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When the Cincinnati Bengals took the field in Week 8 against the Philadelphia Eagles, they were famously favored to secure the win.
Now granted, they were the home team, and they weren't even favored by a field goal by most margins, but in the end, anyone who put money on the Bengals looked pretty foolish, as they handed Jalen Hurts – in mis-matched shoes – and the Eagles their most complete win of the season and had to watch as Saquon Barkley controlled the time of possession with his hard-nosed runs.
Discussing the team's offensive issues with reporters after the game, Burrow addressed the Bengals' inability to get much going on the ground, with Barkley nearly doubling Cincinatti's run total on his own.
“They have a good front, so when you're struggling running like that, then their pass rushers start to tee off a little bit,” Burrow told reporters. “We knew that going in. We knew their front was good, they were going to be disruptive. We knew we were going to have to score points and we didn't score enough points today.”
In a game where not only Barkley, but also Hurts outrushed the Bengals' lead rusher, Chase Brown, it makes sense that Burrow would be asked about his team's success on the ground, as they looked darn-near one-dimensional in Week 8. Fortunately, Burrow had plenty more to say on the matter, including what had changed over the past few weeks.
Joe Burrow admits it's hard for the Bengals to win with no run game
Discussing the Bengals' run game further after Week 8, Burrow noted that after a rough go in Week 1, Cincinnati found a bit of a rhythm on the ground by pairing up Brown with Zack Moss. However, over the past few weeks, the Bengals have struggled to get Moss going on the ground, with Moss specifically averaging under three yards per run in each of the last four weeks, which has changed how opposing teams play Zac Taylor's offense.
“After the first game, we ran it well for a couple weeks in a row there. The last couple of weeks haven't been good enough. When you play good rushers like we have the last several weeks, you've got to keep them off balance and be able to run the ball. If you don't, then they aren't going to be quite as worried about it and then their edge guys are going to start getting push and play action isn't going to be as good. So, you've got to drop back and make plays, and that's what those kind of teams want. So, it's tough when you can't.”
As Bengals fans saw firsthand in Week 8, Nick Sirianni and the Eagles have forged an offense designed around controlling the time of possession on the ground while taking big shots down the field to their elite wide receivers down the field. While that may feel somewhat counter-productive, the Eagles finished out the game with two 80-plus-yard receivers and a 100-yard rusher, which is an accomplishment the Bengals haven't recorded since Joe Mixon was a member of the team.
