Updated: 10-4-12, 2:30 a.m.
The Bengals are hanging with running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, confident that his three fumbles on his last 30 touches after not fumbling on his 589 previous touches in the NFL is what offensive coordinator Jay Gruden is calling a "blip."
"It's like getting the yips with three-foot putts," he said. "You don't miss one for four rounds and then you miss six in the next round. ... He's been a dependable, reliable guy in his career. We're not going to give up on him. We're assuming this is just a fluke.
"Hopefully it doesn't continue. He's the feature back. It can't continue or he won't be the feature back."
Green-Ellis, the consummate pro, is a bit grim about what has happened.
"Obviously ball security issues I have to tighten up. It has been terrible the last couple weeks," said Green-Ellis, who fumbled in the Jacksonville end zone at the end of an 80-yard drive. "Just making bad decisions and doing too much. You have to make better decisions with the ball and let it come to me."
The bad decision was trying to jump over the goal line.
"I don't have to leave my feet on the one-yard line," Green-Ellis. "Worst case scenario is we get three out it."
Then seven carries later he just simply dropped the ball before he fell on it. BJGE says the number of carries has nothing to do with it, but the only thing that is different besides his change of his address is his number of carries.
He pounded it 26 times for 82 yards Sunday, one off his career high for carries. That gave him 82 carries for 286 yards in his busiest four-game stretch ever. The closest he's come to that was two years ago in Games 11-14 when he had 314 yards on 72 carries.
"I feel fine physically," Green-Ellis said.
But Gruden said he thinks using more of Bernard Scott may help "alleviate the problem." Scott has sat out three of the last four games but returned to practice in limited fashion Wednesday after injuring his ankle Sept. 23 in Washington.
Coming over from the Patriots, The Law Firm has some institutional knowledge from his two games a year against the AFC East Dolphins. This Sunday in a bout at Paul Brown Stadium (1 p.m.-1530 AM), Miami comes in leading the NFL in rushing defense.
"They have the same guys that have been there three, four years in a row now," BJGE said. "You see it that they play well together. And one thing is they made a pretty good switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 defense."
Last year, BJGE had a total of 44 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown for 4.4 yards per carry against Miami. In six games against the Dolphins he has 220 yards on 54 carries for four TDs and an average of 4.1 yards.
HALL, CLEMENTS BACK: Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis indicated before Wednesday's practice he expected to have some injured secondary members back to work after they missed last Sunday's win in Jacksonville, and he did have a sight for sore eyes when cornerbacks Leon Hall (hamstring), safety/cornerback Nate Clements (calf) and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (knee) were suited up.
They were all listed as limited.
Kirkpatrick, the club's first draft pick, practiced for the first time since late August and worked with the scout team but Lewis has indicated he won't make his NFL debut until at least the Nov. 4 game against Denver. Hall practiced for the first time since he injured his hammy on a blitz in the Sept. 19 practice and Clements appeared for the first time since he got hurt early in the Sept. 23 Washington victory when he made his first NFL start at safety after 161 at corner.
Also back was running back Bernard Scott (ankle), who missed last Sunday's game after he got hurt against Washington and was listed as limited. Also limited were center Jeff Faine (hamstring) and left tackle Andrew Whitworth (knee). They had the same issues last week, went full on Friday, and played in the game. Left end Carlos Dunlap (groin) surfaced on the report and was limited.
Not suited were linebacker Dan Skuta (back) and cornerback Jason Allen (quad).
The Dolphins had one starting corner miss practice Wednesday in Richard Marshall (back) as well as their nickel corner Nolan Carroll (Achilles). But the sense is both are going to play.
SLANTS AND SCREENS:
» No surprise to quarterback Andy Dalton and left tackle Andrew Whitworth that new Dolphins defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle is showing a similar look to the one the Bengals practice against every day. Coyle worked the previous 11 seasons as the Bengals secondary coach and Dalton and Whitworth say they see a lot of what Bengals defensive coordinarior Mike Zimmer runs.
"It's nice knowing that there's a lot of similar stuff to what our defense does and what we've been going against," Dalton said. "It's good for us. We're just familiar with everything they're doing."
» People are still amazed by A.J. Green's acrobatic catch in the drive that ended on the end-zone fumble. He dove over the middle outstretched to the fullest and plucked a high riser out of the air before hitting the ground.
"He should have scored," Gruden joked.
But Green didn't think it was that big of a deal. Asked where he ranked it, he said merely, "It was pretty good. It's all right."
Is it a top 10 for you?
"I don't know about all that. It was all right. It was all right."
Green said it was close to his TD catch in Denver last year in which he tightroped on the sideline while hauling the ball back into play. But he said his best catch came in college in the end zone when he turned around and leaped for a ball that he caught one-handed.
