Dexter Lawrence knows exactly where the Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive test is coming from Sunday: Derrick Henry and a Baltimore run game that can wreck a plan in a hurry.
Lawrence said the emphasis this week has been simple - tackle, tackle, tackle - as the Bengals prepare for a matchup that also includes figuring out how Lamar Jackson (ankle) will look. The bigger immediate problem, though, is Henry, who has punished Cincinnati throughout his career.
In eight games against the Bengals, Henry has averaged 5.4 yards per carry and scored five touchdowns. Four of those scores have come in the last five meetings, and in the final matchup last year he turned 11 carries into 100 yards.
For Lawrence, the answer starts with the whole front working together.
“It's going to be a good challenge. My emphasis today at practice was just that we gotta tackle this week," Lawrence told Bengals radio voice Dan Hoard and CLNS Media's Mike Petraglia on Wednesday.
"We got to wrap him up, and we got to bring him down. So just watching how he runs the ball, he's a big dude running the ball.
If I can say so, like when I was running the ball back in the day, but I think with a guy like him, just the big guys up front just can't let him climb to the second level. We got to build a wall and keep him behind it.”
That kind of work has already changed the feel of Cincinnati’s run defense. Lawrence has posted an 82.5 Pro Football Focus grade over 226 snaps, and the Bengals have climbed to the top of the league in run-stuff rate at 23.93%.
Still, the numbers behind the defense tell the other side of the story. Cincinnati is 24th in rushing yards allowed per game, largely because of explosive plays, while sitting 28th in rushing EPA allowed and 14th in success rate.
Sunday gives Lawrence a chance to take that progress into a bigger stage. He said the Bengals are looking for their first “complete game” on defense this season.
"Just play a complete game, as complete as we can play," Lawrence said about the goal on Sunday. "We know it's not gonna be perfect, but some of the mistakes that we've had that can be there. They can be eliminated."
A rested, healthy Lawrence heads to Baltimore ready to let it rip.
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Joe Burrows placement in that group is the part Bengals fans will notice most, especially as the AFC North remains unforgiving and every week seems to reshape the picture around him. The ranking does not settle anything on its own, but it does underline how much attention Burrows season is drawing and why his standing has become part of the larger discussion around Cincinnatis place in the league. [Read more 🡒]