In the final minutes of the Thursday night win over the Jaguars, one key component was missing from the Cincinnati Bengals‘ offense. That key component was Joe Mixon, who was on the sidelines after suffering an ankle injury.
As a result, Mixon is considered week-to-week and if the Bengals were smart, they’d hold him out of their Week 5 matchup with the Packers. Ankle injuries are no joke and for running backs, they need to be handled correctly or it could ruin a career.
If Mixon doesn’t play, the Bengals offense becomes a little more predictable, unfortunately.
Samaje Perine is a nice backup to have but he’s a backup for a reason and can’t do what Mixon can with the ball in his hands. Cincy also has Chris Evans but they’ve yet to give him a single carry through four games, instead using him as a pass-catcher.
If Mixon can play a little, that’s great, but they’ll definitely have him on a snap count (or should, at least) to prevent further injury. If he’s out there, he won’t be making the same kind of impact because this team doesn’t want him missing more time than he needs to.
Bengals offense will look different without Joe Mixon
This means that we’ll see a big passing day from Joe Burrow, so hopefully, QB1 is up to the task.
With the injuries in the Packers’ secondary and Aaron Rodgers being Aaron Rodgers, this game could very well become a shootout of sorts and if it is, the Bengals will have to be a bit one-dimensional.
It helps that Green Bay’s secondary is so beat up but at the same time, you want to have Mixon out there to help take pressure off of his quarterback. Dropping him back to pass 60+ times won’t be ideal but it might be how the Bengals have to win this game.
Hey, maybe Perine and/or Evans will surprise us and if they do, that’d be great!
For now, however, if Mixon is unable to take the field, the run game might not be much of an option at all for the Cincinnati Bengals.