Jeremy Hill needs to get more carries

The Cincinnati Bengals 24-3 Thursday Night Football loss to the rival Cleveland Browns was infuriating in a myriad of ways, because we ended up watching an embarrassing drubbing and a historically lousy performance from Andy Dalton. It was clear that the Bengals were beat in every facet of the game, and both Marvin Lewis and Hue Jackson were badly outcoached by Mike Pettine, Kyle Shanahan, and the rest of the Brown staff. But nothing has been more frustrating than the Bengals handling of rookie running back Jeremy Hill, who has looked like a revelation when given the opportunity to carry the rock.

Hill seemed poise to get a significant dose of carries against the Browns after ripping up the Jacksonville Jaguars to the tune of 154 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, but the Bengals had different plans for the Week 9 Rookie of the Week.

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While I understand that the Bengals were down and needed to try and make plays, Dalton was struggling so much that Hill should have received significantly more than 12 carries, especially with Giovani Bernard out. But instead of handing the ball off to Hill more often, the Bengals decided to bench him after an unlucky fumble. Hill was clearly the team’s most impressive player in their embarrassing loss, as he averaged a solid 4.6 yards per carry, which isn’t easy to do against the Browns defense.

I have no idea what Lewis and Jackson were thinking in that debacle, but they clearly haven’t been thinking straight when it comes to Hill. He’s been given extensive playing time just twice this season, and he was excellent in both of those games (the other contest was a 74-yard, TD performance agains the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2). The fumble isn’t a legitimate justification, and the Bengals coaching staff deserves to be heavily criticized for benching him after just one fumble, which was the first fumble of his career. What kind of a message is that? “You’ve been our only effective player on offense, but we’re going to bench you anyway for a play that wasn’t even your fault. Sorry, man.”

Jackson has done a terrific job of putting Dalton in positions to succeed this season, but he hasn’t been as much of a run-friendly offensive coordinator as we thought. It’s also frustrating to see how little he uses Hill, even though the LSU product has excelled. The numbers don’t lie here. Hill is averaging 4.7 yards per carry this season, has five rushing touchdowns, and has just two less missed tackles than Bernard, per the Pro Football Focus, despite having 25 less carries on the season.

It would be a major knee-jerk reaction for someone to sit there and say that Hill is a better pure rusher than Bernard, but I think he’s made an excellent case for earning more carries in the Bengals offense. He is averaging 0.6 more yards per carry than Bernard, and he has also been much more consistent than Bernard with a success rate% of 47.2% compared to just 32.7% for the second-year back out of UNC.

Bernard is still the No. 1 back in the Bengals offense, and that shouldn’t change. But what should change is Hill’s average of just 9.6 rushing attempts per game. This offense should be based on the running game, and I think Hill and Bernard could form the game’s best 1-2 punch of young backs. Heck, they could even more the NFL’s best 1-2 punch overall, because they have the perfect mix. Bernard is the explosive RB who can take it to the house, while Hill is the bruising back who can run over almost anyone. The only problem (and this is a good problem) is that Bernard can also ground out tough yardage up the middle, and Jeremy Hill has also proven that he’s capable of bouncing outside. I know it’s hard to find a balance, but the Bengals need to find a way to get Hill more involved, because his 4.7 YPC and consistent rushing are proof that he’s earned that opportunity.

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