Bengals HC Zac Taylor harps on abysmal run game vs. Steelers
The scenario was ideal. Rainy weather, divisional opponent that knows them inside and out, backup quarterback in for an MVP candidate when healthy.Running the ball would've made a lot of sense for the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon. They did so eight times with their starting running back, and the quarterback scrambled three times. 11 […]
The scenario was ideal. Rainy weather, divisional opponent that knows them inside and out, backup quarterback in for an MVP candidate when healthy.
Running the ball would've made a lot of sense for the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon. They did so eight times with their starting running back, and the quarterback scrambled three times. 11 attempts in 41 total plays.
Why? Because it never worked.
11 attempts netted a grand total of 25 yards, and a success rate of 0%. That's not a typo. The Bengals didn't have a single rush that generated a positive outcome in terms of Expected Points Added.
The Bengals have never been the team to force the run when it's inept. Having Joe Burrow at quarterback usually allows that to be a successful strategy. With Jake Browning in his place, Zac Taylor's offense attempted to operate the same script instead of handing the ball off for the sake of handing the ball off. Pittsburgh showed from the very beginning why that wasn't going to work.
"That's life vs. Pittsburgh," Taylor said bluntly. "And you know that's what's going to happen. It's going to be tough sledding when you're running the ball, we need to get more production out of that. It takes the pressure off the pass game; that's what they rely on.
"We gotta do a better job just managing the drives as we go and put ourselves in a little bit more advantageous situations," Taylor continued. "Obviously if you can put yourself in a situation where you'd call more runs, you're not in second-and-10, second-and-long or longer, you get more runs off and eventually some of those runs start to get you to your gains. And we didn't get enough to get those runs off."
Getting next-to-nothing out of early down passing plays is a recipe for a disadvantaged run game, but the Bengals were competent in this regard. They had a 55% success rate on first and second down pass plays compared to 18% on third and fourth downs.
Six of Joe Mixon's eight carries occurred with a distance of 10 yards to go for the first down. He gained 12 yards on those carries.
Those plays were to set up their respective series, and it put them behind the chains as a result. But as Taylor noted, this issue doesn't fall on just the running back.
"This has nothing to do with Joe Mixon," Taylor said. "This is the entirety of the unit coming together. So don't make this about one person. It's not like there was missed opportunities there from what I can see, he continues to run hard and he's giving us what we needed this season."
Cincinnati's rushing attack has been lackluster all season for numerous reasons. Mixon, scheme, blocking, and quarterback play all factor into the problem, and it looked nowhere near solved against the Steelers.
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