Cincinnati Bengals: Weekly MVPs from Week 7 win over Ravens
By Eric Bruns
Cincinnati Bengals MVPs
Defensive MVP: Sam Hubbard
As our own Leigh Oleszczak stated in her winners and losers article, Sam Hubbard had possibly his best game as a Bengal. Picking up Trey Hendrickson in free agency was a great move by the Bengals in the offseason but pair that with the extension Hubbard signe and it makes the ends of the defensive line a nightmare for opposing offenses.
Hendrickson has been snatching up all the headlines of the 2021 Bengals defense. However, Hubbard is deserving of the headlines.
The Bengals generated a 48.9% team pressure rate, the units highest in the last two seasons.
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 24, 2021
Three Bengals pass rushers recorded 7 or more pressures, becoming the 9th team in the NGS era to have three players finish with 7+ pressures in a game.#CINvsBAL | #RuleTheJungle pic.twitter.com/Blb6uhzCgT
The defense is much improved since last season, especially on the defensive line. Hubbard had nine QB pressures against Lamar Jackson and totaled five tackles including 2.5 sacks. The Bengals had a total of five sacks on Sunday.
Jackson still had a solid stat day, but the Ravens weren’t going to score with the way the defense stifled the potential MVP candidate and the rest of his team.
The Bengals did exactly what they needed to do in order to beat the Ravens. A big part of that was stopping the run up-front. All of that was led by a brilliant defensive effort by Sam Hubbard.
Hopefully, Hubbard and Hendrickson can keep this caliber of play when they face Cleveland. That two-headed monster at running back will be tough to stop.