In weeks 1-4 and 14-17 of the 2019 season when John Ross was starting it was a good bet Joe Mixon was going to have a good rushing day.

Week 1. 6 10
2. 11 17
3. 15 60
4. 15 62

14. 23 146 1
15. 25 136
16. 21 50
17. 26 162 2

The 1st 2 weeks ZT abandoned the running game
But Ross was still very productive catching the ball. But overall when Ross was on the field Joe Mixon averaged 4.5 YPC.
When Ross was injured Mixon averaged only 3.6 YPC.
In the last 4 games Mixon averaged about 126 YPG.

Whats my point. ? Even if John Ross isnt catching the football
He still directly affects how a defense lines up on the field
When Ross lines up defenses cant simply load up the box all the
Time
So for those of you who constantly remind of us of his drops let this
Sink in. When Ross is in the offense Mixon averages 4.5 YPC.
when he wasn't in the offense in 2019 it 3.6. Huge diff.

The offense is definitely better with a healthy Ross in there.

(08-12-2020, 07:22 PM)impactplaya Wrote: In weeks 1-4 and 14-17 of the 2019 season when John Ross was starting it was a good bet Joe Mixon was going to have a good rushing day.

Week 1. 6   10
2.           11  17
3.           15  60
4.           15  62

14.       23  146  1
15.       25  136
16.       21    50
17.       26  162  2

The 1st 2 weeks ZT abandoned the running game
But Ross was still very productive catching the ball. But overall when Ross was on the field Joe Mixon averaged 4.5 YPC.
When Ross was injured Mixon averaged only 3.6 YPC.
In the last 4 games Mixon averaged about 126 YPG.

Whats my point. ? Even if John Ross isnt catching the football
He still directly affects how a defense lines up on the field
When Ross lines up defenses cant simply load up the box all the
Time
So for those of you who constantly remind of us of his drops let this
Sink in.  When Ross is in the offense Mixon averages 4.5 YPC.
when he wasn't in the offense in 2019 it 3.6. Huge diff.

Ok so you put two comparisons of Ross and Mixon in and just blame ZT for the lack of production in first games when they are in  but give credit to Ross and not ZT on the last games.. The bottom line is our line got better in the latter part of season and ZT committed to the run.. I watched all aways game and was at all home games.. trust me as a whole there was not some drastic shift because of Ross... hell he only had 6 catches in 3 of those last games and had zero TDs in those last 4 games so I don;t think teams game plans were much about Ross.. if anything they probably increased the box more and more seeing the trend of Mixon getting the ball ...

This seems like a stretch at best.

7 of the 8 games they lost.
3 of the 8 games he was 50 yard or less.
2 of the 8 games he had less than 20 rushing yards.
1 of the 3 games he had over 130 rushing yards, they lost 13-34.
2 of the 3 games he had over 130 rushing yards, they played the Browns.

So it'd be more accurate to say that "When the Bengals play the Browns or lose by 3+ scores it was a good bet Mixon was going to have a good rushing day."

There's no Ross connection.

(08-12-2020, 09:22 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: This seems like a stretch at best.

7 of the 8 games they lost.
3 of the 8 games he was 50 yard or less.
2 of the 8 games he had less than 20 rushing yards.
1 of the 3 games he had over 130 rushing yards, they lost 13-34.
2 of the 3 games he had over 130 rushing yards, they played the Browns.

So it'd be more accurate to say that "When the Bengals play the Browns or lose by 3+ scores it was a good bet Mixon was going to have a good rushing day."

There's no Ross connection.

It probably made more difference than people think last year just due to the lack of team speed and deep play ability in our WR corps.  Look at the last four games as an example.  When you swap maybe the slowest WR in the entire league with the fastest, defenses have to change.  You simply can't load the box like you could before because if Ross gets behind the defense, it's a TD.  Most defenses have LB's that can run down Tate in the open field.  Now, if Boyd was more of a deep threat or Tate wasn't painfully slow, I don't think it makes a massive difference.  

After Ross went down the Bengals passing game had really no one
To challenge safties deep downfield. Thus they could play closer to up and kinda help suffocate the run.
If defenses know you cant go vertical then they condense
Everything. Aka fewer running lanes

(08-12-2020, 07:22 PM)impactplaya Wrote: In weeks 1-4 and 14-17 of the 2019 season when John Ross was starting it was a good bet Joe Mixon was going to have a good rushing day.

Week 1. 6   10
2.           11  17
3.           15  60
4.           15  62

14.       23  146  1
15.       25  136
16.       21    50
17.       26  162  2

The 1st 2 weeks ZT abandoned the running game
But Ross was still very productive catching the ball. But overall when Ross was on the field Joe Mixon averaged 4.5 YPC.
When Ross was injured Mixon averaged only 3.6 YPC.
In the last 4 games Mixon averaged about 126 YPG.

Whats my point. ? Even if John Ross isnt catching the football
He still directly affects how a defense lines up on the field
When Ross lines up defenses cant simply load up the box all the
Time
So for those of you who constantly remind of us of his drops let this
Sink in.  When Ross is in the offense Mixon averages 4.5 YPC.
when he wasn't in the offense in 2019 it 3.6. Huge diff.

Nice post. True, Ross affects the game big time when he is in there. Just the presence of that speed makes Defenses
play us differently. Sure would be nice to see all of AJ, Boyd, Ross and Mixon out there at the same time. Haven't seen
much of this. Would even like to see more of Gio and Mixon on the field at the same time catching the ball out of the 
backfield. Haven't seen much of this either.

As I stated I totally don;t buy that Ross has opened up the running game with Mixon.. We know we ran terrible first half of year and Ross was in first few games then we come back end of year and Mixon has some strong games and Ross had mostly weak games.

I was able to watch the final game against the Browns and as I figured there was no major adjustment because of Ross.. Most of the time regardless Ross in or not.. Brown especially in first half played cover two with a little cover 1. Mixon broke one sizable run for 40 or more runs that looked like a designed cut back with a nice seal block by Erickson ( around 2:50) and you can see they are in a base cover 2 with same alignment with Ross and Erickson in. The main problem with this idea that Ross opened up the field for Mixon is that we rarely throw deep to Ross, he only had 6 catches in 3 of the final games and he had not proven to be a real game changing player so teams were not really game planning their Defense against Ross.

In the end, the line improved and we just finally said give the damn ball to Mixon ( he averaged around 24 carries the last 4 games)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tgfDnf3ZC4 Watch the big run of the game around 2:50.. Ross had zero to do with really influencing the play

(08-12-2020, 07:22 PM)impactplaya Wrote: In weeks 1-4 and 14-17 of the 2019 season when John Ross was starting it was a good bet Joe Mixon was going to have a good rushing day.

Week 1. 6   10
2.           11  17
3.           15  60
4.           15  62

14.       23  146  1
15.       25  136
16.       21    50
17.       26  162  2

The 1st 2 weeks ZT abandoned the running game
But Ross was still very productive catching the ball. But overall when Ross was on the field Joe Mixon averaged 4.5 YPC.
When Ross was injured Mixon averaged only 3.6 YPC.
In the last 4 games Mixon averaged about 126 YPG.

Whats my point. ? Even if John Ross isnt catching the football
He still directly affects how a defense lines up on the field
When Ross lines up defenses cant simply load up the box all the
Time
So for those of you who constantly remind of us of his drops let this
Sink in.  When Ross is in the offense Mixon averages 4.5 YPC.
when he wasn't in the offense in 2019 it 3.6. Huge diff.

I'm sure we can find a WR who can block AND catch, and likely for a lot less than Ross makes.