Running Does It For The Bengals

The Bengals are heading into Denver tomorrow 1-0. Offensively speaking, the main reason the team is able to be 1-0 right now is that the Bengals were able to move the chains by running the football. The Bengals won at the line of scrimmage with the big men up front and the running backs ran hard all game. Starter Cedric Benson racked up 121 of the 139 total rushing yards

Head Coach, Marvin Lewis commented on Benson’s performance

"It was a good start for Ced. It was a Ced Benson kind of day. You just keep hammering the ball until you break one free. They had guys crowding up around the ball, and  he was able to just run it up the back end."

Running the ball effectively typically translates to wins for the Bengals (shocking for a team known for flashy WR’s). Under Marvin Lewis’s watch the Bengals are 31-2 (that’s a win % of 93.9%) when a RB gets 25 rushes. Running Back Cedric Benson has done that 12 times during his tenure as a Bengal, the team has a record of 11-1 during those contests. Former Running Backs Rudi Johnson & Kenny Watson are the only other running backs to do that for coach Lewis. The records when Johnson and Watson reach 25 touches are 18-1 & 2-0 respectively.

Cedric Benson has ran for a lot of yards since joining the team in 2008. Benson has only started 41 games as a Bengal but is already working his way into the franchises record books. Benson is currently 6th overall in rushing for the with 3,230 yards. Assuming Benson stays healthy for the 2011 season he should be able to accumulate the 498 yards he needs to take over the 5th overall position from Harold Green with 3727. Green achieved his number in 6 seasons while it  Benson  a little under 3 to reach his. Cedric is already #1 in one rushing statistic, “Starts per 100 yd game”. Benson has the best ratio in the teams history with 1 100yd  game for every 2.93 starts. In 2nd place is the previous #32, Rudi Johnson with a ratio of 3.16. In layman’s terms; every 2-3 games Cedric runs for 100+ yards & every 3-4 starts Rudi Johnson would have a 100+ yd game.

The Broncos are noted to be soft against the run this season, just last week the Broncos allowed the Raiders to run for 190 yards. (Ranking 31st in run defense last weekend.) With some luck the Bengals may be able to grind out a win with Benson, Scott and Leonard by taking advantage of Denver’s inability to stop the run.

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