It isn’t just that they ran the ball three times. It is how they ran the ball.
The Cincinnati Bengals dropped to 1-4 against the Baltimore Ravens in overtime Sunday.
One crucial sequence that people are focusing on is the offense calling three run plays in a row after getting the ball on Baltimore’s 38-yard line. They only gained three yards and missed the field goal.
It looks even worse when you look at the runs that were called.
The run game wasn’t working for the Bengals today.
It was especially poor up the middle — 15 carries for 35 yards pic.twitter.com/sxSRiVLyiu
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) October 7, 2024
The offensive line wasn’t winning the battle up the middle Sunday for the most part. So to take the ball out of Joe Burrow’s hands and run it up the middle looks worse in retrospect.
The offense finally got rolling behind Burrow and the aerial assault. The idea that you want to avoid falling out of field goal range is valid. However, you don’t need to call a play where Burrow has to sit in the pocket for a while. You also can’t play scared at 1-3, because things like what we saw Sunday can happen.
Sure, the team was a fumbled hold away from a possible win. But this team has been X play(s) away from a number of wins. So is every NFL team. You have to find ways to win games. You can’t find ways to not lose because you will open up more opportunities to lose.
Hopefully, this is a learning opportunity, but it may have cost a major opportunity as the Bengals could have been second in the division that is looking more and more winnable.
