Sunday was the first time Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown took on the role he excelled at as a senior at Illinois. Six times in the 2022 season did Brown carry the ball at least 27 times, and he hit that mark against the Las Vegas Raiders and turned it into a career-high 120 yards.
Cincinnati not only established the run, Brown was the establishment with Zack Moss missing the first of what could be many games with a neck injury. And as it turns out, Brown dealt with his own ailment during the afternoon.
When asked about Brown's most involved game of his young career, head coach Zac Taylor casually brought up that Brown was hit hard in his ribs and managed to stay in the game.
"You know, he took a nice shot to the ribs one point the game, and was able to come back out there, and did do a great job for us," Taylor said of Brown. "He's a tough guy, and, you know, to get over 100 yards, that's a credit to him. That's credit lineman and the receivers and tight ends. Great job with the scheme there by Frank [Pollack]."
Brown had 27 carries in the last two weeks combined and averaged just under 10 per game entering Sunday. He had never taken on this workload in a single afternoon at the NFL level, but the responsibility fell on him with Moss sidelined and a clear lack of trust in both backups Trayveon Williams and Kendall Milton, neither of whom carried the ball once.
27 carries may not have been the plan for Brown, but the goal is to always be as efficient as he was carrying the rock. The Bengals were one of the worst rushing offenses entering Sunday and Brown single-handily turned out their best day running the ball since Week 4 in terms of EPA/rush.
As Taylor mentioned, that's what can happen when you play with a comfortable lead for once.
"When you can play with a lead, you're able to keep hammering that and get some runs like we got," Taylor said. "So we haven't given ourselves enough of those opportunities lately. This is a game where, when you finally get a two, three-score lead, you can lean on that and wear them down and get some bigger runs. And we afforded ourselves as opportunities today."
The Bengals found out they could run the ball against the Raiders and put it entirely in the hands of Brown, who didn't let a rough hit slow him down. How he'll manage on a short week's rest this Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens remains to be seen, but Sunday was a big step in Brown's career nonetheless.
