Cam Heyward: We didn't take care of our job in run defense
Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns in Thursday night's 33-31 win over the Steelers, but the pass defense wasn't the only culprit for the loss.
Chase Brown ran 11 times for 108 yards and the Bengals posted 142 yards on the ground after reaching a high of 85 rushing yards in the first six weeks of the season. They had 97 of those yards in the first half and defensive end Cam Heyward focused on that area when discussing the reasons for the loss.
""It's not the secondary; that’s a cop-out," Heyward said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. "I think the front line, we got to control the line of scrimmage a lot better. I'm pissed off. We didn't take care of our job . . . they were last in rushing, and the way we gave it up today that takes the cake. We got to stop the f—king run. That's as simple as that."
In addition to the defensive foibles, the Steelers turned the ball over twice without forcing any of their own so there were plenty to places to go when it came to assigning blame for what went wrong in Cincinnati.
Chargers' Cameron Dicker at the forefront of a redefining era for NFL kickers
Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker waves to fans as he walks off the field after kicking a winning field goal against the Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 21. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
When the Chargers are successful — and they have won four of six games this season — you can most often trace the results back to two elite components: the arm of Justin Herbert and the leg of Cameron Dicker.
The football world celebrates the former. Herbert has pinpoint precision, even when draped in defenders. But the latter, Dicker’s record-breaking reliability, has almost become an afterthought. He’s going to make his kicks.
Nearly 80% of NFL games were decided by one possession last season, underscoring the value of a kicker who can deliver three points time after time. For instance, Dicker tied a career high by kicking five field goals in the 29-27 win at the Dolphins, including the 33-yard clincher — and in his five seasons he has never missed a field goal of 40 yards or fewer.
“Boiled down to the base level, yeah, you kick a ball through the pipes,” said Dicker, 25, whose team plays host Sunday to the Indianapolis Colts. “But a lot goes into it. You’ve got to have a great holder, a great snapper, and then great field-goal protection. And then you have to be able to do your job at a high level to keep a job here in the NFL nowadays.”
Dicker has made 105 of 111 career field-goal attempts, giving him the best career percentage (94.6) in league history by a player with at least 100 attempts.
“This is a guy that, just under the radar, has continued to be absolutely excellent throughout his career,” said retired NFL kicker Jay Feely, who spent a decade as a CBS analyst. “He continually makes his kicks in the big moments and is becoming one of the best kickers in the NFL.”
Some of the league’s most significant changes are happening in the kicking game. Coaches are increasingly comfortable with long field-goal attempts, making 60 yards feel like the new 50.
The numbers back this up. Field-goal attempts of 50 yards or longer have nearly tripled since 2010, when there were 108 in the entire season. Through six weeks this season, there have been precisely that many, 108, meaning the league is on pace for almost 300.
Cameron Dicker kicks a field goal in the fourth quarter of the Chargers' 29-27 win over the Dolphins on Oct. 12. (Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Images)
What’s more, the accuracy of those long kicks has risen dramatically. Kickers made 54.6% of those attempts in 2010 but are currently making them at a 71.3% clip.
That has changed strategies. Now, drives that stall around midfield are no longer automatic punting situations but true scoring opportunities.
The NFL record for the longest field goal stood at 63 yards for 43 years — set first by Tom Dempsey, then tied by a handful of others — before Matt Prater made a 64-yarder in 2013. Longtime Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker has the record at 66 yards, but the booming Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys has kicks of 65 and 64 yards. This past summer, Jacksonville’s Cam Little made a 70-yarder in a preseason game.
“I think there’s an increased confidence in coaches giving players the opportunity to go out there…” said Dicker, whose longest made kick is 59 yards. “I think guys in the past have had the ability to make long kicks and that some coaches haven’t trusted it at times. But you’re seeing a little bit of a change in that.”
Longtime NFL kicker turned kicking coach Michael Husted points to a number of factors in the evolution of the position. Players are starting younger and specializing in kicking, he said, as opposed to sampling other sports. Technology and analytics have made training more efficient and effective. Private coaching, which used to be somewhat exotic, is now commonplace. And people are taking the mental aspect of the game far more seriously.
“Back then, seeing a sports psychologist was, 'What’s wrong with you?'" Husted said. “Now, mental training is part of a three-pronged approach: weight room, on-field and between the ears.”
Feely knew that life from two different angles. He played 14 seasons in the NFL, then watched his son, Jace, who kicked for Arizona State then Colorado.
“Kicking still comes down to your ability to handle failure,” Jay Feely said. “Every kicker is going to miss, and they’re going to miss critical kicks. Can you handle failure? Can you come back and not allow that to break you?
“A lot of kickers I’ve talked to didn’t retire because they couldn’t do it physically anymore. They were just done with the mental grind.”
As for Dicker, in those high-pressure moments, he leans heavily into his faith as a Christian for perspective.
“For me, at the end of the day, I know I’m loved regardless of what happens,” he said. “So I don’t really care if I make or miss kicks. I’ve got to go out there and do the best I can. And once I kick it, it’s off my hands.”
He finds it helpful to keep gratitude front and center.
“There’s a study I read that gratitude and anxiety come from the same place in your brain, and the two cannot coexist,” he said. “It’s an either-or situation.”
Joe Flacco: Fun to have Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins create problems for the defense
Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco said Thursday night's 33-31 win over the Steelers, and the ability to pass to two great receivers like Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, is exactly what motivates him to keep playing into his 40s.
"It's a lot of fun," Flacco said. "This is what we do it for, is games like that. It came down to the wire, just like we knew it was going to, and I'm really happy for the guys."
Flacco said that as soon as he arrived in Cincinnati, he saw that Chase and Higgins are different, and that having two players like that is a nightmare for an opposing defense.
"Last week it opened my eyes, just with the simple things," Flacco said. "And today I saw how the defense has to treat those guys. And if you don't treat them a certain way, they can hurt you. And if you do treat them a certain way, we've got some other guys who can get the job done. Today I got to see the problems they create."
Chase had 16 catches for 161 yards and a touchdown, while Higgins had six catches for 96 yards and a touchdown, and he eschewed gaining another seven yards and another touchdown late in the game, when he decided to slide rather than score so the Bengals could run the clock before their game-winning field goal. Flacco loves having two receivers like that as his teammates.
"Those guys are different," Flacco said. "And it's pretty cool to be able to throw to them."
