Cincinnati Bengals' Trench Dominance Remains Key to Success After Week 2 Win

The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a 2-0 start thanks to sheer dominance in the most overlooked aspect of football—the war in the trenches.

Over the team's two encounters with West Coast squads early in the 2015 campaign, eyes will gravitate to the fact that Andy Dalton has yet to throw an interception.

His numbers are undoubtedly sexy: He went 25-of-34 for 269 yards and two scores in a 33-13 win against Oakland, then returned home on Sunday with a 16-of-26 effort for 214 yards and three more scores in a 24-19 dismissal of the San Diego Chargers.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

What this broad approach dismisses, though, is the fact that left tackle Andrew Whitworth and his offensive line have yet to allow a sack against two pretty sound teams when it comes to getting to quarterbacks.

In Week 1, the assignment was Khalil Mack and Aldon Smith. The former is one of the league's absolute best regardless of whether he receives his due publicity, and the latter is much of the same even if he's had a spotty journey to date.

On Sunday, the line held strong in the face of another major test against Melvin Ingram and talented rookie Kyle Emanuel, who entered the game with one sack after a preseason in which he grabbed two of them.

It's an impressive feat made all the more notable by Dalton's 45-yard bomb to Marvin Jones in the second quarter—a sign that the healthy unit can give the offense the time it needs to stretch things out down the field when necessary.

Of course, the familiar Cincinnati ground-and-pound looked alive and well against the Chargers. Because of an early injury scare and two fumbles by Jeremy Hill, the coaching staff leaned on Giovani Bernard against the Chargers.

The line helped him produce a great outing on the stat sheet:

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD
Giovani Bernard	20	123	6.2	0
Jeremy Hill	10	39	3.9	0

Bernard created plenty of yards by causing defenders to miss, but the point stands—a healthy offensive line makes the Cincinnati offense and its wealth of weapons almost impossible to contain.

As crazy as it might sound, the defensive line looks even better.

The credit by and large goes to Geno Atkins. Fully healthy after a spotty campaign last year, it's probably easier to count the times he doesn't have an impact on a play than when he does because he's in the backfield often, altering running lanes and driving grown men into their own quarterback.

Atkins has two sacks on the season and the team touts six as a whole through two games, four coming with Philip Rivers in town on Sunday.

After the win, Atkins stressed just how important interior pressure can be to Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Unorthodox interior pressure not only ruins the timing of a passing play, but it often forces a quarterback to scramble right into edge pressure from defensive ends—in this case Carlos Dunlap and Michael Johnson.

Also of note for the unit? It has yet to allow a rushing touchdown, something that first and foremost gets accredited to the men in the trenches. The Chargers might have rushed for 5.2 yards per carry, but they didn't find the end zone, forcing them to take to the air, where pressure flustered Rivers into an interception.

Gary Landers/Associated Press

Long story short, the Bengals continue to play their desired brand of AFC North football.

It's not a surprise that both trenches look great and determine how far the team can go. Folks saw last year what hobbled lines can do to derail a season—the defense struggled to secure sacks and Dalton didn't have enough time to wait for a hobbled wideout group to get open.

This is the peak for the lines on both sides of the football, or darn close to it. Atkins is 100 percent, Johnson is back, Pat Sims can rotate in and help against the run and guys like Wallace Gilberry can kick inside on passing downs.

Flip it around, and Andre Smith is back after limited game action last year, Whitworth continues to play the best football of his career and the depth of the unit can help mask any issues that may crop up in the middle at center.

Health and execution lead to realized potential in the NFL.

It's early, but the stars seem aligned for the Bengals in both trenches. Next up is an AFC North encounter with the Baltimore Ravens as the schedule increases in difficulty.

Healthy and cohesive, the Bengals look up to task, starting in the trenches.

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and accurate as of September 20. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.