Bengals running back Chase Brown and his running game have been so hot as of late (his seven yards per carry in the last three games is behind only the equally torrid James Cook and Jonathan Taylor) that he may be inventing plays after he turned a botched flea flicker into a thing of 11-yard beauty last Sunday against the Jets.
"Invent a new run scheme. Man, what would you call that?" Brown wondered after Wednesday's practice. "Fake Toss Toss? Fake Tossback? Fake Tossback Duo?"
On first-and-10 at his own 48 with about four minutes left in the first half, Brown showed a shrewd brew of invention and instinct. Head coach Zac Taylor called a flea flicker, and when Brown looked back in the middle of the line of scrimmage to lateral it back to quarterback Joe Flacco, he saw Flacco about to get drilled.
As that first offensive coordinator Plato supposedly once said, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
"The coaches tell you that during the week," Brown said. "Be aware of where the quarterback is and if he's in trouble, don't toss it back."
Brown kept the ball, spun back around, and glimpsed a hole. The play was blocked as a duo with center Ted Karras and rookie left guard Dylan Farchild hemming in Jets defensive tackle Harrison Phillips. It was also another example of rookie right guard Jalen Rivers getting the best of Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams, washing him the way of Phillips and leaving a slash of Paycor green.
"I told Zac I was going to say that was a Zac Taylor play call and we practiced it all week," Brown said. "He just laughed. I don't know if I've ever seen it. Maybe back in the day.
"I couldn't really see anything. I saw a hole and ran to where the duo was. It was blocked as a duo."
Taylor, no doubt, has something like that in his arsenal. The man who assisted him with the Dolphins quarterbacks for three seasons a decade ago in Miami and comes into Paycor Stadium this week as the first-year head coach of the Bears certainly does.
Ben Johnson, architect of last year's "Stumblebum," touchdown off Lions quarterback Jared Goff's fake fumble, ran a fake flea flicker against the Raiders this year where quarterback Caleb Willams handed off to running back D'Andre Swift, and then Swift stopped, turned, and Williams went leaping for a fake pitch as Swift kept for eight yards.
Of course, that was all set up the week before against Dallas on a 65-yard touchdown flea flicker with Swift pitching it back before Williams launched a bomb to wide receiver Luther Burden III.
"I think when you add patience to any run scheme, it helps the blocks develop, and then the run lanes develop," Brown said.
It helped that five yards out, Brown made a Jets linebacker miss. It also helped that Brown says the offensive line is blocking like "the No. 1 line in the NFL right now."
But, he says, "I'm not sure I'd go into every game with a fake flea flicker," after disaster was averted. He'll keep trying to come up with a name.
"It sounds stupid," Brown said, "until you can do it consistently. Then it's a real play."