When the Cincinnati Bengals played the Las Vegas Raiders in November, the focus of the Bengals offense on the first two drives of the game was to buy quarterback Joe Burrow enough time. If that could happen, then the Bengals could start the game with a few deep shots down the field.
But on the first third down of the game, Burrow had to scramble outside the pocket. On the second third down, he was strip-sacked for a fumble. On the following drive, the Raiders two star edge rushers forced Burrow to scramble again and throw the ball away on third down.
So head coach Zac Taylor made an adjustment, relying on the quick game and the run game for the rest of the way.
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In 2019 and 2020, the Bengals offense never had the ability to flip the switch that quickly. That versatility in the Bengals offense set up the team's run to the playoffs and Saturday’s rematch against the Raiders.
“You evolve over the course of the season,” Taylor said. “We’re not the exact same offense we were these first couple weeks of the season. We’ve evolved and started to lean some other directions. Our players have a lot of confidence in what we’re asking them to do.”
To finish the season playing the Bengals best offensive football in years, the Bengals needed to make several structural changes over the last 12 months. The most notable was hiring run game coordinator Frank Pollack, who helped make the Bengals one of the most versatile run teams in the NFL under the umbrella of a wide zone run scheme.
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The 2021 Bengals offense looks like what Taylor intended to create earlier in his career.
When Taylor was an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Rams, he coached with run game coordinator Aaron Kromer, a wide zone disciple. Taylor planned to bring those elements to the Bengals for the 2019 season. Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, the son of a wide zone coaching pioneer, was on the same page.
But the scheme didn’t work with the 2019 Bengals personnel. With an offensive line that had more size than quickness at offensive guard and a revolving door at tackle, Bengals running back Joe Mixon had a poor first half of the 2019 season.
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“We had to get away from it some to fit our scheme a little bit more to the players that we had at the time and the skill set of the guys around them,” Callahan said. “We got away a little bit from the wide zone game and really wanted to get back to that.”
Then the Bengals drafted Burrow, and the priority for the coaching staff in the offseason was tailoring the offense to Burrow's strengths. The Bengals almost always lined up in shotgun formation. When they ran the ball, they ran the 10th fewest wide zone runs in the NFL and the most inside zone runs in the NFL.
The run game was predictable as the team tried to pound the ball up the middle all season in 2020. As he realized the need to make an adjustment, Taylor decided to reinvent the run game for 2021. It took time, but the adjustment paid off.
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“We tweak things as we go and we evolve it to what the 2021 Bengals offense needs to look like,” Taylor said. “So you always take some pieces. Maybe some things that complement some things that you’ve hung your hat on, some things you’ve ‘stolen’ from some other teams. And again, you just make it what you are.”
The final product was one of the most multiple run games the Bengals have had in years, and Mixon ranks third in the NFL in rushing yards. Against the Raiders in the regular season, the Bengals captured how much of a difference there was in the scheme. The Bengals ran toss plays, gap schemes, jet sweeps and every kind of zone run.
It was the type of hard-to-predict run game that the Bengals didn’t use before the 2021 season.
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“We've got Joe Mixon and that offensive line that can move people in the run game,” Burrow said. “That's a big part of who we are as an offense and as a team. So teams have to prepare for that.”
Before every game, Taylor meets with the coaching staff to analyze what type of game plan the team is going to use. Against the Baltimore Ravens at home and the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bengals resembled a pass-first Big 12 offense. Against the Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bengals looked like a Big 10 offense that leans on its run games.
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Then there have been games where the Bengals have shown their confidence adjusting on the fly. On the road against the Ravens, Ja’Marr Chase had a better matchup than Tee Higgins, so Chase became the focal point of the offense after a few drives.
The goal heading into the 2021 season was that Taylor would have more options as a play caller. The result has been drives where the Bengals line up under center with an extra offensive lineman for a power run and then line up out of shotgun with five wide receivers a few plays later. The offense's identity can change on any snap.
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Heading into the second matchup versus the Raiders, the Bengals versatility will let them make the first move.
The number of choices that Taylor now has with the offense is one of the biggest reasons the Bengals played as well as they did in rematches versus the Steelers and Ravens this season. And it’s one of the biggest reasons the offense has been hard to stop all year.
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“I think any time you’re in the third year of the system, the guys have confidence in some of the nuances and the techniques and the overall scheme,” Taylor said. “They’ve been able to perform at a high level.”
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