"A part of it is accountability. If your teammates can't count on you to hold that ball, it's not a good look," Bernard says. "A part of it is mindset. You don't want defenders to take your job away by taking away the ball."
The irony is that the Bengals were sent into this era with a fumble. One of Cincinnati's biggest parlor games is measuring how Bengaldom would be different without running back Jeremy Hill's fumble with the Bengals leading the Steelers by a point and 83 seconds left in the 2015 Wild Card Game.
But the bigger irony is the Bernard, their most sure-handed back, wasn't available because after catching a short pass out of the backfield late in the third quarter he had been knocked out of the game with a concussion on a hit by Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier. The hit, outlawed three months later, forced a fumble at the Steelers 25.
(More irony? Shakespeare Schramm reports that Hill has the Bengals' fourth longest streak without a fumble in the past 30 years with 282, behind Bernard, Mixon and Harold Green.)
"If you can find me a guy that's never fumbled, get me in touch with him so I can get his secret," Bernard says. "Fumbling is part of the game, but you want to be that guy your teammates can count on. It happens, but the big thing is not letting it happen too often and taking pride in that.
There's a lot of pride in the running backs room. There's a lot of everything in any NFL running backs room and they need all of it to play one of the most demanding and celebrated positions in sport, even in a passing league. Mixon's $48 million extension earlier in the week shows how the position goes beyond the numbers.
Funneling all those adjectives into a team is the charge of Singleton, who brings his military brand of energy, resourcefulness and discipline every day. In his fifth year in the NFL after 13 years coaching in college, Singleton, 44, already has logged 1,000-yard seasons in half of his pro seasons. He was coaching the Colts backs in 2018 when Mixon idol Frank Gore rang the bell.
He's Bernard's third position coach following Hue Jackson and Kyle Caskey, both key contributors to the streak.
"I wouldn't say he emphasizes it more or less than the other coaches," Bernard says. "He takes pride in his players holding on to the ball. It reflects on the coach. I try to do my best to shine that light on him. He's done a good job since he's been here and he deserves a lot credit. And hopefully our play can show that."
Preventing fumbles is quite personal for Singleton. Go back to 1996 and a Thursday night ESPN game, when Singleton was a sophomore running back for Air Force wearing No. 24 when the academy played Pacific Division rival Colorado State in one of those frantic WAC ping-pong games. The Falcons lost, 42-41, and well, let Singleton tell it.
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September 05, 2020 at 08:26PM
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Bengals Backfield: Gio, Mixon Lead The League In Ball Security - Bengals.com
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