Bengals rush offense under Marvin Lewis

[HarleyDog]

(06-23-2019, 02:42 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That is very puzzling, as Hill and Gio both started out as very decisive runners, hit the holes quickly, and make a juke or move at the second level to break off a medium gainer. Then, all of a sudden, they turn to dancing in the backfield?  I have difficulty in believing that they both went away from what made them very successful backs, completely of their own volition.  I'm going to suggest that Paul Alexander had a hand in things, as he was the Rushing Game Coordinator.

My theory is that PA would ask them to hesitate, and allow the hole to develop, before making a cut and hitting it;  Rather than just jetting to the called hole for the play. Had to be a part of PA's "catch and redirect" style of run blocking.  As you saw last year, Mixon had no problem hitting holes with authority last season.  Heck, even Gio had a couple of nice, medium gainers that we hadn't seen in a while.

In today's NFL, there's just no room for "picking a hole", you have to hit it and take what's there, unless they're running some version of a stretch play and the back sees an opportunity to cut up before reaching the edge.

Exactly. This is where you have to trust your line to open that hole when you hit it. This is more coaching than anything and I agree with you. You know the play before the snap. You have to execute the play. But I will leave this tidbit. Going to lay a little of this at the feet of Dalton. He has not always been as sharp at reading the defense and changing calls at the line. He has been significantly better the last few years at reading defenses. Maybe he didn't have the authority to audible. Hard telling with the ML era of coaching. But I'll ask you this, how many times did we sit and watch a defense line up knowing we were running the ball and foresee before hand that if they ran, it wasn't going anywhere? Then they ran anyway. UGH!