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How Does a Strong Running Game Help an NFL Passing Offense?
How does a strong running game help an NFL passing offense? Cincinnati’s 123-yard day shows how a run threat can give Joe Burrow more room to work.
By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · November 9, 2026
Cincinnati ran for 123 yards against Atlanta in Madrid. Joe Burrow still threw the ball 29 times. Ja’Marr Chase caught 10 passes.
That is how a strong running game helps an NFL passing offense: it gives defenders another problem to solve. A defense that must guard against a useful run cannot plan every snap around Burrow and Chase. The gain may be a shorter third down or a safer passing chance. It may be as simple as keeping a drive alive.
In the “Bears Survive 5 Turnovers, Reaves Scores 43 & Mercedes Wins” episode of Yesterday in Sports, Chris Horwedel singled out Cincinnati’s rushing total. “That last number really matters,” he said. Burrow and Chase were the obvious stars of the Bengals’ 34–17 win. Horwedel’s point was that they had help from a part of the offense defenses could no longer ignore.
How does a strong running game help an NFL passing offense?
Start with the men closest to the ball. Linebackers help stop runners and cover passes. Safeties can do both jobs, too, though they begin farther back. Each has to judge where the play is going.
A team that can run for steady gains makes those judgments harder. If a linebacker steps toward the line, he has farther to go when a receiver catches a pass behind him. If he drops back at once, the runner may have room. The offense needs only one of those choices to work.
There is a second, less glamorous benefit. A run that gains six yards leaves second-and-four. The quarterback can throw without facing a down on which everyone expects a pass. The offense can also run again and still have a fair shot at moving the chains. Defenders must prepare for either call.
Those gains can add up without producing a spectacular rushing play. In Madrid, Cincinnati’s longest run gained 19 yards. The Bengals averaged 5.1 yards across 24 rushing attempts and earned seven first downs on the ground. Atlanta had to deal with those yards one snap at a time.
What did Cincinnati’s 123 rushing yards show?
The total was a season high, as Horwedel noted. It was also a team effort. Chase Brown gained 57 yards on nine runs. Samaje Perine added 43 on 11. Darius Meyers gained 16 on one run, while Burrow supplied seven yards and a one-yard touchdown.
That spread matters. Atlanta could not focus on stopping one runner who handled every carry. Brown and Perine moved the ball in different parts of the game, giving Cincinnati more than one way to reach a useful down.
The clearest example came after Atlanta cut the lead to 24–17 in the third quarter. Perine opened Cincinnati’s next drive with a three-yard run. Brown later gained six, setting up second-and-four. Burrow completed a four-yard pass to move the chains.
Brown then ran for 11 yards and followed it with a 19-yard gain. Burrow finished the drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins. That sequence shows what the run can do without asking it to score: Brown moved the Bengals close enough for a short throw to finish the job.
It does not prove Atlanta changed its pass coverage because Brown ran well. A play-by-play record cannot tell us what each defender was thinking. It does show the Bengals had a working choice besides asking Burrow to throw his way down the field.
Why does a short gain change the next pass?
Four yards can look dull. Sometimes they aren’t. On first down, that gain leaves the offense at second-and-six, with several ways to get a first down. At second-and-ten, more rides on the next play.
Cincinnati’s go-ahead drive gave a small example. Perine ran up the middle for four yards near the end of the first quarter. On second-and-six, Burrow found Chase for 13. At the start of the next quarter, Brown ran for 16 yards. The Bengals reached Atlanta’s one-yard line and scored on a Burrow run.
Perine’s four yards didn’t cause Chase’s catch. Chase can win a pass on his own. That’s the point. After a modest gain, the offense has more options for Burrow, and he doesn’t need a deep throw to rescue the series.
“That last number really matters.”
The reverse is useful, too. A good pass can set up an easy run. Defenses face both problems on the same drive, often with little time to adjust between snaps. In Madrid, Cincinnati made 24 first downs: 15 through the air and seven on the ground, plus two by penalty.
That mix is more revealing than a rule about how often a team should run. It tells us the Bengals found ways to keep moving even when a single play did little. Perine’s four yards did not make a highlight. They made the next snap easier to call.
Does a team need a great run game for play-action?
No. Play-action is a pass that begins with a fake handoff. The quarterback wants a defender to react to the apparent run, leaving space for a receiver. For the trick to work, the pass and the run must look alike long enough to make that reaction matter.
A strong run can make the fake a concern. It is not an entry fee. NFL analyst Cynthia Frelund has noted that the kind of runs a team shows, and the players it uses, can matter more to play-action than raw rushing success. A defense may react to a familiar look even if the offense has not piled up yards.
That is why Cincinnati’s 123 yards should not turn into a claim about one clever fake. The game record gives the rushing total and the passes. It does not show that a play-action fake created Chase’s catches.
There is a useful check on the easy version of the story. In the first half, Cincinnati had just 39 rushing yards. Burrow completed 18 of 22 passes for 239 yards. Chase had already caught eight passes for 142 yards. The passing game was working well before the final rushing total grew large.
Horwedel said that making a defense respect the run would make “answers much harder to find.” That is a sound way to describe the extra pressure on a defense. It is different from saying Burrow needed a big rushing day before he could throw.
Can the run keep defenders away from Ja’Marr Chase?
A defense worried about the run may keep more help near the line. That can leave a receiver with less help over the top. Still, a defender can respect the run and make Chase the first concern on every pass.
Madrid offered good reason to worry about him. Chase caught 10 of his 12 targets for 155 yards. His touchdown came on a 47-yard pass on third-and-two, during Cincinnati’s first drive. Earlier in that drive, Meyers had run for 16 yards. Atlanta had seen a run gain ground, though the game record does not say why Chase got free.
Burrow had other places to go. Higgins caught two touchdowns, including the eight-yard score after Brown’s back-to-back runs. On another drive, Burrow found Meyers for a 42-yard pass that helped set up a 57-yard field goal.
That is what makes the Bengals awkward to defend. Chase can hurt a team from far away. Higgins can finish a drive near the goal line. Brown can take a run through a gap. A defense still has to choose whom to challenge on each snap.
What can one rushing day really prove?
The Madrid game shows that Cincinnati could run and pass well against Atlanta on November 8, 2026. That’s one game. It doesn’t prove the Bengals will run for 123 yards every week, or that every pass worked because a defender feared a handoff.
The order of the numbers is worth remembering. Burrow’s 239 first-half passing yards came alongside 39 rushing yards. Later, when Atlanta pulled within seven points, Brown’s runs helped Cincinnati answer with a touchdown. Both halves belong to the same game.
Horwedel called the offense more sustainable than one in which Burrow must rescue it every week. That is a fair reading of what the extra rushing production could mean. Whether it lasts takes more than one Sunday to know.
For one afternoon, the Bengals had a better option than hoping Chase would solve every problem. Late in the fourth quarter, Perine ran for 14 yards to Atlanta’s eight-yard line. Burrow took a knee on the next snap. Even the final useful run needed no pass to explain it.
The full episode of Yesterday in Sports is on Underdog Podcasts, with the rest of the network's shows.
People also ask
Does running the ball make play-action passes more effective?+
A credible run can make a fake handoff harder for a defender to dismiss. Rushing yards alone do not decide whether play-action works, though. The run and pass need to look similar at first, and the pass still needs good timing. Cincinnati’s Madrid game does not establish which of Burrow’s completions benefited from a run fake.
Why does second-and-short help a quarterback?+
Second-and-short gives the offense room to choose. It can throw for a first down or run and still have another chance if the play fails. The defense has to prepare for both. In Madrid, Brown’s six-yard run set up second-and-four; Burrow then completed a four-yard pass to keep the drive going.
Did Cincinnati’s running game cause Ja’Marr Chase’s big game?+
There is no way to make that claim from the rushing and receiving totals. Chase had 142 receiving yards by halftime, when Cincinnati had rushed for only 39. The Bengals later finished with 123 rushing yards, while Chase finished with 155 receiving yards. Both threats worked in the same game; the numbers do not prove one caused the other.
How can you tell if a running game is helping the pass?+
Watch what happens between the big plays. Do useful runs leave shorter distances for the next snap? Can the offense still move the ball when a defense focuses on its receivers? Cincinnati’s answer after Atlanta closed to 24–17 is a good example: Brown gained 30 yards on two straight runs before Burrow threw a short touchdown pass.