Film Breakdown: Analyzing Bengals' New and Improved Run Game

That was a play from last year but teams knew what to do this year as well. Watch as Minnesota slants the entire DL toward that motion:

However, this past week the Bengals broke their tendencies by having a run work away from that motion.

They didn’t quite catch Pittsburgh trying to slant the defensive line toward the motion, but it’s also probably not a coincidence that this went for an explosive run. Dalton Risner and Orlando Brown Jr. double team the defensive tackle into no man’s land which puts Brown in position to make a huge run.

They worked that same motion into a wide zone run a second time in the game and it also broke for a good gain:

This one comes with a broken tackle fairly early from Brown so it’s not all blocking and scheme, but this still goes for 12 yards and a first down. That's all you can ask for out of a first down running play. It was not just better setting up of their run plays either. Zac Taylor did a great job with his play action game as well.

The linebacker Patrick Queen is supposed to guard Brown in man-to-man coverage on this play, but blitzes because he believes that Brown is staying in to block after the play action. That could be because this is only the second time this season that the Bengals have sent Brown through the A or B gap on shotgun play action. Generally the Bengals send Brown to the edge on their shotgun play action concepts rather than marrying their run and pass by having him run through the interior. Brown drops this pass but you can see what would happen if he was able to hang onto it.

All of their wide zone work also allowed for them to hit this explosive play to Noah Fant:

Cincinnati is in one of their heavier run based personnels for this play with Drew Sample, Noah Fant, and Mitchell Tinsley on the field. They already hit wide zone to the left for two different 10+ yard runs in this game as well. This time they fake that wide zone concept to run a boot back to the right. The Steelers matched this run based 12 personnel from the Bengals with their base 3-4 defense which means that Jack Sawyer, a defensive end, is in coverage. To get Fant on him, the Bengals actually have Fant and Sample switch at the snap so Fant is outside and Sample is now inside. Fant then blocks Sawyer to hold him for a moment and then flashes his athleticism by beating him down the sideline.

Credit where credit is due in this game, Taylor did a great job of setting up his runs, breaking his own tendencies, and working believable play action off of those runs. It’s a big reason as to why the Bengals offense was so successful.

Blocking Improvement

The Bengals run blocking unit has drastically improved over the last few weeks and this game against the Steelers was a high watermark for them. Everything starts up front for these plays and last week was no exception.

Dalton Risner and Orlando Brown Jr. were a dynamic duo on Thursday that created displacement on their double teams with ease. This was already shown in the two wide zone concepts earlier but here they uproot a defensive tackle on duo as well.

The hole created by that double team and Drew Sample on Nick Herbig is ginormous. There’s some truth to the statement that you could drive a Mack truck through that hole. It’s unfortunate that Mitch Tinsley could not get a piece of the safety here to truly spring this run, but the blocking from the front 6 on this play is remarkable.

Risner had another highlight play of his own with this block against Queen:

Risner improved immensely these past two weeks compared to how he was playing prior to getting replaced by Jalen Rivers at right guard. The biggest improvement can be found in his run blocking. The extra effort to strain and drive on this block after initial contact is impressive. It opens up the width of the hole even more to make sure there is plenty of room to run.

Another guy who deserves quite a bit of the credit on the improved run game is tight end Drew Sample. Sample started the season slow as he struggled to win consistently as a blocker but that changed against the Steelers.

Sample was tasked with blocking one of the Steelers’ ends for most of the night. Here is an example of him performing admirably against Herbig:

He meets Herbig with force initially and then when the defensive end attempts to disengage, Sample stays attached, runs his feet, and drives Herbig across the field. Not only did he do his job on the initial portion of this but Sample brought a physicality to the block that set the tone for that matchup.

Sample brought that same intensity when matched up with Alex Highsmith as well.

It’s not a perfect block, but it’s a difficult one. Being asked to hold up against the defensive end on the duo concept is one of the hardest things a tight end can do. Sample makes contact, runs his feet, and holds the block long enough for the back to get to the second level. There’s additional difficulty because the back can hit this up the middle or bounce it outside as he does here. Sample needs to make sure he’s in good position so he does not get flagged for holding when the end attempts to disengage.

All things considered, this was a great day in the office for the blocking unit. They set the tone with physicality and played a large part in the run game success.

Running Improvement

Over the course of this season, Brown has a 25% rushing success rate and -3 rushing yards over expectation. However, this past week, Brown had a 54.5% rushing success rate and 66 rushing yards over expectation. How he ran is a big reason why those statistics improved so much.

Risner and Ted Karras do a great job of getting their bodies in position to give the back a clear read on this play and their blocks spring Brown to the safety untouched. From there though, it’s Brown’s ability as a runner that stands out. He makes that safety miss in the open field which turns this from a good gain into a great gain. He picks up about 25 extra yards by making that safety miss. He also got help from Ja’Marr Chase, who had a nice downfield block.

This iso concept could have been dead on arrival because of the safety. There’s no one to block the safety in this scenario, but Brown does an exemplary job of showing how to stay tight to his blocks and make a defender miss. He then pushes for additional yardage after meeting more defenders. This push for the hidden yardage found through physicality stood out quite a bit with Brown in the game against the Steelers.

Brown had a season-high three broken tackles but more than that, Brown more than doubled his highest mark in yards after contact per attempt.

In the previous six weeks, Brown’s best performance in yards after contact per attempt was 4.1 against the Cleveland Browns. His season average prior to last week was 3.03 yards after contact per attempt. Against the Steelers, Brown averaged 9.1 yards after contact per attempt. A staggering number that shows just how strong Brown was as a runner in this game.

The Bengals may have fine tuned their run game to finally be a weapon in this offense. It will take consistency from everyone to achieve similar results, but their Week 7 performance against the Steelers should be commended.