Chase Brown deserves his opportunity to shine.
It’s well past time to take the gloves off.
The Cincinnati Bengals live and die by their passing game. How’s that working out so far? Not so good.
The Bengals have gotten off to a third straight 0-2 start, and a big reason for that is a lack of a running game. The pieces are in place for a pretty good one. The coaching staff just has to be willing to use them.
In the season-opening loss to the New England Patriots, Cincinnati running backs carried the ball 12 times for 55 yards. By halftime, the Bengals had tallied a mere seven yards rushing.
Last week, in a narrow loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati’s backs produced 65 yards on the ground on 16 attempts. If the Bengals hope to avoid an 0-3 start, they are going to have to do better than that.
Monday night gives the Bengals an opportunity to do so. The strength of the Washington Commanders is their defensive line, and the best way to neutralize that is to come out and run right at them.
“Their front is really good,” quarterback Joe Burrow recently. “They are very disruptive. Their two interior players are big, strong, athletic guys that you really have to game plan for. Their linebackers are smart, veteran players that understand what you’re trying to do. So they get in and out of the right checks depending on what you’re doing at the line of scrimmage. That’s the strength of their team. Their outside guys are gonna make it tough. They’re gonna play physical. So, we’re gonna have to match that challenge.”
While Zack Moss has established himself as the primary running back with 78 yards rushing on 21 attempts (an average of 3.71 yards per carry), Chase Brown has been something of the odd man out.
Against the Patriots, Brown only got three carries and managed 11 yards. The following week, while Moss was struggling to an average of 2.8 yards per carry on his 12 attempts, Brown showed some of the explosiveness he has become known for with 31 yards on only four carries (an average of 7.8 yards per attempt).
Maybe it’s time to give Brown a bigger role in the offense.
“I did it in college,” Brown said in an earlier interview with Sports Illustrated. “That’s why we’re in this building. I think everybody in here has the same mindset of competing and producing in any way that they can, and that’s just my mindset every single day. However, that comes I’m ready to take on whatever comes my way.”
