Quick Hits: Why Bengals Are December Dominators; Geoff Hobson

There are a few good reasons why the Bengals' Zac Taylor should be in discussion for NFL Coach of the Year.
Here's one.
Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (shoulder) is the only Bengal who didn't practice full Wednesday, the biggest workout of the week in prepping for Saturday's game (4:30 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in Pittsburgh.
With Chase yet to practice and Thursday's final practice of the week coming, it's a big hole to fill, as is the season-ending quad injury to Pro Bowl-worthy nose tackle DJ Reader.
But the remaining roster that healthy this late in the season continues to validate the player-friendly regimen sketched out by Taylor and implemented by his strength and conditioning staff headed by Joey Boese and assistants Todd Hunt and Garrett Swanson.

It's the structure of how we do things. Zac talks about this with the team.  Everything we do is structured around playing our best football in December, January," said captain and left end Sam Hubbard. "We've definitely tried to lighten the workload early in the year. You don't need to be winning the Super Bowl in May and June. OTA practices are more about technique."
If Wednesday's injury report doesn't validate pushing back the off-season workouts by a couple of weeks or the alternating days in training camp (two days on the field, one day off), the wins do. The Bengals are riding a nine-game winning streak in December dating back to 2021 and since that season they're 16-4 in December and January, not counting the 2021 regular-season finale where the starters sat.
"There's also the training room staff and the front office and scouts," Boese said Wednesday after another shorter practice.  "It's a connected team. In the end, it comes down to players. We've got a lot of good players. They've found us players and given us players who think football is important and they're passionate about it."
The Bengals put together this three-game winning streak in a 12 scant days. "Hard to do," Boese said. Taylor shaved about 15 to 20 minutes off the last two practices after giving them two days off following Saturday's overtime victory over the Vikings.
It's a glimpse of how Taylor manipulates schedules with the help of the daily GPS data culled from each practice and charted into a narrative by Hunt and Swanson. You might say Taylor has that Marvin Lewis gift of "I see better than I hear."

Zac has a great feel. He knows when to pull them back and amp it up," said Boese as the Bengals come off that punishing stretch. "It's life in the NFL. We've changed up some things with the tempo of practice. Whether it's walk-through, or jog through, or full speed. We've backed some guys off the last couple of weeks, backed off some workouts in here. It gets back to Zac and how he manipulates what we do on and off the field."
 Boese also has a good enough relationship with the players that he can sense after a game if there's a position group that's beat up or how a player might feel after getting tweaked. And he knows he can communicate with Taylor because Taylor relies on him.
"That's what I mean about being a connected team," Boese said. "Communication with all areas."
Bengals defensive line coach Marion Hobby, who played in the NFL for three seasons in the early '90s before becoming one of the top assistants in the college and pro game, is charged with rotating his guys during the games so they stay fresh and he'll be adjusting without Reader.
"(Taylor) does a good job all year. He does a great job making sure players are fresh and coaches are fresh," Hobby said after Wednesday's practice. "And he sticks to his schedule. If things aren't going good, he stays with his schedule. You see some guys, things aren't going good and it's, 'We have to change this, have to do that.' But he's very consistent. And our players respect that."

3 years ago today, a 3rd string QB made his 4th and final start for the Cincinnati Bengals against the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers. Improbably, despite only throwing for 78 yards, Ryan led the 3-10-1 Bengals to a crazy upset of the 11-3 Steelers. I hope he is remembering this day while he pursues his career as a professional pickleball player

Happy 3-year anniversary of the Ryan Finley game to all who celebrate! pic.twitter.com/iDCB9s87Bw

— dana (@phanatic14) December 21, 2023

Bengals claimed former Falcon rookie DT Travis Bell (6'1" 305) who was waived this week. Bell a 7th round pick of the Bears was on their PS until Oct when he was plucked by the Falcons. He will fill one of the open roster spots left by Reader and Ivey. I presume the other spot will be CTB's next week

More depth on defensive line with DJ Reader out for the season. Bell certainly has the size. pic.twitter.com/ITedtB1IEM

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 20, 2023

To all my Bengals family I have a question. If the Bengals did an All-Time great team who are the starters Offense and Defense? WhoDey

— Corey Dillon (@coreydillon_28) December 20, 2023

Its a national game on NBC and Peacock.

https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2023&wk=16

announcers are Noah Eagle (son of Ian) and Todd Blackledge

referee is Craig Wrolstad whose team tends not to be flag heavy and fairly even-handed for both teams. He last worked a Bengals game last year at New England where his team threw the most flags in 4 seasons. His team handled the chippy Cowboys-Bills game last week yet only had 6 accepted penalties.

He did however royally screw the Bengals in 2021 with this call

Mike Hilton goes low to stop Ty Johnson on 3rd and long. Johnson ducks into the hit, draws the helmet-to-helmet contact, and the Jets get the first down on the ensuing penalty

brutal pic.twitter.com/sFZox5gTo6

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 31, 2021

DTs making interceptions in the NFL is a bit of a rarity, having a DT make an interception in consecutive games is even more rare. In fact, it's only happened 3 other times. BJ Hill is currently tied with 3 other DTs for the NFL record of interceptions in consecutive games with a chance to hold the record outright if he snags a pass against the Steelers.

Let's go BJ!

Thought you folks might be interested in this. Pretty good breakdown of what works for each of the quarterbacks.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/bengals-film-breakdown-why-jake-browning-posting-historic-numbers-joe-burrow-out

"That was nice... I ain't gonna lie."

We had @teehiggins5 mic'd up for his iconic catch.

Mic'd Up | @altafiber pic.twitter.com/eHzMMUu8k2

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 20, 2023

Tee Higgins loving the run game because he loves to block. pic.twitter.com/NpWQMYaTwg

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 10, 2023

When asked about the lack of blocking on the Jaylen Warren play, George Pickens reference Tank Dell’s season ending injury and said that he was, at all costs, trying to avoid getting rolled up on at the end of the run.

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) December 19, 2023

JT broke down both Jake and our offense and the Viking defense. Both praises for our offense overall and callouts of the early game issues as belonging partly to Browning (inexperience) and also to drops and other weird game things. He does really get after Mixon in particular for bad pass protection and even gives Tayveon Williams an attaboy for handing off a stunt with Jonah.

https://youtu.be/xUDi9KY-p_w?si=SfULC_ulmo3ZtU20