the Cincinnati offense

[sitifan]

Jake Browning and the Cincinnati offense marched right down the field with relative ease for a field goal on the opening drive on Monday night. (My bold.)
Source: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2025/10/01/2003844713

What does the expression in bold mean?

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you follow American Football (as we call it here in the UK) at all? I assume you do since you're reading news articles about it. Have you never noticed that each team has within it a smaller team, one called "offense" and the other "defense"?

 

[SoothingDave]

I assume you know Cincinnati has an NFL team.

In American football, free substitution of players is allowed. That is, players can enter and exit the game as many times as the coaches want. When a play ends, players can enter and exit the field before the next play.

This leads to specialization. There are players who only play offense (when their team has the ball in their possession). There are players who only play defense (when the other team has the ball). There are "special teams" who only play during certain kick plays. There's even a "long snapper" whose only job is to snap the ball precisely for kicks.

 

[5jj]

The full name of the team is the Cincinnati Bengals.