Quietly, the Cincinnati Bengals have started to turn around the running game based on Joe Mixon.
At one point, Mixon was leading the NFL in number of rushes without a score and his averages were tame. Over the course of two games after the bye, though, Mixon has rushed for 200 yards and a score over 45 attempts.
Part of the turnaround is on the coaching staff, as Zac Taylor and Co. have finally stopped stubbornly sticking with mostly 11 personnel.
Yet, Taylor wants to see more and in an interview with Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, he noted wideouts need to do a better job of throwing blocks:
“I’ve been emphasizing that for a while now, Taylor said. “We challenged those guys on their effort down the field. We thought we were going to get some big plays in the run game that we wanted to have touchdowns on. Not 20-yard runs. So we really challenged those guys to have great effort down the field. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. But we’re going to keep being hard on those guys in demanding – especially early in the game – when you should have a lot of energy you should be blocking your tail off down the field to pop some big runs.”
It’s interesting to hear Taylor has gone back to the film and found at least one play where a big gain probably could have been even bigger if the wideouts were having better blocking performances.
This falls in line with Taylor’s season-long comments about the team showing flashes but not performing as a cohesive whole 100 percent of the time. A little more in the way of specifics here dials in on something to watch as the Bengals take on the Steelers this weekend while seeking out their first win.
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