The Cincinnati Bengals are one win away from playing in Super Bowl LVI and in order to get there, they’ll have to knock off the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium.
Despite beating the Chiefs in Week 17, the Bengals enter Sunday’s AFC Championship game as the underdog. But as franchise quarterback Joe Burrow said following Cincinnati’s 19-16 win over the Tennessee Titans, the Bengals are ready to change the perception.
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“I'm tired of the underdog narrative," Burrow said. "We're a really, really good team. We're here to make noise."
To beat the Chiefs for a second time this season, it’ll take as close to a perfect game as the Bengals could imagine. Kansas City has won seven consecutive home playoff games dating to 2018 and are hosting the AFC Championship game for the fourth straight year.
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Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Burrow welcome the challenge they will be up against in front of what is considered the toughest outdoor stadium to play at for an opposing team.
“If you want to do the things that we want to do, that's a team that you're going to have to beat every single year,” Burrow said on Wednesday. “The AFC has run through them for four straight years. So, you know, we're excited about the opportunity.”
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Both the Chiefs and Bengals enter the matchup relatively healthy as Cincinnati came out of the divisional round clean from an injury standpoint. All signs point to Kansas City’s Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu being able to play after suffering a concussion against the Bills on Sunday night. The Chiefs will also have running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire for this matchup.
Here’s what the Bengals must do to beat the Chiefs:
Fix Joe Burrow’s protection
The Bengals simply can’t overcome a second week of Burrow taking nine sacks. Offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said the sacks were a result of three different things: Some of their offensive linemen losing one-on-one matchups, Burrow holding on to the ball too long and communications issues as the Bengals tried to get their plays in.
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Regardless, Cincinnati’s offense operates best when Burrow has time to process at the line of scrimmage. In order for the Bengals to beat the Chiefs, they’ll have to go toe-to-toe with Kansas City from a scoring standpoint.
The Bengals scored 34 points in the last meeting with the Chiefs and based off what we’ve seen in how others have beaten Kansas City this year, the opposing team needs to score touchdowns, not kick field goals.
Cincinnati has scored just three touchdowns on 22 offensive drives in the postseason.
Limit explosive plays to Chiefs’ dynamic wide receiver Tyreek Hill
All eyes will be on Bengals’ top cornerback Chidobe Awuzie in the upcoming matchup. Awuzie played a significant role in Cincinnati’s win over Kansas City as he limited Hill’s production to 31 yards on eight targets and two first downs when he was in coverage on the speedy wide receiver, per Pro Football Focus. The longest catch Awuzie gave up on Hill was for eight yards and he recorded nine tackles.
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“It was a team effort, we had great calls and coverages to try to eliminate their playmakers,” Awuzie said. “Those are great players no matter what, they’re a threat. Whether they’re getting the ball or not getting the ball, they’re a threat. Just knowing where they are every play, him and (tight end Travis) Kelce and the running back and other guys as well. Try to understand locations and everything and great communication. We want to know where guys are at because that’ll dictate coverages."
Hill is one of the fastest players in the NFL and he and quarterback Patrick Mahomes can change the landscape of a game within seconds. Mahomes’ favorite target is Hill and as defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said before the first matchup with the Chiefs, if Hill gets behind Cincinnati’s second-level of defense, they won’t catch him.
“We cannot allow touchdowns,” Anarumo said. “We've got to make them kick field goals.”
Don’t let crowd noise result in penalties, miscues on offense
Taylor knows the atmosphere expected for Sunday’s game will be unlike anything the Bengals have seen this season. To ensure his team is prepared, Cincinnati practiced inside Paul Brown Stadium all week to be able to take advantage of the speaker system.
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Taylor cranked the music up as loud as physically possible and believes his team will be ready because of it. Against the Titans, Taylor said he didn’t get the play-calls in fast enough to allow Burrow the time to tell the offense in the huddle and make changes at the line of scrimmage based off the coverage Tennessee was showing.
Burrow and the Bengals’ offense will likely have to use a silent count for the entire game. Fortunately for Cincinnati, Burrow has plenty of experience playing in front of rabid Southeastern Conference crowds from his time at LSU.
“It really starts with me getting the play in quickly so Joe's got time to discuss in the huddle and make the adjustments at the line of scrimmage that we need,” Taylor said of preparing for the crowd noise.
“We've played in really loud environments before. I know this will be a different situation, and with that brings a different ramp up of crowd noise. We've been in the stadium. We've used our stadium speakers. I think it's been really effective and allowed us to get good quality work and stress our communication so that we'll be ready on Sunday.”
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