Run-game revival will help Bengals, Dalton

[Bengals1181]

SAN DIEGO -- On a wall inside meeting rooms used by members of the Cincinnati Bengals' offense, three simple numbers are posted. Behind them lies an unspoken, but well understood meaning for the men who walk by them every day. 

"150-plus." 

That's the yardage target for the Bengals' rushing attack every game. Next to that number on the wall, a string of unmet expectations from earlier in the season have been spelled out. But when the Bengals glance at the number Monday morning, there won't be any disappointment. They will see something they had only seen twice before this year: a "yes." 

"All we've been seeing is, 'No, no, no, no, yes, no, no, no,'" offensive tackle Anthony Collinssaid inside the visitors locker room at Qualcomm Stadium. "This time it's going to feel good going into our meeting room and seeing a 'Yes.' It's going to feel real good." 

The Bengals rushed for 164 yards against the San Diego Chargers. It was only the third time they had gone beyond the 150-yard mark this season. 

If they are going to experience the deep postseason run many have been anticipating since last offseason, the Bengals are going to need more feelgood Mondays and more yeses on their meeting room walls. 

How will they do that? By focusing on having the type of run-game revival that led to Sunday's important 17-10 win on the road over the Chargers. 

 

"We have to be able to establish the run out there because it's getting to be that time of the year," running backBenJarvus Green-Ellis said. "It's colder and things like that and the weather might play a factor down the stretch, especially in the AFC North and in Cincinnati." 

For a team with a quarterback that has been as inconsistent as Andy Dalton, it also is getting to that time of year when the coaching staff realizes that perhaps it's time to forgo certain elements of the passing game in an effort to ride the running game. Since the swoon that Dalton fell into following a red-hot October appears to be continuing, the Bengals would be well served to help their struggling quarterback by letting Collins, Green-Ellis and the rest of those responsible for the ground attack to take over. 

For three weeks, some thought Dalton might finally be considered among the elite quarterbacks in the league. 

But the past four weeks have shown just how far away from that he remains. 

Just consider his latest outing. 

After committing to running the ball on their final drive of the first quarter, the Bengals decided to test out Dalton's arm in the second quarter. What they got were three incompletions in five attempts, an interception and a 21.2 first-half passer rating. The passing game wasn't working. 

Following halftime, the Bengals resumed a run-pass balance that helped free up A.J. Green for a 21-yard touchdown reception. That play was the difference in the win. 

Of the 17 offensive plays Cincinnati had in the third quarter, nine were runs. Of the seven plays that resulted in first downs in the quarter, four came on runs. 

"We knew that running the football was going to be important," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "We did a very good job of that." 

Green-Ellis paced the rushing attack, grinding out 92 yards on 20 carries. 

Part of what helped the prolific rushing attack was the fact that Cincinnati was forced to move left offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth to the inside following the first-quarter injury to left guard Clint Boling. Much like the Bengals did when Boling went down briefly in a game at Cleveland this season, they made up for his absence Sunday by sliding Whitworth over and moving Collins into Whitworth's tackle slot. Right tackle Andre Smith, who had been benched in favor of Collins for an unspecified reason, came into the game after the injury and played his normal position. 

It's hard to call what could be a significant knee injury a blessing in disguise but in this case, it might be. With Boling out, the large and athletic Whitworth was forced into pulling and serving as a lead blocker for Green-Ellis. 

"With him pulling, it was just like an old-school game," Green-Ellis said. "When he pulls, you can't even seen the linebacker. So you just kind of pick your poison with where you go." 

Whitworth's blocks and Green-Ellis' runs freed Dalton to connect with receivers on play-action and in running-down situations. After taking the ball for the final five-minute drive, the Bengals came out looking like they would run on first down. Instead, they sent Green down the sideline for a 28-yard catch. Dalton, who had 41 yards passing at the half, ended with 190 yards in the game. 

Bengals linebacker Vincent Rey understands how a balanced offense will better challenge opposing defenses. 

"It's tough. They're not one-dimensional," he said. "In this league, offensive players are so good that you need to make offenses one-dimensional for you to have a chance to win. It's tough when you're hitting on all cylinders like our offense. When they're running the ball, if you're an opposing defense, you don't know what's coming. It's tough. You never want to be in that position." 

As an offense, it doesn't get much better than what the Bengals showcased Sunday. Keep moving the ball with the run and countering with key passes, and the Bengals might be saying "Yes" for more reasons than one.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/post/_/id/3447/bengals-andy-dalton-running-game-help

[Bengals1181]

The Bengals once went four seasons without one of their running backs having a 100-yard game but in the 10 previous seasons Marvin Lewis has been the head coach they've always managed to have at least three games in which someone rushes for 100 or more yards.

It hasn't happened yet through the first 12 games but there was no bigger offensive reason for the Bengals leaving San Diego with a 17-10 win over the Chargers than their run game. BenJarvus Green-Ellis had a season-high 92 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries while Giovani Bernard added 57 yards on 14 carries as part of an overall 164-yard effort behind a reshuffled offensive line.

The Bengals came into the game with the No. 20 rushing attack in the NFL but Sunday was the seventh time they've gone over 100 yards as a team and the fourth time they've had at least 160 yards on the ground in a game this season.

"We're a tough bunch and they thrive on toughness and grit," said Lewis. "It was a day where we knew that running the football was going to be important and I thought we did a very good job of that.

"We came in and did what we had to do."

The Bengals are 8-4 and still have a two-game lead in the AFC North over Baltimore because they did. The offense managed just 104 yards and seven first downs in the first half, most of which came on a 10-play, 67-yard drive that Green-Ellis capped off with a 4-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter. 

Quarterback Andy Dalton completed just 5 of 10 passes in the first half for 41 yards and one interception for a passer rating of 21.1.

In the second half, Dalton was 9-of-13 for 149 yards, one touchdown and a 133.1 rating. It's amazing what a sustained running game can do for the rest of the offense.

"The run game was big for us and I think we put an emphasis on it and the guys responded," said Dalton. "The guys up front played really well getting a lot of movement and the backs did a really good job getting a lot of tough yardage that helped us win the game."

The Bengals were without starting right guard Kevin Zeitler for the second straight game because of a foot injury, but with a veteran like Mike Pollak that wasn't as much of a concern as one might think. 

When left guard Clint Boling went down with 3:29 remaining first quarter with what Lewis described after the game as a significant knee injury, that's when the shuffling began. Rookie Tanner Hawkinson was on the inactive list. Anthony Collins was starting at right tackle in place of Andre Smith, leaving second-year center Trevor Robinson as the only other offensive lineman on the bench. 

Shuffling didn't equal panic. The defense has been shuffling all season, having lost eight of its members to injured reserve. If Boling's season ends up being done, as Lewis indicated, he would be the first offensive player to go on IR. 

Smith entered the game at his normal right tackle spot, Collins flipped over to left tackle and Whitworth slid inside one spot to left guard. He started 24 games at that position his first three seasons (2006-08) but has been the starting left tackle in 74 of 76 games since 2009. As many times as Whitworth pulled to the right and led a power run by Green-Ellis or Bernard, it was if he had never left the position.

"That's the kind of style that we want to do and get after people," said Whitworth. 

The Bengals had a 17-7 lead in the fourth quarter when safety George Iloka forced a fumble by San Diego wide receiver Keenan Allen that linebacker Vinny Rey recovered at the Chargers' 34-yard line. The Bengals were in prime position to put the finishing touches on the game with 7:00 left when Green-Ellis burst through the line to convert a third-and-1 play.
 
Green-Ellis made one mistake on the play. He lost the ball when San Diego safety Marcus Gilchrist tackled him. San Diego recovered the fumble and got a 48-yard field goal by Nick Novak to cut the Bengals' lead to seven points with 4:43 remaining.
 
The Chargers never got another shot at the ball. The Bengals ran out the remainder of the clock, calling running plays eight times for 35 yards, including six carries for 29 yards and three first downs by Green-Ellis. His last carry for five yards allowed Dalton to take a knee twice and run out the clock.

It was an appropriate way to finish off the game.

"We're fortunate to have such a great runner that rarely fumbles," said Lewis. "Unfortunately we had a chance to put some distance between us there then the fumble was unfortunate. He's our guy and we have a lot of confidence in him."

The last time the Bengals failed to have a single running back rush for at least one 100-yard game in a season was 1996. That was the last year of a four-season stretch without a 100-yard back. 

If the Bengals don't get a single 100-yard back this season, it doesn't seem like a big matter. When they run the ball like they did against the Chargers, it just doesn't matter.

 

http://www.foxsportsohio.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/story/Bengals-run-over-Chargers-in-17-10-win?blockID=968333&feedID=11217

[Rumble In the Jungle]

Last year I remember BenJarvis getting hot towards the end of the season. Hope he could do the same and get going for the last stretch and bulldoze his way through.

[bengaled]

i'll take two RBs rushing for 149 yds over one RB hitting the century mark EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK. team goals rank above individual goals.

[Bengals1181]

With a wintry mix and a balmy 35 playoff-like degrees in the early forecast for Sunday's X-L AFC match of division leaders at Paul Brown Stadium between the Bengals and Colts, Cincinnati broke out its running game just in time last Sunday in San Diego's 75-degree greenhouse.

"You have to. We had two back-to-back (bad-weather games) the last couple games," Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said Monday, sounding like a Weather Channel reporter shivering on the banks of the Ohio River.

"At Baltimore, the winds were very difficult to throw the ball and the home game here against Cleveland, it was hard to throw the ball in the rain and the wind. We figured the last four games, we have an opportunity for four bad-weather games. So establishing some kind of running game is going to be important to keep the clock moving, keep our defense off the field and try to get something."

Marvin Lewis's two AFC North title teams have had higher-ranked running games, but never a tandem that broke 1,500 yards as the Bengals try to win that third one with the freshest 1-2 punch they've had since Lewis's first season 10 years ago.

 

And BenJarvus Green-Ellis andGiovani Bernard are on pace to be the club's most potent 1-2 punch since James Brooks and Ickey Woods ran the Bengals to the AFC title 25 years ago. Projected to rack up 695 yards on 159 carries in his rookie season, Bernard would end up with the most yards by the club's second-leading rusher since Brooks went for 931 yards in '88 to back Woods' rookie run of 1,066.

 

Green-Ellis, headed to 819 on 235 carries, won't gain 1,000 like he did last season. But he's on pace to end up with 43 fewer carries and he was fresh enough to bang for 36 yards on the last seven plays Sunday as the offensive line obliterated the final 4:43 of the 17-10 victory over the Chargers.

"I didn’t really take it into consideration, but it felt like the start of the season again," Green-Ellis said Monday of the bye. "My legs aren’t feeling it today. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. But as of now everything’s good to go.

"In a perfect world that would be the plan (splitting carries). Hopefully we take some of the wear and tear off both of our bodies. That’s the ultimate goal when you get around this time of year that we’re still fresh and the defenses are not as fresh. Other teams aren’t as fresh as we are, so even their backs are taking more of the load and hopefully they’re wearing down and we’re still good to go."

With Corey Dillon rooting on Rudi Johnson in 2003, the Bengals ran for 1,498 yards with Johnson just missing out on 1,000 yards with 957 on 215 carries and Dillon's final 138 carries as a Bengal netting 541. The tandem of Johnson (170) and Kenny Watson (178) in 2007 accounted for 1,260 yards on 348 carries, but The Law Firm and the G-Man are on pace for 1,514 on 374 carries.  

The run-game aficionados haven't been pleased with Cincinnati's pass-run ratio this season. Even during Sunday's game when the Bengals ran it 38 times and threw it 23, eyebrows were raised after they got their first touchdown pounding for 47 yards on six carries on a drive that ended with Green-Ellis walking in from four yards out over the right side. But the Bengals opened the next series on their own 14 with no backs and threw an incompletion on the way to a three-and-out.

But then again, that TD drive started on a nine-yard pass to wide receiver Mohamed Sanu and that's where Gruden is coming from. He's trying to win on first down to prevent the gargantuan third-and-longs of the previous three games.

On Sunday the Bengals had seven third downs of just three yards or less. They made six of them and Gruden felt good enough to run it five of the times, all successful. The five third downs of longer than three yards to go failed.

"It's going to be different every week. You play Baltimore, they have (Haloti) Ngata and Terrell Suggs and it will be difficult. But it's a mindset you have to have," Gruden said. "You bank on your guys getting a little bit of movement and the back taking a guy, maybe an unblocked guy in the hole and carrying him for three or four yards and keeping you in positive down and distance and not losing yards. That was a good thing about it.

"We had one play in there, we ran a lead weak and we didn't block it well and we missed the cut but we still gained a yard or two, which enabled us to run it on third and (four) and we got the first down to end the game. So as long as we can avoid the negative and zero-yard plays in the run game, then we have a chance to continue to run it. But when it's second-and-11, second-and-12, it would be hard to convince me to run it again and get to third-and-8 and then what?"

But there's no question that how the Bengals set up with one of the NFL's top combination of defense and special teams units, when they run the ball they win. And while they are ranked 18th in the NFL in the run this season, the Bengals have two backs that can impact games. The Law Firm did it so well in San Diego he's got a new nickname.

"I get a lot of that Mariano Rivera stuff. People call me ‘The Closer.’ I guess I’m getting a new nickname," said BJGE, belying his New England roots. "It’s fun. Obviously you like to have the ball in your hands to close out games. I just want to continue to play well and try to win games for the team; that’s my ultimate goal."

Bernard showed how he did it by getting the Bengals into overtime in back-to-back weeks with two breathtaking touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.

And don't worry about the rookie wall for the 5-9, 205-pound Bernard. He could stand a few more carries. He's on pace for 159 after two seasons at North Carolina he ran it 239 times as a freshman and 184 times last season.

"I’m not going to say there is a wall. Everybody in the NFL hits a point where they say, ‘OK, we have this amount of games left and we have to churn it out,’ " Bernard said. "You’re not going to feel great every game. You’re not going to feel how you did coming into the season, so you’re just going to have to turn it up that much more. I’m not going to say there’s a rookie wall. I haven’t hit one. I just realize every game you’re not going to feel 100 percent.

"The bye definitely helped tremendously. It helps everyone here. It kind of gives us a little time to relax and get our minds off football and freshen up our bodies and come out full speed. That’s what we wanted to do against San Diego, and we did that."

 

Like Rivera, Green-Ellis has had to overcome giving up a few dingers. Especially Sunday's fumble converting a third-and-one into the red zone and giving the Chargers new life with nearly seven minutes left in the game. But he came back two minutes later to take it out on the defense with seven fastball runs.

 

"When you give up one of those, it’s like you have something burning inside of you that you didn’t even know you had. You just get a lot more energy and power," Green-Ellis said. "Obviously when you mess up, you feel like you owe people. I felt like I owed the other 52 guys on the team, and I owed the whole Cincinnati Bengals organization and staff and all of our fans.

"When you hold the ball, you have the fate of the team in your hands. And if you lose it, it basically means you let everyone down. When you mess up like that, you’ve got to come back and show some aggression and take your pain out on the other team."

This isn't The Law Firm's first trial. He was the meat-and-potatoes guy for the lavish Xs-and-Os of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in his Patriotic days, so he's been around a few stretch runs in the AFC weather.

"It’s always important that we stay balanced because we might get a windy game. You never know what the weather might be," BJGE said. "It might be snowy or rainy like we played against New England. We just have to be prepared for all the elements and make sure we’re doing our part to bring to the table a good running game, a good passing game, a stout defense and good special teams."

The run game has to be on the team's mind. In the final four games, the Bengals play one defense that's not in the lower half of the league against the run. The Ravens are ranked sixth, but the Colts are 28th, the Vikings 23rdand the Steelers 18th.

"If you're one-sided in the running game and you're playing a team that can really stop the run—and there are teams that can really, really make it difficult to run—then you're going to be in trouble because you can't throw," Gruden said. "If you're just a throwing team and you play in bad-weather games and you say 'OK, now we're going to run the ball,' it's tough.

"But we've been really grinding on these guys about balance and being able to run and throw. We have enough quick passes and play-actions that we feel we can win a lot of different ways offensively, not to mention (special teams coordinator) Darrin Simmons and (Mike) Zimmer's defense will do a lot of help for us."

 

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Bengals-eye-run-down-the-stretch/65c54c32-e222-4739-8d44-cf9e824d8a2f