Bengals' Offensive Line Play vs. 49ers Is Biggest Concern Going into Playoffs

The Cincinnati Bengals head to the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season after a Week 15, 24-14 win against the San Francisco 49ers with Andy Dalton's injury clogging the headlines, but with a potentially much bigger problem brewing.

The offensive line.

Think about that for a minute. This is the Bengals, a team with multiple first-round picks starting on the offensive line, two more high-round rookies waiting in the wings, a hand-picked center they traded up for in the draft and a team often mentioned as touting one of the best units in the league.

It sure looked like none of the above mattered Sunday afternoon in San Francisco when the unit posted a clunker. 

Andrew Whitworth and Co. entered the game ranked eighth in pass blocking and third in run blocking at Pro Football Focus and ranked tied for third in pass-blocking efficiency. The opponent? A defense with 22 sacks ranked 19th in run defense and 28th in pass rushing at PFF.

The result? Four sacks of backup quarterback AJ McCarron, a handful of silly penalties and a downright miserable rushing day at the office:

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD
Giovani Bernard	14	33	2.4	0
Jeremy Hill	19	31	1.6	2
Mohamed Sanu	1	2	2.0	0
AJ McCarron	2	2	1.0	0
TEAM	36	68	1.9	2

Look, units have bad games. It happens. But this was Week 15 when the team needed a big day from the line the most in order to ease McCarron into the swing of a multi-week job with critical playoff and conference implications on the line.

Cincinnati got the exact opposite of what it needed, and it's quite concerning. Yes, McCarron looked good, throwing away balls instead of risking turnovers, throwing a score with A.J. Green not playing significant snaps and Tyler Eifert missing the game entirely.

But this was the four-win 49ers who couldn't have had even half of the stadium seats filled Sunday afternoon. If it had been a better team, the Bengals would have sunk in a hurry, much as they did the week prior in a 33-20 whipping at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Which is the main point here. Even with Dalton in the lineup, iffy outings from the line in front of him cause the whole machine to collapse. What good does Green suiting up for a whole game and Eifert returning do if the offense finds itself in a one-dimensional passing attack because the line gets no push, but passing plays break down because the timing gets ruined?

The poor execution, covered only by Vontaze Burfict and the defense forcing four turnovers, would explain why USA Today's Lindsay Jones shared this nugget about the team:

It's also why coach Marvin Lewis had to tell his guys to smile about the fact they clinched a playoff berth with the win, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

Some of these insights might cause observers to view the Bengals as a dejected team going into the final weeks of the season. They're not—not after the resiliency and growth shown this year.

The reactions are more befitting of a team expecting more from itself in all phases. When a strength turns into a cause for concern, though, it's about how the team reacts in the immediate future.

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Cincinnati has two weeks to figure out what's going wrong and how to make it right. First up is a trip to Denver for a date with the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, where the team can take home the No. 2 seed in the AFC. After is a homestand against a hobbled-beyond-belief Baltimore Ravens team the Bengals already beat once before notable roster members migrated to injured reserve. 

That No. 2 seed is quite important given Dalton's ballpark timetable of return, yes. But more important is figuring out the issues in the trenches, because if they aren't addressed, it might not matter regardless of who lines up under center. 

Even at full strength with Dalton back and all the weapons back, there comes a point where a quick scheme can't compensate for poor offensive line play. That point would be the postseason, where the Steelers, Broncos, New England Patriots and more await. 

For Cincinnati, the focus over the next two weeks isn't so much where the team lands from a seeding perspective, but how it plays once seeded.

After all, they say football is won in the trenches.

Stats courtesy of NFL.com. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.