This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall

This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - Printable Version

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RE: This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - bengalfan74 - 12-07-2023

It's no secret I'm a big believer in the power of a good running game.

RE: This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - Soonerpeace - 12-07-2023

Excerpts from Paul Dehner on the screen game and Joe Mixon, theleonardleap’s favorite player

CICINNATI — There’s an old football phrase that Bengals center Ted Karras likes to use when talking about screen passes.
“Screens are either a s—house or a castle play,” he said. “There’s no in between.”

“It’s really been something I think has come along for us this year,” Callahan said. “We’ve had positive gains, efficient plays on our screens.”

Mixon broke a 39-yarder against the Steelers and a 28-yarder against the Jaguars, two of his three longest gains of the season (along with a designed catch-and-run against the Ravens in Week 2).
The bottom line is finding explosive plays on the ground has proved elusive for Mixon in recent years. He’s rarely broken tackles and the electric jump cuts of his younger days have given way to punishing, hard-charging plods for what the Bengals hope will be efficient yardage.
Yet, in recent weeks, Mixon’s found himself again breaking tackles in open space thanks to the screen game. He was tracked for five broken tackles on receptions against Jacksonville. Eleven of his 34 missed tackles forced have come catching the ball and the majority of those on screens, according to Pro Football Focus. (and Zac this summer on Solomon Wilcots podcast talked about how punishing Joe is in the screen game)

The Bengals ran 23 screens to Mixon over the past three seasons combined and just one over the first six games of this year (it gained 6 yards in the opener). At the bye, however, Taylor, Callahan and Pollack decided to lean back into them and see what happened.

The Mixon screen proved a real weapon and part of the game plan more than any other point in their tenure.

Joe Mixon on screen passes
STAT LAST 3 YEARS LAST 6 WEEKS
Receptions-Targets 19-23 11-11
Yards/target 6.6 11.8
10+ % 32% 45%
First-down % 17% 45%
Success % 48% 83%
Yards 152 130
Yards/game 4.1 21.7

“Sometimes, screens are a little bit of luck,” Taylor said.

In New England, Karras said you would be docked for a missed assignment if you did not cut block on a screen. Without that weapon, lumbering offensive linemen trying to track down corners and safeties in space has been a challenge, making it even more remarkable how they have posted an 83 percent success rate on Mixon’s screens.

They’ve provided a significant weapon for where the Bengals are at now, more reliant on easy throws for the quarterback, slowing the pass rush and non–rushing methods for finding Mixon space.

RE: This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - Whatever - 12-07-2023

(12-06-2023, 11:37 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: I think people are getting a little too bent out of shape with the eight carries line. Cincinnati only ran 40 plays, excluding a kneel at the half. They ran the ball 20% of the time, a notable deviation from their standard 34% of the time. In order to get down into that range, you would bump Mixon's carries from eight to 13. The defense has to account for the possibility of running the ball if a RB is on the field. They can't just disregard him, even if the team isn't running the ball often. Those run fits still have to be played. It's why RPOs and playaction just work, whether your running game is performing well or not.

Frankly, there's a decent amount of false causality in this thread. They didn't score 30 because they ran the ball 30 times. They ran the ball 30 times because the run game was effective. If we ran the ball 30 times last week against Pittsburgh, it would've been pretty ugly.

RE: This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - Nate (formerly eliminate08) - 12-07-2023

(12-06-2023, 07:38 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I'm glad Brown got on the field and I'm even happier he had success. But we do need to see a bit more of it. He obviously had the explosive plays but he also had 2 or 3 negative gains and that is something Mixon rarely does. I would personally keep Mixon as the main back. But that's not saying Brown doesn't deserve to continue to get more touches. I would also like to see him get some targets.

Cannot disagree. If the OL doesn't open up immediate holes Chase Brown is a little easier to tackle than Mixon behind the line.

Chase Brown is smaller than Mixon and not quite as strong.

(12-07-2023, 09:32 AM)Daddy-O Wrote: Think about it from the OL perspective. If your QB is sitting in the shotgun all the time you never get the chance to be in attack mode. You are always stepping back at the snap to essentially try to form a pocket.

It's no wonder they can't consistently run the ball, they're always at a disadvantage.

Hopefully Burrow will realize this while watching for the rest of the season and be more willing to play from center. It will prolong his career also.

Great post. Just completely agree Daddy-O. If you look at it from the OL's perspective, you can completely understand why
always playing in Shotgun puts them at a disadvantage as you say. Need to attack Defenses with a running game and quick
passes with play action. This is done under Center and lets the RB get up to speed faster like we saw with Chase Brown on
Monday night so the OL doesn't have to hold their blocks long.

The QB under Center at least half the time just helps the entire Offense so much more than constantly in the Shotgun like
Burrow was doing in our losses.

RE: This needs to be hung on Zac Taylor's office wall - Wyche'sWarrior - 12-07-2023

(12-07-2023, 12:14 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: Excerpts from Paul Dehner on the screen game and Joe Mixon, theleonardleap’s favorite player

CICINNATI — There’s an old football phrase that Bengals center Ted Karras likes to use when talking about screen passes.
“Screens are either a s—house or a castle play,” he said. “There’s no in between.”

“It’s really been something I think has come along for us this year,” Callahan said. “We’ve had positive gains, efficient plays on our screens.”

Mixon broke a 39-yarder against the Steelers and a 28-yarder against the Jaguars, two of his three longest gains of the season (along with a designed catch-and-run against the Ravens in Week 2).
The bottom line is finding explosive plays on the ground has proved elusive for Mixon in recent years. He’s rarely broken tackles and the electric jump cuts of his younger days have given way to punishing, hard-charging plods for what the Bengals hope will be efficient yardage.
Yet, in recent weeks, Mixon’s found himself again breaking tackles in open space thanks to the screen game. He was tracked for five broken tackles on receptions against Jacksonville. Eleven of his 34 missed tackles forced have come catching the ball and the majority of those on screens, according to Pro Football Focus. (and Zac this summer on Solomon Wilcots podcast talked about how punishing Joe is in the screen game)

The Bengals ran 23 screens to Mixon over the past three seasons combined and just one over the first six games of this year (it gained 6 yards in the opener). At the bye, however, Taylor, Callahan and Pollack decided to lean back into them and see what happened.

The Mixon screen proved a real weapon and part of the game plan more than any other point in their tenure.

Joe Mixon on screen passes
STAT LAST 3 YEARS LAST 6 WEEKS
Receptions-Targets 19-23 11-11
Yards/target 6.6 11.8
10+ % 32% 45%
First-down % 17% 45%
Success % 48% 83%
Yards 152 130
Yards/game 4.1 21.7

“Sometimes, screens are a little bit of luck,” Taylor said.

In New England, Karras said you would be docked for a missed assignment if you did not cut block on a screen. Without that weapon, lumbering offensive linemen trying to track down corners and safeties in space has been a challenge, making it even more remarkable how they have posted an 83 percent success rate on Mixon’s screens.

They’ve provided a significant weapon for where the Bengals are at now, more reliant on easy throws for the quarterback, slowing the pass rush and non–rushing methods for finding Mixon space.

I also watched a clip talking about all of the screens at the start of the Jacksonville game. Taylor said it wasn't all about getting Browning in a rhythm. In fact, he said it was more about seeing what the defense was going to do. Once they saw it, they opened up the offense do downfield throws. It was an excerpt from the greenlightpod, on BengalsTalk and they were speaking quite highly of Zac. A lot of people on here would've hated to watch it. LOL

They also said the coaches and the team was very confident in Browning after a good week of practice going into the game. This sounds good for the rest of the year if Jake can keep from turning the ball over.