Dan Pitcher, Justin Rascati on Boosting Cincinnati's Explosive Playmaking: 'Stems From Marriage of Run and Pass'

Cincinnati ranked among the 10 worst teams in the league last season at creating big plays.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Publish date:
Feb 29, 2024 5:57 PM EST

In this story:

CINCINNATI — The Bengals have a reshaped offensive brain trust that is searching for more consistent explosions out of its unit. Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher and pass game coordinator Justin Rascati had extensive thoughts on the topic.

Through Week 17 of 2023, Cincinnati ranked 28th leaguewide in total explosive plays (79 total) and finished among the bottom ten teams in the league.

"If we can turn some of those efficient runs into chunk runs," Pitcher said. "And that's, that's a team-wide thing. That's, you know, every position on the field. It's the line maybe straining to finish a little bit, it's the back, you know, making somebody miss it the second level, it's the quarterback making sure we're in the right checks as the receivers finishing. I think we did a really good job of looking at that and there's improvables at all those position groups that can help us get better in that area. Passing game as well. I think we have explosive players, we need to create more explosive plays."

The Bengals staff is going through a full evaluation of what worked and what didn't in 2023. Rascati is a new voice in that mix while Pitcher's gets elevated.

He comes over from a Vikings offense that ranked 11th in total explosives last season, despite missing wide receiver Justin Jefferson and quarterback Kirk Cousins for large chunks of the campaign.

"I think a big part of that is again all 11 being involved, doing their job," Rascati said about explosive plays. "Having weapons on the outside having a quarterback that can distribute the ball on time and I really think it stems from, you know, the marriage of the run and pass. If you can get your run game going, and then have the play-action pass off of that to create the coverages and the one-on-one matchups you want on the outside. And so I thought we did a really good job with that in Minnesota."

Better health from Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins this coming season can't hurt those goals.

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