The Trenches Are Killing Cincinnati
Syndication: The Enquirer
Questions were being fired left and right as Bengals head coach Zac Taylor stepped to the podium for his press conference earlier this week.
Most of the media’s inquiries centered on the news of Taylor’s franchise quarterback, Joe Burrow, undergoing surgery for a wrist injury that has sidelined him for the rest of the year. Then it was, where do the Bengals go from here?
Despite Cincinatti’s major loss, it wasn’t the passing game that the fifth-year head coach was worried about.
“I think you look at our rush defense, and our rush offense, particularly in this last game, and it’s got to improve,” Taylor said. “Giving up that many rushing yards and having that few rushing yards on offense is not a great way to play the game and it puts a lot of pressure on different areas.”
After firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the Steelers offense accumulated over 400 yards of offense for the first time in 59 games with 153 of those yards coming via the running game. Offensively, the Bengals only mustered 25 total rushing yards as Joe Mixon led the team tallying 16 yards on eight carries.
It was statistically Cincinnati’s worst rushing game of the season, but it’s arguably been the Bengals’ Achilles heal all season long. They’ve rushed for over 100 yards in just two games and have rushed for under 70 yards six times.
“It’s really on the entirety of the offense, myself included as the offensive play caller to put ourselves in a better position,” Taylor said when asked about what the key issue is with the rushing attack. “We just need to get some dirty yards in some tough spots sometimes and when you go against Pittsburgh it can be really dirty in there sometimes.”
Cincinnati’s offensive success can also come on a week-by-week basis, Taylor says. A week ago, the Bengals ran for 136 yards against the Baltimore Ravens and Taylor thought they executed their run game really well. But, that wasn’t the case when they took the field Sunday.
“This week was just a challenge and all of us weren’t able to rise up to the challenge and get more out of it than we needed to,” Taylor said.
Opponents have run the ball just as successfully against the Bengals this season as the Steelers did. Cincinnati has allowed over 150 rushing yards six times this season, with a season-high 206 yards allowed to the Cleveland Browns in their season-opening loss.
Taylor said their problems on the defensive side of the ball have been a combination of small things, like arriving late to gaps.
“That can bust out a 25-yard run as opposed to what can be a four-yard gain or a three-yard gain,” Taylor said. “So there are some opportunities that we have to clean some stuff up.”
Playing in the AFC North, against division opponents like the Steelers, Browns and Ravens, franchises that are known for their physicality and aggressiveness, Taylor knows that their play in the trenches needs to improve moving into the rest of the season. As the colder months approach, and teams start to rely on the running game more often, the Bengals will need to rely on their lineman, and running game, to carry the load.
“Just looking at this most recent game, it’s something we need to improve on and we need to change as we get into December, which is the time of year when injuries pile up for teams and the weather doesn’t get better,” he said. “You have to be able to rely on those two areas and we need to be strong there.”
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