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Rookies Joe Mixon, Josh Malone catching eyes in Bengals' first scrimmage


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http://www.espn.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/post/_/id/27468/rookies-joe-mixon-josh-malone-catching-eyes-in-bengals-first-scrimmage

Rookies Joe Mixon, Josh Malone catching eyes in Bengals' first scrimmage

CINCINNATI -- The Bengals are less than a week out from their preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it's clear they're still very much a work in progress.

The Bengals held a scrimmage Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium in front of 11,000 fans, with the intention of giving some of the younger players their first taste of a game-like setting. The Bengals split up into two teams, with quarterback Andy Dalton and the first-team offense playing against the second-team defense.

Rookies Joe Mixon and Josh Malone were the highlight of the day, with Malone using his 6-foot-3, 208-pound frame to make several contested catches. Malone said his basketball background in high school helps him.

"I feel like it comes natural. I have a big frame," Malone said. "I think it was natural because of the basketball background and over the years learning how to use my frame."

While it's difficult to judge a running back without the benefit of live tackling, Mixon looked elusive and caught a short pass from Dalton for a touchdown.

Joe Mixon makes a cut on a run Saturday during the Bengals' scrimmage at Paul Brown Stadium. Kareem Elgazzar/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP

Dalton also looked sharp, leading the team down the field for a 96-yard touchdown drive, capped by a touchdown pass to H-back Ryan Hewitt. Unofficially, Dalton completed 13-of-19 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns.

"I thought we moved the ball well," Dalton said. "Guys made plays. It’s one of those mock things. There’s no game-planning involved."

The offensive line looked better Saturday after completing one of its worst practices Friday. It still wasn't a perfect day for the unit. Dalton's touchdown pass was close to being called a sack after Chris Smith beat Cedric Ogbuehi to get in Dalton's face.

Because the quarterbacks aren't allowed to be touched, it was essentially a judgment call by the officials, but Dalton said he thought he got the ball off in time.

 

"Their coach wasn't real happy with them this morning," offensive line coach Paul Alexander said. "We've got a lot of work to do, but it was a heck of a lot better than it was the last couple days."

It was a learning day on special teams as well, as Jake Elliott and John Rossdidn't have their best days. Ross never returned punts in college, so his fielding has been hit or miss.

Special-teams coordinator Darrin Simmons said Ross struggled to field punts when the sun was in his eyes. He's also learning to make the right judgments on when to field a punt and when to let it go.

"Those are all good things, so you get the cobwebs and some of that stuff worked out before you're actually playing live stuff," Simmons said. "And there are going to be things like that. Some of those things are going to happen. When you have a guy who is inexperienced and hasn't done it before, you're going to have some of that."

Rookie kicker Jake Elliott also missed a 52-yard field goal and a PAT.

"It was just a bad hit. No excuses. It faded right on me," Elliott said.

The Bengals will get the day off Sunday and return to practice Monday at 3 p.m.

Kicking updates: Elliott made a 32-yarder and was wide left from 52 yards but recovered to make a 51-yarder later in the practice. Randy Bullock was good from 40, 35 and 52 yards and made his PAT.

Injury report: George Iloka, Cedric Peerman, Brandon Wilson, Jake Kumerow, Tony McRae, PJ Dawson, TJ Johnson, David Dean and Chris Brown did not participate in the scrimmage.

Ups and downs: The Bengals were called for 10 penalties, with eight accepted, including a pass-interference penalty on KeiVarae Russell that set up a touchdown on the next play. Russell was attempting to cover Brandon LaFell. Hewitt scored on the next play. ... William Jackson was called for pass interference while attempting to cover Cody Core.

Plays of the day: Dalton found tight end Tyler Eifert over the middle for a gain of more than 20 yards after Eifert made a nice reach to stretch out for the ball. ... Carlos Dunlap and Carl Lawson each sacked AJ McCarron. ... Wille Clarke batted down a pass from Dalton intended for Malone. ... Clint Bolingsprung Jeremy Hill for a nice gain for the second straight day. ... Dalton faked to Hill and found A.J. Green for a nice gain. ... Brandon Bell almost had an interception but couldn't hang on to the ball.

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12 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

I like how they're getting Hewitt involved early.  Benching him for Rex had a lot to do with Hill struggling.

 

SMASHMOUTH MF FOOTBALL.

 

This is still the AFC North.  There are no domes.  Winter is coming.

+1

seems like the last time we ran the ball well (2 years ago?) was behind Hewitt. He was a forgotten man last year.

It will be interesting to see if they get back to him now.

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1 hour ago, fredtoast said:

Hill's numbers have always been better without a fullback/H-back.

 

 

Don't know why that myth keeps getting brought back up.

 

ORLY? Source? What about Gio? 

 

Why do we run the ball for shit, in your opinion?  We get cute in short yardage because we can't rush for 2 yards consistently and it pisses me off.

 

Is is Assistant HC Paul Alexasdnarf? I bet it is.

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7 hours ago, T-Dub said:

 

ORLY? Source? What about Gio? 

 

Why do we run the ball for shit, in your opinion?  We get cute in short yardage because we can't rush for 2 yards consistently and it pisses me off.

 

Is is Assistant HC Paul Alexasdnarf? I bet it is.

2016 - Shotgun 4.3 YPC, I-Formation 1.9 YPC, Lone back 4.1 YPC

2015 - Shotgun 3.8 YPC, I-Formation 3.0 YPC, Lone back 3.3 YPC

2014 - Shotgun 6.6 YPC, I-Formation 5.3 YPC, Lone back 5.5 YPC

 

That's from ESPN splits

 

I'm not agreeing with Fred just giving the data and source so we can move this along. Sometimes stats are awesome and you both know I love statistical analysis, but this is a case where there are a lot of factors reallllllllllllllly skewing the numbers. This past year Hill was utilized so differently that you can't just look at that 1.9 YPC in the I-formation and say that he sucks running behind a FB and that's his only issue. Teams are more likely to line up in the I in short yardage situations which is going to bring a lot of RB's YPC down in that specific split. It's very scheme based and the numbers here don't come close to telling the whole story.

 

As far as our o-line goes, we've been pretty good at pass blocking and pretty bad at run blocking for like 15 years now. This year we may be bad at both. Yay.(?) I don't know, but hopefully Piano man can pull something together with this line because we could be in for a disaster and a huge waste of all of the talent we have on offense.

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BTW Josh Malone was a steal.  Despite the fact that the Vols QB was drafted in the fourth round they really had a simplistic passing attack.  Malone would have put up much bigger numbers with a better passing team.  Still had almost a thousand yards, averaged over 19 per catch, and scored 11 tds.  When he ran a 4.4 at the combine I thought he would get drafted much higher.

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8 hours ago, T-Dub said:

 

 

Why do we run the ball for shit, in your opinion?  We get cute in short yardage because we can't rush for 2 yards consistently and it pisses me off.

Our running game nees to get better, but it is not the shit that you claim it is.  Seems that is just your defaiult opinion on everything about the Bengals.

 

In short yardage situations the Bengals were right at league average in success rate.  We need to improve, but it is not horrible.  Did you happen to notice Jeremy Hill punching in a few TDs from short yardage last yearor were you too busy bitching on the internet?

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15 minutes ago, fredtoast said:

Our running game nees to get better, but it is not the shit that you claim it is.  Seems that is just your defaiult opinion on everything about the Bengals.

 

In short yardage situations the Bengals were right at league average in success rate.  We need to improve, but it is not horrible.  Did you happen to notice Jeremy Hill punching in a few TDs from short yardage last yearor were you too busy bitching on the internet?

Freddy, to say it's not shit (when talking about the run blocking) is really questionable. We did rank higher in a lot of these the previous 2 years, but here are last year's run stats:

 

%of runs on 3rd/4th down, 2 or less yards to go that achieved 1st down or TD - 19th

Tackling at or behind the LOS - 15th

RBs to the 2nd level - 26th

RB 10+ yards past LOS - 23rd

 

And we just lost our 2 best run blockers in free agency ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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49 minutes ago, fredtoast said:

BTW Josh Malone was a steal.  Despite the fact that the Vols QB was drafted in the fourth round they really had a simplistic passing attack.  Malone would have put up much bigger numbers with a better passing team.  Still had almost a thousand yards, averaged over 19 per catch, and scored 11 tds.  When he ran a 4.4 at the combine I thought he would get drafted much higher.

Malone is the rookie I'm most excited about to see play. I think he can bring a really great addition to our passing game, especially in the red zone . I think his basketball playing skills will help him in this area.

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1 hour ago, omgdrdoom said:

Freddy, to say it's not shit (when talking about the run blocking) is really questionable. We did rank higher in a lot of these the previous 2 years, but here are last year's run stats:

 

%of runs on 3rd/4th down, 2 or less yards to go that achieved 1st down or TD - 19th

Tackling at or behind the LOS - 15th

RBs to the 2nd level - 26th

RB 10+ yards past LOS - 23rd

 

The first two stats back up what I said.  Their 19th rank was only like one percentage below the league average in short yardage situations, and the 15t rank on stuffs is also right at league average.

 

Those last two stats ar RB problems not O-line problems.

 

So while we all agree that they need to improve league average is not "total shit".

 

FootballOutsiders has a metric called Adjusted Line Yards".  It gives the O-line more blame for losses and short yardage runs and the RBs more credit for long runs.  It also adjusts for down and distance so that a 10 yard run on 3rd and 15 is not as good as a 3 yard run on 3rd and 2.  Here are the Bengals ranking the last 5 years.

 

'16.....14

'15..... 1

'14.....11

'13.....11

'12.....11

avg... 9.6

 

Power ranking is success rate on 3rd and 4th down with 1 or 2 yards to go or any snap inside the 2 yard line.

 

'16.....19

'15.....13

'14..... 9

'13.....19

'12..... 5

avg... 13.0

 

Stuffs rate is the percentage of runs for zero gain or a loss

 

'16.....15

'15..... 3

'14..... 3

'13..... 9

'12..... 9

avg...7.8

 

 

So top 10 in adjusted line yards and stuff rate.  Short yardage success is not as good with an average 13.0 but still above league average.

 

The numbers from '12 are very impressive considering we had a rookie starting every game at RG and used 3 different starting centers (Cooke, Faine, Robinson).  In 13 both of our starting OGs missed four games and Whit missed 2.  In '14 we had a rookie start every game at center, our RG missed 4 games and our RT missed 7.  In '15 when everyone stayed pretty health we had the NUMBER ONE run blocking line in the league according to Adjusted Line Yards.

 

Again, let me repeat that we need to improve.  I am just saying that too many people claim that our O-line has been shit at run blocking for years. That just is not true.  In fact, over the last 5 years they have been pretty much top 10 in the league.

 

 

 

 

 

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I like how Joe Mixon is the 4th RB on the depth chart. I'm like seriously WTF. I know it's not gonna stay that way. I'm sure Cedric Peerman would understand them putting Mixon ahead of him. What do they have against pissing off a veteran. Hell they'll probably keep 2 kickers because they're too scared to send out a rookie kicker.

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5 hours ago, jhowdy54 said:

I like how Joe Mixon is the 4th RB on the depth chart. I'm like seriously WTF. I know it's not gonna stay that way. I'm sure Cedric Peerman would understand them putting Mixon ahead of him. What do they have against pissing off a veteran. Hell they'll probably keep 2 kickers because they're too scared to send out a rookie kicker.

Ummm...you do remember who the HC of the Bengals actually is?

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5 hours ago, jhowdy54 said:

I like how Joe Mixon is the 4th RB on the depth chart. I'm like seriously WTF. I know it's not gonna stay that way. I'm sure Cedric Peerman would understand them putting Mixon ahead of him. What do they have against pissing off a veteran. Hell they'll probably keep 2 kickers because they're too scared to send out a rookie kicker.

 

Despite the myths circulating on message boards and talk radio Marvin Lewis plays rookies and young players just as much as the average NFL team.  

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4 minutes ago, fredtoast said:

 

Despite the myths circulating on message boards and talk radio Marvin Lewis plays rookies and young players just as much as the average NFL team.  

^

 

Some teams HAVE to play rookies because they don't have enough quality players on their roster. Like when we had to take an NFL ready QB in the draft because we didn't have a starter going into the 2011 season. It's not always a good thing to see rookies on the field.

 

I've never really understood why people say Marvin doesn't play our young guys enough. If we have an immediate need and a rookie fills the position, they play. If there is a good vet in front of a young player, we let them learn behind them, which is pretty much what other NFL teams do too. We've also hit the injury bug with our 1st rounders lately and those guys are typically the ones you see starting around the league. It's not really uncommon for random 4th round players to ride the pine.

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Honestly, I would list Mixon as #4 on the depth chart as well.  He hasn't even taken a pre-season snap.  Rookies should start at the bottom and work their way up unless there is no qualified veteran at the position.  My comment referred to the fact that Lewis does favor veterans.  Most of the time that's a good thing.  Why would you expect different?

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