The Cincinnati Bengals’ attempt to be a more balanced team by playing more under-center has not gone well so far this season. Sunday was another example of that. The Bengals ran under-center on 37% of their plays during the first half. The result of that was 59 total yards with no points scored, as they trailed 13-0 at halftime.
During the second half, the Bengals came out and went under-center on 2 of their first 4 plays. After that, they decided to mostly ditch under-center for the rest of the game.
They ran only 2 of the next 27 plays from under-center for the rest of the half.
One of them was a Samaje Perine touchdown from the 1-yard line, and the other was a Drew Sample touchdown reception for the final score of the Bengals’ 35-13 victory. Those two plays show that there is still going to be times for the under-center offense, but they should use it sporadically to supplement what Burrow does best, and that is scanning the field from out of shotgun.
The Bengals ran just 13% of their plays from under-center during the second half when Joe Burrow was on the field. He was able to sit with a commanding lead for the final drive of the game, so that is not factored into the percentage here. The result of the five second-half possessions he played was five straight touchdown drives.
The Bengals let Burrow operate almost exclusively from the shotgun, hitting big play after big play during the second half. Tee Higgins was the biggest beneficiary of that move after halftime. After being shut out in the first half, Tee went off for 6 receptions, 148 receiving yards, and the touchdown that gave the Bengals their first lead of the game.
I thought playing from the shotgun even helped the running game out this week. While it wasn’t a big rushing day statistically, the running backs were able to make some guys miss when their number was called. Perine had a nice 15-yard run out of shotgun, and then finished off the third straight scoring possession of the second half with a touchdown run from under-center. That is the perfect time for them to use the under-center game.
Chase Brown and Samaje Perine will still need to produce at a higher clip at times this season, but ditching under-center and letting Joe Burrow do what he does best in the second half of this Baltimore game was the right call. That decision helped the Bengals move to 4-2 on the season, and they notched a critical divisional win on the road.
