corps. Their situation didn’t improve after they lost cornerback L’Jarius Sneed on the 4th play of the game. That left the Chiefs with three rookie cornerbacks playing almost all of the snaps for the rest of the night. To slow down Cincy’s passing game, the D-line would need to get after Joe Burrow.
Enter Chris Jones.
He was a disruptive force all night, finishing with 2 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, and 10 total pressures according to Pro Football Focus. Jones drew countless double-teams that opened up opportunities for pass rushers elsewhere (he also beat several double-teams outright).
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did a great job of putting Jones in position to succeed against the Bengals’ depleted offensive line, which was missing three starters. He regularly found ways ways to ensure advantageous 1-on-1 matchups against the three back-ups.
You could see it on Jones’ first sack. This was a 3rd-and-long. Spagnuolo spread out the defensive line with a 4-man front where both interior d-linemen were aligned outside of the guards. Then he had linebacker Nick Bolton walk down over the center:
That set up 1-on-1’s across the board, which included Chris Jones inside against back-up right guard Max Scharping: