13 Personnel Comes Up Big For Burrow & Bengals

It looks like the Cincinnati Bengals are back! They are doing it the old fashioned way too. With a really good young quarterback and a stout defense. This 13 personnel touchdown was the first of many for Joe Burrow yesterday.

13 personnel indicates that there were three tight ends in the game with one back and one receiver. Some teams don’t even make all three tight ends active on Sundays so this is a significant package for them.

This play takes place with 6:40 on the clock in the second quarter. The Bengals have the ball on their own 44 yard line. It is 1st and 10 so with three tight ends in the game, it has to smell a lot like a run to the Ravens. Burrow takes the snap from under center and fakes the run to #28 Joe Mixon on the outside zone to the left.

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As Burrow fakes to Mixon he comes out of it as if to throw a slide naked boot pass to Auden Tate #19 in the flat. The Bengals also had one of their three tight ends in the game running a drag across the field. The only thing better than fooling a defense on a play fake is getting them on a fake off of the fake! That’s what happens here.

The Ravens played the run fake but they also played the boot action in the backend on this play. The free safety must have attacked the flat or drag route because he was not even in the picture when Burrow found CJ Uzomah on a 2 special route down the seam. Uzomah was covered by the Ravens Marlon Humphrey but he had no help over the top.

This 13 Personnel Touchdown Required Great Play By 2 Tight Ends

This is a tight end’s dream to get down the seam one on one even if it is vs a corner. Uzomah made the best of it for this touchdown. We will promise you there will be some love handed out by Uzomah in the tight end meeting room this week to Drew Sample. Sample is the tight end on the right side of the formation. His block is an extremely hard block to execute on this play action protection.

Joe Burrow knows this too. You will notice that he sets up directly over where the ball was snapped. He is careful not to drift over to the side of the tight end’d protection. Sample holds on just long enough for Burrow to step up and launch the touchdown pass.

It’s great to have the Bengals back as a force in the AFC North. We are particularly happy that they are making the tight ends such big part of their offense as well. Click on this drawing to see how the Bengals got it done on this 56 yard touchdown.