If you’ve been watching the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense this season, one thing is entirely familiar — Joe Burrow has been pressured and sacked a lot, despite the team’s re-structured offensive line. Not that all those sacks and pressures are the line’s fault.
There’s something else about this offense that has been quite unfamiliar — Joe Mixon, one of the best backs in the NFL today, has been just about invisible in a big-play sense. In Cincinnati’s first three games, Mixon had run 58 times for 163 yards, 2.8 yards per carry, and no touchdowns. He’s had just two runs of 10 or more yards, and just one run of 15 or more yards.
As this is the same guy who carried the rock 359 times for 1.467 yards, 4.1 yards per carry, and 14 touchdowns in the regular season through the Super Bowl, this lack of production has been unusual — especially as Mixon was running last season behind a line that was allegedly worse.
With 10:19 left in the first quarter of Thursday night’s game against the Miami Dolphins’ outstanding defense, Mixon finally got in the end zone, and he did it with the help of just about his entire line.
.@Joe_MainMixon gets a push from his offensive line and the @Bengals take an early 7-0 lead! #RuleTheJungle#MIAvsCIN on Prime Video
Also available on NFL+ https://t.co/Phmgdb9VGl pic.twitter.com/hBfLi4OWyf— NFL (@NFL) September 30, 2022
Hopefully, this is the beginning of bigger and better things for Mixon this season — the 1-2 Bengals could really use it.
