BALTIMORE _ The 4-5 Bengals are 20 yards from getting back into the AFC North race against the 6-4 Ravens.
In Thursday night's (8:15-Cincinnati's Channel 9, Amazon Prime) Red Zone Rally here at M&T Bank Stadium, the Bengals' No. 3 red zone offense takes on the Ravens' No. 1 red zone offense with 15 touchdowns in their last 18 trips inside the opposing 20 and 24 straight scores dating back to the opener.
Both quarterbacks, Bengals' MVP candidate Joe Burrow and Ravens' reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, often make it look like improvisation eclipses innovation when they see red.
More playground than playbook.
"You watch around the league and when you're down there, it's a lot of quarterbacks making plays," said Burrow this week after street-balling for three red-zone touchdowns against the Raiders.
"It's tough to draw stuff up to get guys open. Just because you have 10 yards to work with, you have got to be quick and decisive. We run concepts I'm comfortable with, so I know someone is going to come open, and when something's not, I'm always confident in my ability to get out of pocket and make a play, whether it's run it or find somebody on the back line."
Playbook or playground?
"I would say probably 50/50," said Burrow, when asked if improv plays score more than scripted plays.
Bengals three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who has scored two of his NFL-leading seven receiving touchdowns to cap red-zone drives, isn't so sure about that.
"Everything is playbook, it just turns into street yard," Chase says.
Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters says it can be a lot like basketball.
"Lose your man. Get open. Make a move," Walters says.
Why not? They have one wide receiver who is a former Tennessee Mr. Basketball in Tee Higgins and they have a tight end who is the 2014 New Jersey state dunk champion in Mike Gesicki. Throw in wide receiver Andrei Iosivas' collegiate feats in the heptathlon and, "We're blessed to have a lot of different weapons when we get in the red zone," says passing game coordinator Justin Rascati.
Both Burrow and Jackson have plenty of targets in there. The Bengals have seven players with red-zone touchdown catches, four with more than one. The Ravens have six players with multiple touchdowns, nine overall.
No matter what it looks like, Rascati and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher collaborate every week to craft a deliberative plan to get an option for Burrow early in his progressions.
When they play Sunday games, they meet Monday and Tuesday and present their plan to the team Friday morning for Friday and Saturday walkthroughs. This week, it was condensed to Sunday and Monday with the walkthrough Wednesday afternoon before they got on the plane.
Playbook or playground?
"I'm not too sure," says Rascati of the percentages. "Honestly, we have a quarterback that makes it right at the end of the day. He does everything at such a high level. A great feel in the pocket. If he feels like he needs to get out and extend, he does a great job of that."
The red area is Burrow's playground, where he has thrown 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. The only quarterback who has thrown more touchdowns without a pick than Burrow is naturally the Ravens' Jackson.
It's supposed to be harder down there with the less real estate you get. But they're both just as deadly inside the 10, where they each have ten touchdowns and no picks. Only Minnesota's Sam Darnold has more with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Bengals slot cornerback Mike Hilton, who went against Burrow daily in this last training camp, says what Gesicki said after last Sunday's game. Burrow is actually underrated in something that is key in red-zone production.
"He doesn't get the respect for his escapability," says Hilton, who says Burrow and Buffalo's Josh Allen are the two toughest red-zone quarterbacks he's faced. "He's got pocket presence, but he extends plays just as well as anybody else."
Look at last Sunday against Las Vegas when he went off-script to three different receivers in the scramble drill for red zone touchdowns. But what looks improvised can also be the product of planning.
Take tight end Drew Sample’s two-yard touchdown catch. Sample started the play blocking, then saw his man was dropping, and Burrow finished it off doing everything you're not supposed to when he rolled to the right sideline and threw across his body.
Maybe they didn't talk about that particular scenario in a walkthrough or a meeting or a sideline huddle. But both Burrow and Sample executed the basics of the scramble drill, which are practiced and schooled weekly. It started early and often when tight ends coach James Casey presented the scramble drill to the offense during an extended session in the spring.
"The No. 1 thing is play with great effort," Rascati says of the scramble drill. "Find out where Joe has escaped, go to that side, and attack the front and back lines. You want to find space. You don't want to handcuff these guys. Maybe it's not talked about in a walkthrough. But there are things that are assumed. You want to uncover based on what the defense is doing. You don't want one defender to be able to cover two or three guys."
And what may look awkward is really alert. Sure, Burrow hit Sample throwing against his body, but he and quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe work daily on off-platform throws. Those statuesque practice photos of Burrow in the pocket are a rarity. Usually, that's the time he's working on the funky throws.
"It's his ability to keep plays alive," Gesicki says. "Throw open on the move. Weird arm angles. Guys are moving targets. All that kind of stuff. He gets a lot of credit there."
Or, as Walters says, "The red-zone throws have to be so precise. And that's what he excels at."
That close to the goal line, offenses usually have to solve seven- and eight-man zones designed to take away those spaces, particularly inside the ten.
But take last month against the Ravens when the Bengals scored three scripted touchdowns from the 11. Higgins (quad), doubtful to play Thursday, scored on slants from the 11 and 5. The first one came when both Higgins and Chase both ran slants. The second one came off a blitz and the middle opened. Running back Chase Brown added the third when he ran a pick play with Gesicki and scored from the 4.
Iosivas, who has eight red-zone touchdowns among his 30 career catches, also scored on an early option last week when he went across the middle of the Raiders zone from ten yards out and ran it in from the 5 after escaping a tackle.
"There was a hole in the zone, they put the ball right on me and I was able to run away," Iosivas says.
Two plays before that, the Bengals reached the cusp of the red zone when Chase Brown ripped off a 12-yard gain on the ground. An effective run game is a virtual must to loosen the looks inside the 20. And 4.1 yards per carry is the highest it's been at the midway point of any of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor's six seasons.
"If teams drop seven or eight or go two high safety, you have to take advantage of the numbers in the box and the matchups you have," Rascati says. "The ability to double team in the run game. We feel confident scoring that way, too."
Sometimes innovation looks like improvisation. When Iosivas scored on a huge fourth-and-three late in the third quarter in Kansas City, what looked like improv had been plotted in practice. As Burrow danced for a few seconds staying in the pocket, Iosivas whiplashed cornerback Joshua Williams with a route he first took to the middle and then viciously cut back outside.
"Sometimes it's drawn up, but I think Joe and I had talked about that in one of the walkthroughs. If they're playing a certain way, just go back out," Iosivas said. "It can happen in walkthrough, but you can watch it on film, talk about it on the sidelines. I would say that it's a hybrid. The big thing (in the red zone) is being aware of your surroundings."
Take Gesicki's first Bengals touchdown, an 11-yarder last Sunday in the left corner. The expected zone wasn't there, and Gesicki had an immediate plan against man coverage that was the product of countless of drills and walkthroughs.
"I'm probably not getting the ball immediately. Then I turned and saw (Burrow) run," Gesicki says. "I gave it the quick 1-2 at the top of the route and I tried to go back out to the side where Joe was running and he saw me.
"It's really having an understanding. You just don't say, 'Oh scramble drill.' If there's an over (route), coming, you don't want to run back to where the crosser is coming from. You have to understand the spaces you can break to and then it's just making a play."
Playground or Playbook? The old Jersey dunk champion had to laugh.
"A day like the other day, it turns into playground," Gesicki says. "Then you give credit to Joe."
