Cincinnati Bengals
Little margin for error for Bengals offense
By Scott Priestle, CNATI.com Posted November 23, 2009 3:21 PM ET
After 10 games, the Bengals offensive identity is well-established: They want to run the ball, and they are willing to do so against any defense. The Raiders flooded the line of scrimmage Sunday, and still the Bengals pushed on.
It has largely been effective but rarely has been pretty. There is little room for error, as they were reminded in Oakland.
"Obviously, we can't turn the ball over four times," guard Nate Livings said.
They also cannot afford sacks and penalties. The Bengals rank in the bottom half of the league in yards per game and yards per play.
They have one of the most efficient offenses in the league in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on 20 of 34 trips inside the opponent's 20-yard line. But they scored only two touchdowns and 17 total points on five trips Sunday; they fumbled the ball away once and missed a field goal, and the lost points made the difference in a 20-17 loss to the Raiders.
The Bengals have scored more than 23 points in only two of 10 games, and they needed overtime to reach 23 the last time they played the Browns.
Andrew Whitworth
"That's NFL football. Every offense has periods of lulls, every defense has periods of lulls," tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "You're going to have games like that. Learning how to win in those situations is what good football teams do. You see it all the time in the playoffs -- low-scoring games and one team figures out how to have that one drive to win the game."
The Bengals produced such a drive on a handful of occasions already this season, most notably the win in Baltimore and the two wins over Pittsburgh.
They drove toward a potential score early in the fourth quarter Sunday while nursing a seven-point lead. Fullback Jeremi Johnson fumbled at the Oakland 15-yard line. The Bengals went backward on their next drive and punted the ball away. They got it back with six minutes remaining and still held a seven-point lead, but the drive stalled at midfield, giving the Raiders a chance to tie.
"I don't feel like guys really played that bad. We just had some critical mistakes at times that you couldn't have," Whitworth said. "If we protect the ball and just hold onto it on that last six-minute drive and never give it back to them, they never have a chance to score."
Kyle Cook
Center Kyle Cook said, "I felt like we did some great things, and we did some things that obviously we need some corrections on. When we get down in the red zone, we've got to put points on the board. We can't rely just on our kicking game."
At midseason, the Bengals had the best red-zone offense in the league, scoring 18 touchdowns in 26 possessions. They have only two TDs in their past eight trips, which makes an ugly-but-effective offense look simply ugly.
Coach Marvin Lewis downplayed the absence of running back Cedric Benson. The Bengals still managed 37 yards on 13 carries inside the red zone Sunday, including a pair of one-yard TD runs by quarterback Carson Palmer.
More damaging were the 12 total running plays that were stopped for no gain or a loss. The Bengals frequently faced second- or third-and-long at a time when they were trying to milk the clock. Palmer threw only 12 passes in the second half, completing six.
"Their strategy was to pound everybody they could in the box and make us throw it over their head, and we weren't able to get any yards there," Whitworth said. "They brought that safety up into the box on almost every running play, it seemed like."
Whitworth said he understood why the Bengals went conservative in the second half, given their lead and how well the defense was playing. Oakland was not the first opponent to load up the defense to stop the run, and it was not the first time the Bengals elected to continue running the ball.
"Everybody watches film. We've been hot in the run game, so you expect they're going to put another guy in the box," Livings said. "If they do bring another guy, it's our job to block him. It shouldn't matter."
Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, Features
Tags: Andrew Whitworth, Bengals offense, Kyle Cook, Nate Livings
Comments (2)
"Their strategy was to pound everybody they could in the box and make us throw it over their head, and we weren't able to get any yards there," Whitworth said. "They brought that safety up into the box on almost every running play, it seemed like."
I hope they're not so in love to their new run the ball/play defense identity that they won't go pass heavy when they have to. I still thing they have personnel geared more towards the passing game than a power running game.
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As a Bengals fan I have to say that Raiders have an underrated Defense.
But there is still no reason for this team to fumble their way out of this game.
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