After giving up three touchdowns on three drives and falling behind 21-3 in the first half of the AFC Championship Game, the Bengals needed to try something new in order to advance to the Super Bowl.
Their play in the second half and overtime showed that they picked the right tweak to their approach. Per Next Gen Stats, they dropped eight or more players into coverage on almost half of the Chiefs’ passing plays after halftime and Patrick Mahomes struggled to make plays against those looks.
The Chiefs scored just three points and turned the ball over twice, including the interception by Bengals safety Vonn Bell in overtime that set up Evan McPherson’s game-winning field goal. After the win, Bell said the team never lost belief in their ability to get the job done and just needed to make the halftime change in order to get things going their way.
“We just had to change our looks, change our disguises,” Bell said “Just playing our brand of football, just calming down, playing with great eyes and great technique. They gave us some unscouted looks at the beginning and we just had to home in on our technique and trust in it, go out and believe in it. Go out there and think, ‘When the ball is in the air, it’s our ball.’ Getting off the field on third down — we can’t give up seven — hold them to three. With our backs against the wall, that’s when we fight the best. Guys bowed up, made big-time plays, big time stops. We have a resilient group and we really showed that today in all five quarters. We never batted an eye, we believed in it for sure.”
The Bengals came into the playoffs with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and the offense grabbing a lot of headlines. Those players have made some big plays, but the defense’s seven takeaways while allowing 59 points to the opposition have played a major role in pushing the Bengals to the Super Bowl for the third time in franchise history.
