Last Updated on 01/22/2023 by てんしょく飯
Taking the field in Orchard Park, N.Y., Cincinnati Bengals quarterback (QB) Joe Burrow will be without three of his five starting linemen.
Left tackle (LT) Jonah Williams and right guard (RG) Alex Kappa have officially been ruled out for the divisional round game against the Buffalo Bills.
Williams injured his knee in the Bengals’ wild-card win over the Baltimore Ravens and will join Kappa and right tackle (RT) La’el Collins (season-ending in the late rounds) in the starting lineup who will miss important games.
This is of course not the first time Burrow has been forced to play behind the makeshift line; even in the 2021 playoffs, the right side of Burrow’s offensive line was used in the winning AFC (American Football Conference) championship game against the Offensive Tackle (OT) Hakim Adeniji replaced G Jackson Kerman against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals won that game, but in the divisional round against the Tennessee Titans, they were sacked nine times by the top speeding Titans and won a hard-fought 52-yard field goal by then rookie kicker (K) Evan McPherson.
Losing both tackles and their best guard, albeit one with experience, makes it even more difficult to challenge a Bills defense that ranked 13th in sacks during the regular season. The Bills are also without premier edge rusher Von Miller due to a season-ending knee injury.
Even though Barrow has had postseason success under consistent pressure in the past, sacks may play a key role in determining the winner in this game. Barrow is 22-3 in games with three or fewer sacks and has a 108.2 passer rating. However, that changes to 4-8 when the sacks total 4 or more. Still, his passer rating is 93.8 and his touchdown/interception ratio is 18-13.
The Super Wild Card weekend was the latter. With Collins and Kappa down on the sideline, the Ravens sacked Burrow four times and held the Bengals to 4.3 yards per offensive play. But a big effort by the defense allowed the Bengals to win the game 24-17.
The Bengals will be relying on tackles Adeniji and Carman and veteran Max Scharping, who will be at RG, to help Burroughs show more magic. The Bills, on the other hand, will be waiting to exploit the Bengals’ weaknesses and try to kick their opponents off the field.
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