CINCINNATI, Ohio — Joe Mixon, through the first three games, hasn’t been the same running back that helped carry the Bengals to last year’s Super Bowl.
He was sidelined in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury last week when the Bengals were looking to run out the clock. Backup Samaje Perine helped put the 27-12 win away with three first downs on eight carries for 41 yards.
It was easily the offense’s most productive stretch rushing the ball all season and it came from the journeyman running back, who has played with three different teams and now twice with Cincinnati.
Mixon hit career highs in just about every meaningful rushing category last season with 292 carries for 1,205 yards and 13 touchdowns. He finished sixth in the NFL with 1,519 all-purpose yards.
According to Pro Football Focus, he had 903 yards after contact (3.1 per attempt) in the regular season last year with 41 forced missed tackles and 26 runs of 10 yards or more.
The numbers this year aren’t pretty — he has 163 yards (2.8 yards per carry) and only two runs of 10 yards or more, while his average yards after contact is down to 1.9 yards per attempt. That lesser production has come with opposing defenses relying on rush-friendly Cover 2 looks with fewer defenders in the box.
Is the slow start a cause for concern? Not if you are Bengals head coach Zac Taylor or offensive coordinator Brian Callahan.
Taylor came to the running back’s defense on Monday by brushing off a question about whether or not the staff is considering splitting up the workload more between Mixon and Perine.
“No,” Taylor said with a chuckle. “I think we’re comfortable with everybody’s roles.”
Those roles, for anyone with doubts, are Mixon as the team’s bellwether back, Perine as the backup, and Chris Evans as someone they can fit in as needed.
“I think you’ll see improvement from him,” Callahan said. “He’s going to run for a bunch of yards because he’s going to get a lot of opportunities to do it. So I don’t really worry about Joe at this point too much.”
Callahan’s opinion is bolstered by what he’s seen reviewing film of the first three games.
“We look at all of our inefficient runs every week and what’s the reasoning for them and why do they end up why we had a zero yard gain or a negative gain,” Callahan said. “What you come away with from watching all of them is that it’s always somebody somewhere. There’s no consistent problem.”
Some of that is to be expected with an offensive line featuring four new starters that didn’t get a chance to practice together as a unit very much during fall camp.
The way the first two weeks unfolded also forced the team “off schedule” as Taylor described it and prevented him from calling the game particularly when it came to running the ball the way he wanted.
Callahan said it’s just a matter of time before Mixon gets back on schedule.
“He’s going to run for a bunch of yards because he’s going to get a lot of opportunities to do it,” Callahan said. “So I don’t really worry about Joe at this point too much.”
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