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Ben Baby
CINCINNATI — One big thing the Cincinnati Bengals did in 2021, when the team reached the Super Bowl, was something the best teams this season also had in common.
They created big plays.
Three of the four teams that reached this year’s conference championships were among the league leaders in percentage of plays that gained 20 or more yards. That included the Seattle Seahawks, who took down the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.
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But since that 2021 season, Cincinnati hasn’t been nearly as explosive. The Bengals’ rate of big plays has plummeted, even when quarterback Joe Burrow has been healthy. Opponents have limited Burrow’s ability to find star receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins on downfield targets.
And finding ways to manufacture those plays again could help the Bengals get back into the postseason.
«You can’t just let teams double them and then say, ‘Those guys are out of the game plan now,'» Burrow said at the end of last season. «They’re too good of players to think that way. You still have to find ways to get them the ball.»
Burrow praised the way coach Zac Taylor and his staff have been able to find ways to get Chase and Higgins the ball. Both players had productive seasons coming off massive contract extensions. Chase had 125 receptions on a league-high 185 targets and was named an All-Pro for the second straight year. Higgins led the AFC with 11 receiving touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl as a replacement.
Opponents have made it a point to make it difficult for the Bengals to find those big plays that they feasted on during that 2021 campaign, Cincinnati’s best season in 33 years. As a rookie, Chase had eight touchdowns on receptions of 25 or more yards. The next-closest player had five.
Then teams started to adjust and started double-teaming him.
«Until [teams[ physically played against him and felt how physical he was, they thought they could stop him,» Taylor said in November. «And then once [defensive backs] ran back to their coordinators saying, ‘He’s too strong,’ then that was where we saw a shift.»
The numbers bear that out. In 2021, Cincinnati was sixth in the NFL in percentage of offensive plays that gained 20 or more yards, according to ESPN Research. The rankings following that season — 17th, 27th, 21st, 20th.
ESPN defines explosive plays as carries that are 10 or more yards or receptions of 20 more yards.
Defensively, there is no doubt that Cincinnati struggled to keep teams from posting explosive plays. The Bengals surrendered 122 of them last season, two fewer than the league-worst New York Giants.
But a further look at the data showed that what the offense does perhaps play a bigger role than what the defense gives up.
In 2025, teams that had six or more explosive plays in a game won 63% of the time.
When Cincinnati built its current version of the roster, it invested heavily in putting pressure on teams with its passing trio of Burrow, Chase and Higgins. All three have received lucrative contracts that are a combined $551 million in total value and $250 million in total guaranteed money.
And opponents are making sure that the Bengals don’t win with big plays to their top receivers.
«Teams that haven’t showed that on tape will throw that out there against us, and it’s because nobody can cover those guys one-on-one unless they have some kind of help somewhere in funneling them,» Burrow said in December.
Cincinnati still found ways to score. But the deeper numbers show that the big plays haven’t materialized like in previous years. This year’s playoffs, and the heights Cincinnati experienced in 2021, showed that the teams that stretch the field are the ones that have the best shot of winning big.
