By Marc Hardin
FOX Sports Ohio | Bengals Insider
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski wound up pointing out the obvious when asked about the team's problems on offense in the loss to Miami, but his prefacing list was ominous.
"When you chart (the plays) and see where it broke down there was no common theme to it," Bratkowski said. "Some were good plays by them (the Dolphins), some are not doing things, some were inexperience with some of the younger guys, so it's a variety of things. It's a critical thing. We've got to do better on third downs."
Cincinnati went 4-for-4 on third-down conversions on Sunday's opening drive, which produced a 15-play, 86-yard touchdown, the team's first this season on a game-starting drive. Then they failed to convert 10 straight on third down after being unable to make adjustments to the Dolphins' adjustments.
Sunday was not a fluke.
Quarterback Carson Palmer is ranked last in the AFC in third-down passing. He is 40-for-82 for 431 yards and a passer rating of 62.6, making him one of just four quarterbacks in the league with a completion percentage of less then 50 percent on third down.
In a particularly brutal stretch on Sunday against Miami, Palmer passed on five straight third downs and was 1-for-5 for four yards. With no balance in play-calling on third down, opponents have a good chance to guess correctly that the Bengals will pass, and those defenses seem ready. Meanwhile, the Bengals continue to show little faith in the running game on the cricial down. In short, Cincinnati has become too predictable on third down.
With failures once again on third down, coupled by too many second-and-longs because of the team's inability to get longer gains on first down, the Bengals are rendering their running attack behind Cedric Benson a non-factor in big portions of games. Benson had just 17 yards on seven carries after halftime against Miami after rushing for 52 yards and appearing to be on his way to 100 before the break.
"We put ourselves in some third-and-long situations instead of using the run game to get into third and short or third and mediums," Palmer said.
TRICK, OR TREAT?: The Bengals fell to 1-4 on games played on Oct. 31. Their only win came in 1976 at Riverfront Stadium against the Browns.
PRACTICE SQUAD MOVE: The Bengals on Tuesday signed rookie defensive end James Ruffin to the practice squad, giving the team a full complement of eight players on the PS. Ruffin, a 6-foot-4, 263-pound player from Northern Iowa, signed with Tampa Bay as a college free agent on April 30. He played in all four Buccaneers preseason games and recorded two tackles and two quarterback pressures. The Bucs waived him Sept. 5.
THEY'LL PASS: The Bengals are not interested in two recently waived former All-Pros. The team's official site indicated that head coach Marvin Lewis does not want to add wide receiver Randy Moss, waived by Minnesota, or linebacker Shawne Merriman, waived by San Diego. The Bengals recently passed on former All-Pro linebacker Adalius Thomas, who was in Cincinnati for a workout but was not signed.
INJURY UPDATE: Defensive linemen Jon Fanene (hamstring) and Tank Johnson (knee) did not practice today. Fanene has missed five games. There is concern he may be lost for the season. Officially, he remains week-to-week. Johnson was hurt Sunday against Miami. He might miss most of practice this week. His playing status is unknown for Monday's game against the Steelers. With the Bengals playing on Monday night, the player schedules have been adjusted. Monday and Tuesday were off days for the players. Practice resumed today.
HAPPY RETURNS: Making a return to practice was safety Chinedum Ndukwe (knee), who missed Sunday
