Every Friday morning, Cincinnati Bengals assistant wide receivers coach Brad Kragthorpe and defensive quality control coach Jordan Kovacs address the team for their weekly presentation.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor calls it the “situational masters meeting.” Kragthorpe and Kovacs spend all week analyzing end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios across the NFL so they can show the Bengals players a few of the most important takeaways.
Usually, Taylor or one of the higher-ranked position coaches address the team. But this meeting belongs to two of the youngest coaches on the staff. And this meeting has been one of the biggest reasons for the Bengals success this season in one of the most important points of the game.
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During the last two minutes of the first half this season, the Bengals are outscoring their opponent 80-49. Since the Bengals are managing the clock, their timeouts and the game situation as well as any NFL team, they’ve scored in the last two minutes before halftime in 15 of their 20 games.
“It’s something we’re really built for,” Taylor said. “One of our first installs is off-the-ball no-huddle. It’s something we’ve invested a lot of time in, and Joe (Burrow) does a really good job managing that.”
When Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow takes the field for the last two minutes of the first half, everyone in the stadium knows what’s about to happen. There’s no running the ball at this part of the game. Taylor always leans on his passing game during the two-minute drill, and it’s the only situation all season when the Bengals have used a no-huddle offense.
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The Bengals are a team that has thrived in these high pressure and high octane situations.
Taylor said the Bengals spend more time in June than most NFL teams working on situational strategies. And every Friday, Kovacs and Kragthorpe show clips from across the NFL that highlight helpful and hurtful decisions that other NFL teams have recently made in the last two minutes of halves and games.
Some teams have wasted a down by spiking the ball when they didn’t need to spike it. Others wasted precious seconds on the clock when a wide receiver tried to extend the play and didn’t “get down” quickly enough.
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In the AFC Championship Game, the Kansas City Chiefs botched the end of the first half and cost themselves three points. When quarterback Patrick Mahomes attempted a swing pass behind the line of scrimmage with five seconds left, Kansas City wasted an opportunity at the goal line.
One of the biggest reasons that the Bengals will play in the Super Bowl is that their offense hasn’t made that type of mistake.
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“When you go through all these little moments in practice and you practice these situations and become situational masters, it’s not shocking to me that we go out there and execute,” Bengals running back Joe Mixon said. “That’s what this game comes down to –– attention to details, executing and making plays.”
The last two minutes of the first half represents 40 total minutes in the Bengals 20-game season. It’s the equivalent of two-and-a-half quarters of one game. During that stretch, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is 50-for-67 for 654 yards.
It’s Burrow’s best portion of the game. When the Bengals are fully embracing their no-huddle, pass first style, Burrow looks like he’s back at LSU.
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For the first seven weeks of the season, the LSU connection was even clearer
At the start of the season, the Bengals' success before the end of the first half was a result of Burrow’s connection with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. During the first seven weeks of the season, Chase had 233 receiving yards in this stretch of 14 minutes.
He caught a 50-yard touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings, a 34-yard touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a 70-yard touchdown against the Green Bay Packers and he made three first down catches versus the Baltimore Ravens.
Like clockwork, Burrow would drop back and find Chase on a go route down the right sideline.
Since Week 7, Chase has only one catch for 15 yards in the last two minutes of the first half. In this part of the game, defenses are double-teaming him even more than usual. Nevertheless, that coverage hasn’t had much of an impact on the Bengals offense in the last two minutes.
The Bengals scored more often in the last two minutes of the first half in games during the second half of the season than they did in the first half of the season. As wide receiver Tee Higgins made his midseason leap to become one of the NFL’s best young receivers, he filled Chase’s role as the biggest Bengals receiving threat at the end of the first half.
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In those situations this year, Higgins has 131 receiving yards, and his catches have led to 17 points. Higgins’ contested catch skills have been on full display here. His 52-yard catch against the Ravens and his two touchdown catches against tight coverage were the type of plays that only Higgins can make for the Bengals.
In the last two minutes of the first half, the down and distance usually hasn’t mattered for the Bengals. More than any point in the entire game, Burrow and his wide receiver trio shine in the last two minutes before the half.
“Seeing the field is always something that’s come naturally to me,” Burrow said. “I’m pretty good at understanding spatial awareness and where everybody is. Add that with my preparation, and I’m able to diagnose coverage pretty quickly.”
Burrow commands the no-huddle offense like a 10-year veteran, quickly going through calls at the line of scrimmage and reading the opposing defense. After a quick snap, Burrow usually finds a receiver for a firstdown.
After the catch, the Bengals receivers play just as important of a role.
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Wide receiver Tyler Boyd has 83 receiving yards in the last two minutes of the first half this season, and he made one of the catches that Taylor said he was most proud of. In Week 15 against the Denver Broncos, the Bengals had the ball on the Broncos 41-yard line with nine seconds left in the first half.
Boyd made a 19-yard catch that got the Bengals in field goal range. Instead of trying to fight for extra yards, Boyd got down to preserve the four seconds left on the clock. Taylor called a timeout, and the Bengals ended the half with a field goal.
Boyd knew exactly what to do because of those Friday meetings. When he fell to the ground after making the catch, Boyd saved enough time for the Bengals to end the first half with a field goal.
“If every guy is playing his part and we’re doing all the fundamental things we’ve done since we were kids, we’ll always drive on guys and score,” Boyd said. “First and foremost, we’re letting the game come to us (at the end of the half).”
Especially in the postseason, the game can come down to one coaching decision at the end of the game or one decision by a player as the clock winds down.
The Bengals success in those moments is the reason they’re still playing. These two minutes are a snapshot of the value of surrounding Burrow with one of the best wide receiver trios in the league.
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When the Bengals hired Taylor in 2019, they were interested in his vision for a modern offense. Taylor went on to draft Burrow and surround him with one of the best receiving groups in the NFL.
The last two minutes of the first half is the snapshot of how explosive that offense can be.
“The receivers and the skill guys understand the urgency to get set and understand where they need to be,” Taylor said. “We’ve got a lot of play-makers, and that’s why we’re in the position we are.”
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