The Cincinnati Bengals pass rush is starting to derail their season.

CINCINNATI – Despite going 3-5 without a home win in four tries this season, the team Cincinnati Bengals don’t feel any pressure.

The bigger problem is that their opponents do too.

Cincinnati’s pass rush allowed only three pressures on the Philadelphia Eagles in the game. Sunday’s 37-17 loss.

Only one of those pressures resulted in a quarterback hit, when Joseph Ossai took Hurts to the ground after a 6-yard completion on third-and-10.

For the first time since Week 2 last year against Baltimore, the Bengals recorded fewer than two quarterback hits. And their three pressures were the second-most in the league this season behind Jacksonville’s one in Week 5 against Indianapolis.

“He never got out of rhythm. He never felt any discomfort, it was just pretty clean for him all day from a pocket standpoint,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “In the previous game there were 15 hits and 40-odd runs. Yesterday there were 20 hits, 39 runs. So you need to get them out of that kind of game.”

Even when the Bengals tried to blitz, the pressure got to Hurts too late, if it got to him at all.

And once Philadelphia took the lead, the Eagles went on the run even more, limiting the amount of pressure Anarumo could bring.

“We kind of played into their hands, just trying to affect the quarterback with different types of rushes,” he said. “But at that point, the ball was in their court where they could play up front, run the ball, force you to call and throw it. But we have to try to have a better impact on the quarterback.”

The Bengals were overly reliant on Trey Hendrickson for most of their pressures, but against the Eagles, he was neutralized by former teammate Fred Johnson with two pressures on 18 passes.

On the season, the Bengals rank 19th with 92 pressures and 29th with 12 sacks.

“We tried a lot,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “There are some things we did in previous games. This is a challenge. There are times when you apply pressure and if you don’t get home, you’ll wear out the back of the defense.

“And if you rush three or four and don’t get home, then they have to hold the line, so we continue to constantly evaluate things, try to stop other teams from attacking and just keep working on it.” he added.

The pass rush issue was expected to be resolved once the Bengals returned to a full complement of defensive linemen.

Sheldon Rankins, who was given a two-year, $24.5 million free agent contract by the Bengals to serve as the team’s interior pass rusher, missed three games with a hamstring injury. B.J. Hill missed twice. Their 2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy was on IR for the first four weeks, as was rookie third-round pick McKinnley Jackson.

And second-round rookie Chris Jenkins missed two games with a broken thumb.

The entire group is healthy, but the passing game isn’t going well, with the exception of Hendrickson, who, despite Sunday’s off day, ranks sixth in pressure percentage (10.6) and fifth in winning percentage (21.2).

But through five games, Rankins has four pressures and one sack and ranks 100th out of 120 qualifying defensive tackles in pressure percentage (2.4) and 87th in win percentage (5.8).

Murphy had eight pressures and no sacks in four games. He ranks 62nd out of 117 qualifying edge rushers in pressure percentage (5.8) and 108th in win percentage (4.3).

Starting quarterback Sam Hubbard ranks 94th in pressure percentage (4.2) and 98th in winning percentage (6.0).

Anarumo said the answer is not to blitz more, but to make their pass rushers win more.

“If we’re just looking to get free running backs to the quarterback, those (offensive) guys get paid too, and you do get some free running backs – it happens – but usually we try to get it one-on-one,” he sad. . “We will always try to come up with a plan to make sure we free the guy. Two on the back or two on the defender, two on the tackle, we had this happen once yesterday.

“When we go head-to-head, these guys are going to have to win more than we’re winning right now.”

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