SI Article on Bengals Identity

[*bengalfan74*]

(12-04-2023, 09:21 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: You and I have had this discussion before, and the message never changes.  Running the ball effectively begins with having a mind set and making the assertion 'we are going to run the ball'.  Once a team makes that resolution, the rest sort of takes care of itself.  Truth be told, most OL would rather run block and impose their will upon the defense.  Running backs get a 'stop me if you can' attitude.  The offense can now throw because they want to, rather than because that's the only thing that they can do.


It may be a bit of a stretch to hope for Zac and Joe to adapt the mentality of being a ball control offense, but if they want to win championships that may be what it takes.  Just look at all of the years John Elway took his teams close to he top by being pass first, and then when he had a coach that embraced the rushing offense he was able to lead the Broncos to Championships.

I think that's a giant part of it !!

Zac and Joe it seems as well don't want to embrace the running game...at all. And I feel that's a giant mistake. I fully understand this is a passing oriented team, and league. And we're going to live and die through Joe Burrow's passing the ball.

But in my opinion we throw the run out the window way to early and often. In the first qtr. of most games we run it some. Then it just goes down fast from there. I don't have any stats on this but I'd venture to say I'm not going out to far on a limb to state we run the ball the least in the league in the 2nd half of games.

I know game score and situation dictate this to a degree. But that hasn't always been the case. How many times in the ZT era have we closed out a game being able to run the ball? Run the clock out? Basically speaking we can't. And that's because of the bolded statement I believe, in lage part anyways.

We can't pick up those 3rd and two's vs. most teams. We don't/can't run it inside the red zone. Again vs. most teams. And it hurts our ability to score TD's in the red zone. Opposing D's don't have to account for us running the ball.

I just hope next season Zac and Joe will alter the gameplan to include "some" running scheme's..