Vontaze Burfict's Return Won't Fix All That Ails Reeling Bengals

When the Cincinnati Bengals face the Miami Dolphins Thursday night, they will do so with one of their best defensive players back on the field when Vontaze Burfict makes his 2016 debut after serving a three-game suspension to open the season.

Burfict's return is good news for the Bengals. It's also just about the only good news they have received of late, and it isn't going to magically fix all the problems for a football team that's one last-minute field goal from beginning the season 0-3.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The Bengals have advanced to the playoffs each of the last five seasons. Last year, the team swept September and October, winning its first eight games. Over the last three seasons, the Bengals have been all about hot starts, going 8-2 in September.

This year, however, has been anything but. Through three games (a win over the New York Jets and losses in Pittsburgh and at home to Denver), the Bengals rank 20th in scoring defense, allowing 25 points per game. That's more than a touchdown higher than the 17.4 points the second-ranked Bengals defense gave up last year.

Yes, the return of Burfict will help. Even with the addition of veteran Karlos Dansby, Burfict's arguably the team's best linebacker, and there's no argument he's its most athletic player at the position.

Given his layoff, it's fair to wonder if conditioning could be an issue, but Burfict told Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he's ready to go the distance if required:

"

If the game's close I feel like I could probably play the full game. But that's up to them. They're going to watch me and if they said if I look tired they're going to pull me out. They don't want me to get overly exaggerated with too much playing and obviously get hurt or something like that. That's up to them. I'll leave it their hands. I'm just going to go out there and play.

"

When he's healthy and has his head on straight (an unfortunately rare combination where Burfict's concerned), he can be a real difference-maker at the linebacker spot. It was Burfict who appeared to salt away last year's playoff game against the Steelers with an interception of Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

We won't go into what happened after the pick. I'm not one to kick a team when it's down.

Burfict's return should shore up the Bengals against the run. The Bengals have given up 17 more yards on the ground per game this year than they did in 2015, falling from seventh in the NFL in run defense to 18th.

But the big problem with Burfict's return is that it doesn't really do anything to fix the Bengals' biggest problems.

For starters, while the Cincy run defense hasn't been the 1985 Bears, it's the pass defense that's really struggled. After allowing four touchdown passes to Trevor "Peyton Who?" Siemian, the Bengals have given up nine scores through the air this year. Only the Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons have surrendered more.

Frank Victores/Associated Press

Cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick admitted to Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer that the secondary faltered against Denver.

"They put it on the DBs," Kirkpatrick said. "They put it on the secondary. Obviously, we didn't get the job done in the end. We are devastated. I can't smile right now. It's hard, frustrating. We put so much work in and too many big plays."

However, it wasn't all the backfield's fault. The Bengals had only two sacks against Denver and have just four on the season, good for 21st in the NFL. After ranking 10th in that regard a year ago, end Michael Johnson told Dehner the Bengals have to ramp up the pass rush.

"We didn't get to him. I didn't get to him," Johnson said. "He had time to push the ball down the field. Normally that's not the case."

Cornerback Adam Jones, whom the Broncos victimized repeatedly on Sunday, spread the blame around the defense, per Dehner:

"

It's not just the DBs, it's everybody as a group. When we call certain plays guys up front have to blitz. Guys have to do what we are supposed to do. It looks like, hey the DBs are catching balls, but if you don't know the calls you don't know where the blitz going and the quarterback scramble out and certain things happen. We'll get it together.

"

Even if Burfict's return spurs the defense, the Bengals still have some significant issues to resolve if the team is going to make a deep playoff run.

That is, unless Burfict is planning to play both ways.

Through three games, the Bengals' offensive line play has vacillated between bad and horrible. Last year, Football Outsiders graded the Bengals line 15th in the NFL in pass protection and tops in the league in run blocking. This season, those numbers have plummeted to 31st and 25th, respectively.

Pos.	2015	Grade	Rank	2016	Grade	Rank
LT	Andrew Whitworth	29.4	4	Whitworth	5.2	10
LG	Clint Boling	6.8	25	Boling	0.4	37
C	Russell Bodine	-26.6	35	Bodine	-3.0	26
RG	Kevin Zeitler	21.7	9	Zeitler	2.7	21
RT	Andre Smith	-26.5	64	Cedric Ogbuehi	-3.6	55

The line has struggled from one end to the other. Of the team's four returning starters up front, only center Russell Bodine's grade at Pro Football Focus has improved relative to last year—and that's from 35th at his position to 26th.

Cedric Ogbuehi, who replaced veteran Andre Smith at right tackle, has a higher ranking than Smith received a year ago. But he's also allowed nearly as many sacks in three games as Smith did all of last season.

No team in the AFC has allowed as many sacks as the Bengals in 2016. In 2015, the Bengals allowed 32 sacks. Through three games this year, the Bengals are on pace to allow double that number.

George Gojkovich/Getty Images

The struggles up front have also led to difficulties running the ball. Last year, the Bengals ranked 13th in the league on the ground, piling up almost 113 yards a game. That number has plummeted by over 30 yards this season. Through three games, the Bengals are 27th in the NFL in rushing—and that's after Jeremy Hill picked up 97 yards on 17 carries against the Broncos.

After Andy Dalton was sacked a career-high seven times against the Jets, left tackle Andrew Whitworth (the leader of the unit) pledged to Dehner that Cincinnati's line would improve moving forward.

"You look at it, you take it, break it down," Whitworth said. "This group has played great over the last couple years, and we will rise to the occasion again."

Against Denver, that pledge rang hollow. And Thursday, the Bengals face a Dolphins team that's seventh in the NFL in sacks so far this season.

However, that Dolphins team has also allowed over 147 yards a game on the ground and needed overtime to beat a hapless Cleveland Browns team starting a rookie quarterback in Miami last week. And it's there where the silver lining to all of this lies for the Bengals.

All three of the Bengals' opponents so far this year won at least 10 games in 2016. Two made the playoffs. One made (and won) the Super Bowl. It was a brutal stretch to start the season.

Week	Opponent	W-L
4	Miami Dolphins	1-2
5	at Dallas Cowboys	2-1
6	at New England Patriots	3-0
7	Cleveland Browns	0-3
8	Washington Redskins	1-2
9	BYE
10	at New York Giants	2-1
11	Buffalo Bills	1-2
12	at Baltimore Ravens	3-0

From here, though, things open up a bit. Only one of the Bengals' next seven opponents (the New England Patriots in Week 6) had a winning record last year. The aggregate record of those seven teams in 2016 is 10-11.

But the Bengals are fresh out of margin for error now. After those seven games, on November 27, the Bengals will meet the first-place Baltimore Ravens for the first time this season. Go 5-2 or 6-1 over that stretch, and the Bengals will be right back in it at Thanksgiving. Slip up against improved teams in New York and Dallas, and the Bengals could easily be 5-5 or 4-6 at that point and fighting for their playoff lives.

It's way too soon to go full Chicken Little. The Bengals are a veteran team with five straight playoff trips to their credit, and Burfict's return can only serve to help shore up a run defense that's been so-so to this point.

But the mercurial linebacker isn't going to fix the problems at the back end of the defense or help keep Dalton off his backside.

If the Bengals don't find solutions to those dilemmas soon, that sixth straight playoff trip isn't coming.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.