CINCINNATI (WKRC) – For the first six games of this season the Bengals rushing attack looked mired in quick sand at times and running into a brick wall at others, but then something clicked in their 33-31 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While no one can quite put a finger on why it succeeded, the hope is it continues because of how much it unlocks for the entire offense.
The Bengals didn’t rush for more than 85 yards in any of the first six games and averaged 56.7 yards per game and 2.7 yards per carry in that span. Lead back Chase Brown averaged 33.7 yards per game and 2.7 yards per carry over the first six games.
The Bengals rushed for 142 yards on 23 carries, averaging 6.2 yards per attempt. Running back Chase Brown led the way with 108 yards on 11 carries, including runs of 37 and 27 yards. It marked Cincinnati’s first game this season with more than 85 rushing yards after averaging just 56.7 yards per game and 2.7 yards per carry through the first six contests.
So what changed?
Was it Pittsburgh’s defense being that bad?
Was it the combination of guards starting their second straight game together with Dalton Risner at left guard and Jalen Rivers at right guard?
Was it quarterback Joe Flacco getting under center that allowed Brown to get a running start at times rather than running from the shotgun?
Head coach Zac Taylor said the difference came down to rhythm and execution.
“I hate saying this because you’re looking at it in the first couple weeks and we’re just right there,” said head coach Zac Taylor. “There’s just this one element on this play, and then on another play it’s this other thing, so once that starts to click early in a game and you feel a rhythm, the confidence rises. Sometimes we’re just completing balls to get to second and 4, and now you can call another run and keep leaning on it. You’ve heard me say in here a million times, ‘Just getting a first down allows us to play more freely.’ We got a lot of first downs last night. So you get a chance to let everything work more. Even if you get a zero-yard run or a 1-yard run, you can still come back to it because you’ve got a good amount of plays in those drives and the offense has a lot of confidence. It just allows us to continue to lean into it. I hate to say it took off, but it was effective for us, and it kept us on schedule and allowed us to do all of the other things we wanted to do from an attacking standpoint.”
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said quarterback Joe Flacco changed six or seven run calls into pass plays based on pre-snap reads. Flacco completed 31 of 47 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, finishing with a passer rating of 108.6.
“When you’re running the ball and you’re having success, it gives the playcaller confidence to continue calling those runs,” said Pitcher. “Well, then you get to tag onto the run some run alerts that the quarterback can just pick it up and if he has an advantageous look, he can take a slant route to Ja’Marr (Chase) or he can take a conversion to Ja’Marr in the red zone for a touchdown. When you have those things tagged onto the run game, sometimes they’re responses to a bad look the defense is giving you where you have to throw it, because the run’s not going to be good, and other times, it’s a chance for the quarterback to exercise some license and say, ‘I have a really good look here, I’m going to take it.’ That’s one way. It helps you set up your nakeds. Obviously, we didn’t call that many of them the other night, but the one we did call was a 25-yard gain to Noah (Fant). Those are just things that just go hand-in-hand with a successful running attack.”
The offensive line also deserves some credit, too.
“The whole line was phenomenal, the way they were picking up the plugs and creating space,” Brown said after the game. “That’s all I need — to get to the line of scrimmage, and I can do the rest. I was able to pop a couple of big ones (against the Steelers). It feels pretty good. It’s nice to carry that momentum. Let’s keep on going.”
Risner and Rivers were both lauded for their performance.
“I think you can look at a couple plays and you can definitely point to some good execution on their part,” said Pitcher. “I can think of Dalton, off the top of my head, on the two explosive runs I thought he made good blocks. Overall, I just thought it was our best job as a unit up front. Not specific to those two guys. I thought (center) Ted (Karras) had a really good game. I thought the tackles (Orlando Brown Jr. and Amarius Mims) had their best games as well. Just overall, we played with good energy, played together and just executed.”
Pitcher stopped short of saying being under center more often than when Joe Burrow plays quarterback helped the run game, but he didn’t rule it out either.
“I think the nature of the under-center run game and the gun run game are a little bit different,” said Pitcher. “You can run the same schemes from the gun and under center, but oftentimes they’ll play out a little differently, just based on the angle of attack from the back and how the defense plays you, gun vs. under. Some defenses, there’s not that much of a difference. Other defenses, there’s a significant difference in their calls or their checks even, once you get under center. So, I think that’s a hard question to give you a hard and fast ‘yes, one’s better than the other’ or ‘this is easier in the gun vs. under center,’ but there are differences. Obviously the other night, we got some under-center runs going, and then you saw we were able to do some complementary things off of that in the pass game. I do think that was a big part of our (overall) success.”
Now the big question: was this a one-off or can the run game continue to be a positive factor?
“It’s tough to say. It’s one game,” said Flacco. “Initially, the run game did spark us. The 30-yard run we had was our first scoring drive, I believe. The next one, we had another chunk run. Any time you get those gains in the running game, it’s going to help your offense a lot. In Thursday’s case the run game helped us out. We’ve got to continue to work at it and have faith that we’re getting better. One game doesn’t indicate what the next is going to be. I don’t think we can really worry about that. You’ve got to continue to work on getting better and trust that we’re doing the right things.”