How Joe Burrow, Bengals Can Survive Aaron Donald, Rams Defense in Super Bowl LVI

In just two NFL seasons, Joe Burrow has become a bona fide star. He smokes victory cigars after big wins. His quips during press conferences have become the stuff of legend. And most importantly, Burrow has the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl for the first time in well over three decades.

However, as the Bengals prepare to face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, there's a major problem facing them. An issue that could prevent Burrow from having the opportunity to fire up a stogie on Sunday after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at SoFi Stadium. An area of weakness the Bengals have to account for if they're going to reach the NFL's mountaintop.

Cincinnati's offensive line is the weakest position group on the team, and the Bengals are about to face one of the most formidable front sevens in the NFL.

To say that the Bengals have struggled in pass protection this season is being kind. In the regular season, they allowed 55 sacks. Only the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears surrendered more. Burrow absorbed 51 of those sacks—no signal-caller in the NFL went down more. As a whole, Pro Football Focus ranked the Bengals 20th in the league up front.

Things haven't improved all that much in the playoffs. Burrow has been sacked 12 times in the playoffs (most in the league), including a whopping nine in the divisional-round win over the Tennessee Titans.

Tackle Isaiah Prince told reporters that members of the offensive line have already put that clunker against the Titans out of their minds.

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"I'm pretty sure we've played with a chip on our shoulders all season," Prince said. "That's what brought us to this point. Tennessee, it happened. We get back to film, we get back to the drawing board, we make the corrections and we move forward. It's not something we hang our heads about. I think we play with a chip on our shoulder every single game."

To Cincy's credit, the line played better in the AFC Championship Game, allowing just one sack. And while speaking to reporters, Burrow made it clear that while he knows the Rams possess a formidable defense, he has confidence in the players in front of him.

"They're a very good defensive front. It's going to be a challenge for our guys, but they've worked really hard to put themselves in this position. And I know that our coaching staff has a great plan for them that they're going to be able to go out and execute. But obviously, guys like Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd, Von Miller are guys that are going to get pressure. So, it's going to be how, one, I handle the pressure — how I'm able to get the ball out of my hands and get it to my playmakers in space. And two, how we're going to be able to handle them up front. I have the utmost confidence in our offensive line to make it happen."

Burrow is absolutely right about one thing. The Rams do indeed have a very good defensive front. Per Football Outsiders, the Rams defensive line ranked tied for seventh in Adjusted Sack Rate this season. Only two teams (the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers) accrued more sacks than the 50 Los Angeles amassed in 2021. And if you're looking for a weak spot to exploit in the Rams' front, good luck.

The cornerstone, of course, is defensive tackle Aaron Donald, one of just three players in league history to win Defensive Player of the Year three times. Donald piled up a career-high 84 tackles in 2021, adding 12.5 sacks and 19 tackles for loss.

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Donald is flanked on the edges by a pair of Pro Bowl-caliber talents in Leonard Floyd and Von Miller. Miller, who has seven sacks (postseason included) since joining the Rams in a midseason trade, will all but certainly be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. In two regular seasons with the Rams, Floyd has tallied 125 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and 20 sacks.

It's quite the trio of defensive stalwarts—and that's without even mentioning the 10 other players on the Rams roster who had at least one sack during the regular season.

For the Bengals to have any real chance of pulling off the upset and winning Super Bowl LVI, they have to do a better job in pass protection than the last time they faced a 3-4 base. And that means taking a few steps.

The first is the most obvious—the Bengals cannot let Donald wreck the game. A big part of the reason Burrow went down nine times against the Titans was that Jeffery Simmons dominated on the interior. That can't happen again Sunday. Throw everything and the kitchen sink at Donald. Double-team him constantly. It means that Prince and left tackle Jonah Williams are going to be one-on-one a lot against Miller and Floyd (although Cincy can use its tight ends to help), but that's just how it has to be. If the Bengals try solo-blocking Donald, he's going to be Super Bowl MVP, and the Rams are going to win.

The second is on "Joe Cool," or "Joe BRRR," or whatever the kids are calling him. Burrow has to get rid of the ball quickly. Vertical throws to Ja'Marr Chase and deep crosses to Tee Higgins are exciting plays to be sure—but Burrow isn't completing those throws from his back. Use quick passes and let the Bengals wide receivers pick up yardage after the catch.

However, the deep passing game doesn't have to be completely abandoned. Not if the Bengals take the third step of getting Joe Mixon and the ground game going. The notion of using the run to set up the pass may seem almost old-fashioned in 2022, but it works. It's not going to be easy against a Rams defense that ranked sixth in the league against the run in the regular season (103.2 yards per game). But the Bengals need to stay committed to running the football. Doing that keeps play-action on the table. And getting those pass-rushers to bite on a fake could be the difference between a 25-yard throw to Chase and Burrow looking out his ear-hole after a seven-yard loss.

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None of this is going to be easy to pull off. The Bengals have questions at right guard (both rookie Jackson Carman and second-year pro Hakeem Adeniji have struggled this season), and veteran center Trey Hopkins is average on a good day. To say that group will have its hands full with Donald is a whopper of an understatement. Burrow is going to be pressured—consistently. There's just no getting around that.

But if head coach Zac Taylor and offensive line coach Frank Pollack can scheme a way to slow Donald down just a bit and the team uses quick passes and the run game to mitigate its deficiencies along the offensive line, Cincinnati can buy Burrow the time he needs to do some damage.

And there just might be one more cigar to be lit.