Zac Taylor = Play Action

[kevin]

What Rams did best, per TV announcers in games such as Saints game is Play Action. Yes they did some shotgun offense and some pocket pass offense. Yes they ran some straight pocket run and passes. Still, under Taylor the Rams strength was they were better at Play Action than most teams. This of course used Gurley as much as a receiver as a runner.

Paul Brown and Bill Walsh use to use the Play Action with 70's Bengals. The 81' Bengals used it.

So I'm not surprised by the players Taylor is bringing in because he will have this team mastering the blocking and plays of Play Action, if he does nothing else. Yes the Bengals will use straight drop back pocket and shotgun pocket as Rams, but like Rams the strength will be in the Play Action. Play Action is Zac Taylor. Zac Taylor is Play Action. If the Power Sweep was Lombardi's strength, the Play Action is Taylor's strength that he will insist Bengals run to perfection.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(04-30-2019, 02:41 PM)kevin Wrote: What Rams did best, per TV announcers in games such as Saints game is Play Action. Yes they did some shotgun offense and some pocket pass offense. Yes they ran some straight pocket run and passes. Still, under Taylor the Rams strength was they were better at Play Action than most teams. This of course used Gurley as much as a receiver as a runner.

Paul Brown and Bill Walsh use to use the Play Action with 70's Bengals. The 81' Bengals used it.

So I'm not surprised by the players Taylor is bringing in because he will have this team mastering the blocking and plays of Play Action, if he does nothing else. Yes the Bengals will use straight drop back pocket and shotgun pocket as Rams, but like Rams the strength will be in the Play Action. Play Action is Zac Taylor. Zac Taylor is Play Action. If the Power Sweep was Lombardi's strength, the Play Action is Taylor's strength that he will insist Bengals run to perfection.

The blocking should be much better with Jonah Williams here and Drew Sample and that should really help out Dalton and Mixon in this facet. What is nice is Mixon is a great pass catcher who can run routes and when he catches the ball he has the talent to break tackles and take a catch all the way. Have to be able to run the ball well to set up Play Action too, this is why i was saying before the draft that OT was probably even a bigger weakness than Linebacker cause we now have a new LB coach and that could improve the LB'ers on its own. Let alone the Pratt pick.

You win games in the trenches and Taylor and company had a great draft adding pieces to address this fact.

[*bengalfan74*]

The whole key to having success in play action is having a great run game that the opposing defense has to respect. ZT seems to be trying to build a team that can run the ball, we'll see.

[Earendil]

(04-30-2019, 02:41 PM)kevin Wrote: Paul Brown and Bill Walsh use to use the Play Action with 70's Bengals.  The 81' Bengals used it.

Don't forget Wyche.  Boomer was one of the best ever at play action.

[Junglejuice]

Even if PA will be the focal point of this offense(I believe it will be also) It helps us a lot that Andy can play the normal drop back and read the field style offense also.

This is where Goff came up short in LA. His first year his biggest knock was not being able to read the field and find guys open.
They brought in PA and that opened it up for him and took the pressure off leading to 2 big years. In the superbowl NE negated the PA by always committing a rusher to the QB. Even with guys running open Goff could not read the field and find targets when it came time to play from the pocket.

Working PA will benefit Dalton's play this year and if it falls apart at least Dalton can adapt. Goff still needs to prove he can read a D.

[Brownshoe]

I'm pretty excited to see how the season turns out. Dalton has always been good on bootleg plays, and I think that we will see a decent amount of those too. I really like that we're probably going to use Mixon a lot more too. I really think he's one of the best RBs in the league. The offense staying on the field longer will help the defense too, so we COULD have a really good team next year.

[OSUfan]

New England and the Rams were two of the highest % play action teams in the league last season with New England at 31% and the Rams at 36% which was highest in the league.

[Beaker]

(04-30-2019, 04:53 PM)Earendil Wrote: Boomer was one of the best ever at play action.

That's because he was left handed. When the D would see that right hand come out of the RBs gut, they would bite on it every time because they were so used to reading keys on right handed QBs. Then he would pop up with the ball in his left throwing hand and take care of business. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

[SunsetBengal]

(04-30-2019, 04:39 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: The whole key to having success in play action is having a great run game that the opposing defense has to respect. ZT seems to be trying to build a team that can run the ball, we'll see.

I agree with that, and I'll add that having a QB that can sell it well makes a ton of difference.  Boomer was masterful at selling the PA fake.

[Bengalitis]

(04-30-2019, 06:47 PM)Beaker Wrote: That's because he was left handed. When the D would see that right hand come out of the RBs gut, they would bite on it every time because they were so used to reading keys on right handed QBs. Then he would pop up with the ball in his left throwing hand and take care of business. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

Maybe Dalton can work on his left handed throws this summer?

[AlphaBengal]

Where do you get that Taylor is bringing anything from the Rams here? He was just the QB coach. He didn't call plays, he wasn't the offensive coordinator, nor passing game coordinator. He coached Goff and that's about it.

[THE PISTONS]

The thing is, with the Rams Taylor was the assistant WR's coach 2 years ago...then QB's coach last year. He wasn't calling the plays.

I think people are reading WAY TOO MUCH into what the Rams do.

We have way different personnel than them. And it wasn't like Taylor called the plays or built their offense.

[impactplaya]

(04-30-2019, 10:35 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: The thing is, with the Rams Taylor was the assistant WR's coach 2 years ago...then QB's coach last year. He wasn't calling the plays.

I think people are reading WAY TOO MUCH into what the Rams do.

We have way different personnel than them. And it wasn't like Taylor called the plays or built their offense.

one thing is for sure. this offense will look nothing like we've seen the last 2 years under Zampese and Lazor.

[THE PISTONS]

(04-30-2019, 10:45 PM)impactplaya Wrote: one thing is for sure. this offense will look nothing like we've seen the last 2 years under Zampese and Lazor.

It will be different. I don't know if it will be better.

He was a pretty middling coordinator with the Dolphins and Bearcats. I think people heap a lot of McVey's attributes on Taylor...so time will tell.

[SladeX]

Hopefully Taylor has learned something at each stop in his career, so I would think there will be elements of the Rams present. I'm sure he has been developing his own ideas and plans as well. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

[PV Bengal]

(04-30-2019, 06:47 PM)Beaker Wrote: That's because he was left handed. When the D would see that right hand come out of the RBs gut, they would bite on it every time because they were so used to reading keys on right handed QBs. Then he would pop up with the ball in his left throwing hand and take care of business. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

You may be right about that.

However, look at how many times Boomer faked and turned his back completely so that he was facing away from the defense. Then he turned and made the throw.

You never see that kind of move today. Perhaps he had complete confidence in his OL?

[Fan_in_Kettering]

(05-01-2019, 09:56 AM)PV Bengal Wrote: You may be right about that.

However, look at how many times Boomer faked and turned his back completely so that he was facing away from the defense. Then he turned and made the throw.

You never see that kind of move today. Perhaps he had complete confidence in his OL?

Absolutely true. The 1988 Cincinnati offensive line was the best I ever saw.

[bengals67]

Pretty clear they are building the offense around Mixon and the running game.

A good strategy I think.

[kevin]

(04-30-2019, 06:49 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I agree with that, and I'll add that having a QB that can sell it well makes a ton of difference.  Boomer was masterful at selling the PA fake.

The best Bengal I ever saw on play action fake was Virgil Carter and also Sam Wyche.  Then came Ken Anderson who was great at it for many years and unlike Carter and Wyche had the Pro Bowl arm to go with it.  Boomer was also good at it.   Bengals got away from it, however Dalton at times shows he can do it.  For arm and play action Bengals best was Ken Anderson because he was like the Harlem Globetrotters on the hidden ball trick.  So were Carter and Wyche, but they didn't have Andersons arm.  Ken Anderson could really fake out defenses. Somebody getting tackled by 3 or 4 players and he didn't have the ball.  Ken Anderson on those roll outs in 81 Super Bowl year was perfect. The different options on that gangster roll out and Anderson hitting the open man tearing defenses apart to be MVP.  Yes you need the run, but you also need the bomb, or the D cheats up and steals dink passes for a pick 6.

As said on here, you need the run to play action.  Super Bowl 1 of Packers vs Chiefs.  Once Chiefs fell behind plus Packers started stuffing the run, Packers D ignored play action and went after Chiefs QB Dawson.   Bengals had good runners to set up play action with Paul Robinson, Elliott, Boobie Clark, Pete Johnson, James Brooks, Ickey Shuffle Woods.  They had good Blocking in front of them, in 80's Great Blocking.  They had go to tight ends in Trumpy, Ross. 

Now 1975 the running was not that good, but Paul Brown and Bill Walsh used play action passes to running backs to make up for it and get into play-offs.  

Taylor is Play Action.  Now to build the blocking and have a stable of other runners beside Mixon.  Get the fresh legs on the field, give Mixon a rest now and then. Block, Run, pass to the RB, hit the TE if open. Drop Back, Shotgun but also Roll Out Options.  The more the QB can do the Harlem Globetrotter hidden ball trick the better.  Making it look like a hand off, and QB still has the ball to throw.  I also liked Ken Anderson standing behind a RB blocking, dropping back to pass but he didn't have the ball, he had sneaked it behind the back to the blocking RB now going for a TD.  You need many things, Blocking, Running, Go to TE, Deep Pass Game, RB's that can catch, and a QB that doesn't just go through half heart motions of fake, but actually sells it like a Magician putting a lot of work into the magic tricks.   We saw that when Blake started season and in mid season they brought back Boomer and he was faking teams out again and rookie Dillon came on big with Boomer. The QBs that can really run play action are like Magicians. Now you see it, now you don't.

Of course if you fall too far behind and are playing catch up, the D doesn't bite on play action. Teams that use it down a bunch of points late in game are just wasting clock time. Everybody knows you are passing. However if you keep the score close or have the lead, Play Action is great because defenses are guessing what the play will be. Excuse me for repeating Hank Stram in Super Bowl 4 on his play actions saying the Vikings D looks like a Chinese Fire Drill out there. His way of saying they had the D faked out of their shoes. The key there was the play action blocking of a very good Chiefs line against a hard charging Vikings great D line. They were actually suckering the Vikings D in to where the ball wasn't on their pass rush. We've seen teams do this to Atkins and Dunlap, they blow in there but that isn't where the play or ball is.

All this is again because best thing Taylor does is Play Action, so it is coming.

[Luvnit2]

The Bengals had some very good combo TE's to go along with the play action also. How does Sample compare athletically to Ross, maybe our best TE ever. I see both can block ver well, in time we will see if Sample can get open like Ross was able to do. If he can, we just added a totally different play calling set.