Running On Empty
The Bengals pounded the ball early on the Dolphins, when they kept it more than neartly ten minutes in the first half and the Dolphins never seemed to catch their breath in the historic heat after that.
Of course, Burrow was at his NFL all-time accurate best as he hit 17 of 21 in the first half on the way to converting nine of 13 third downs. But the Bengals, in the wake of a Zac-Taylor-low 23 yards rushing last week, made sure they ran it 31 times for 117 yards.
“Leek week was last week. We put that one behind us,” Taylor said. “I thought we had a good week of practice. I thought our linemen really came off the ball during practice. I felt confidence coming to this game. I thought our guys finished the right way. All the guys that ran down those runs.”
Perine led the way with 68 yards on 14 carries, his biggest day in 50 weeks since he had 94 on nine carries against the Jets.
“He’s just Mr. Reliable and he has been my entire time here since he’s been on our team,” Burrow said. “You can count on him to fall forward and get us an extra two. You can count on him to win against the linebacker in coverage. He’s such a valuable piece for us and certainly doesn’t get enough credit for it.”
The Hudson Drive
Hudson kept his own touchdown drive alive with a marvelous eight-yard catch on third-and-seven in the middle of the field when he moved with the grass with a scooping catch in front of the linebacker and he got behind another one for the touchdown.
“He’s just Mr. Dependable, whether he’s on the practice squad, whether he’s on the roster; he’s going to show up,” Taylor said. “He’s been who we thought he was. Tanner shows up and makes plays, never complains. Erick (All) goes down for a play, he’s in. Mike goes down for a play, he’s in. He knows them all, he can play them all. I just need the defense to decide who he is, so we know if we’re going to get base or nickel when he’s in there.”
The Dolphins have estimable linebackers, particularly  against the run. But they couldn’t keep up with Burrow’s deep well of receivers, never mind Chase and Higgins.
That’s how Burrow started the scoring after Dohnte Meyers opened the game with an 81-yard kick return that matched his uniform jersey.
On third-and-goal from the 6, Burrow got tackling machine rookie Jacob Rodriguez (who the Bengals loved in the draft) on Gesicki across the back line of the end zone and rifled it to ease the jitters back home facing a winless club.
“That’s how we drew it up if we got that coverage,” Gesicki said. “It wasn’t like man, but he ended up him matching me. Shout out to the coaching staff for giving me a chance there.”
On another third-and-six from the six in a 7-7 game, running back Samaje Perine, with the safety wide to take away Chase, was able to run an angle route on Rodriguez in the middle of the field for a 14-7 lead.
Burrow noted the handiwork of pass game coordinator Justin Rascati.
“The first touchdown was a great call. Rascati works really hard on those red-zone plans and that was one drawn up for that coverage, so that was a great beater,” Burrow said. “The second one, Samaje just went and won on a choice route , and the way that they were playing, that was really the look that we wanted.”
And then, Hudson is Hudson.
“Tanner made an unbelievable play on third down. He made a great play in the red zone,” Burrow said. “Dohnte won against man coverage on third down. Mike’s going to be Mike, obviously. I don’t
know how many touchdowns he has, but it feels like every time he catches it, it’s a touchdown. Samaje made a big time play down there as well.”