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

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(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.   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.