Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons for win vs. Lions in Week 16
By Kenn Korb
2. Veteran Balance
One of the things that has been sorely lacking from Cincinnati’s offense this year has been positive balance (meanwhile, negative balance — where both facets of their attack fail to make an impact — has been in surplus).
They have ended up with the last-rated offense in terms of yardage in 2017 due to the passing game (28th in yardage; 26th in Football Outsiders Pass Offense DVOA) and rushing attack (31st in yardage; 20th in Rush Offense DVOA) almost always failing to find any semblance of success within the same game.
For once this year, they managed to find some, and it was their veterans who led their efforts.
That starts of course with Giovani Bernard. The fifth year veteran is in the midst of his least impactful season on the ground to date (his 406 rushing yards are more than the 337 he accumulated in 2016, but while he has been active for every game so far this season he only managed to appear in 10 last year due to an ACL tear), but an increased workload in December has come with mostly positive results.
Bernard put up his best total of the season on the ground with 116 rushing yards at 5.0 yards a pop. He didn’t stop there either; to go with the effective ground work, Bernard managed to lead the team in receptions (7) while picking up the second-most yardage through the air (52).
The player with the most receiving yardage? None other than Cincinnati’s best offensive player: A.J. Green. He picked up 82 yards on six receptions to lead the group and provide the needed pairing with Bernard to help the offense stay moving. With two of the most senior members of the offense playing at a high level, Cincinnati had what they needed to keep drives alive and eventually put up the points needed to win.
Speaking of keeping drives alive…