Bengals’ snap count distribution vs Browns: this is Joe Mixon’s backfield

The Cincinnati Bengals had a nice welcome home game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 12. The Bengals returned to Cincinnati following a three-game road trip where the team went 1-2, but they somehow came out on the other end with signs of life in the AFC playoff race.

Now with the Bengals sitting at 5-6, they are only one game out of the playoffs. This means this team is still playing to win, and we aren’t close to evaluation games. Still, there were a few players who got to play more because of injuries. Other than that, the Bengals were rewarded for finally feeding one rookie who has deserved to be fed all season long.

Snap count takeaways:

• Dre Kirkpatrick (63), Darqueze Dennard (53) and William Jackson (47) played the majority of snaps at corner. Adam Jones (26) was the odd man out this week. Dennard, Jackson and Jones were all coming off injuries this week, but it seemed like the young guns got the nod. This also could have been because Jones had a baby the night before the game, so it is something to monitor going forward. Still that trio is the obvious future of this secondary.
• Jordan Evans (38) saw plenty of playing time. Vincent Rey was out with an injury, and Nick Vigil (32) left the game with an ankle injury. It was also interesting that he was out on the field more often than Kevin Minter (17) who came back after missing the last four weeks. Evans ended up finishing third on the team in tackles. If Vigil and Rey miss more time Evans could get more playing time.

• Joe Mixon (46) had a nice coming out party against the Browns. He finished the game with over 150 total yards and a touchdown. He also had a three to one snap count split with Giovani Bernard (15). Bernard did well with his opportunities. He had 27 yards on four touches, but the Bengals decided to ride the hot hand this week, and it paid off in a big way.
• John Ross was a healthy scratch again this week, and at this point it is just sad. When the Bengals took Ross ninth overall we had visions of how well he’d do in this offense, and how he could take advantage of defenses paying so much attention to A.J. Green, but we haven’t gotten much of a chance to see it. Odds are we won’t get much of a chance to see it this season at this rate either.
• Alex Erickson (9) is still not on the field enough. Even with the Bengals only having Mixon and Bernard active as running backs, the team only had Erickson in the backfield on one play. His lone contribution was a third down conversion. The receivers in front of him did have a nice week though. Tyler Boyd (15) caught his first touchdown of the season, and Brandon LaFell (45) had three catches for 33 yards.
• Josh Shaw (36) and Clayton Fejedelem (34) split the strong safety duties with Shawn Williams unable to go. Also George Iloka (70) seems to be fully healthy again as he played all the defensive snaps. Earlier in the season he’d only play a little over half.
• Andrew Billings (24) wasn’t as involved as he has been in the last few weeks. Part of this could be the flow of the game. The Browns were down by quite a bit for most of the game, so Billings wasn’t needed. Also Pat Sims (15) returning to the team and getting playing time probably dipped into some of Billings’ snaps. The flow of the game did open up more opportunity for Carl Lawson (33) who finished the game with 1.5 sacks.
• For the first time in a few weeks the Bengals weren’t held to a lopsided time of possession. The Bengals actually had the ball for about a minute longer than Cleveland even though they had nine fewer snaps. Most of that is due to the Bengals run game actually being productive this week.