Joe Burrow Lamar Jackson Stage Red Zone Rally

BALTIMORE _ The 4-5 Bengals are 20 yards from getting back into the AFC North race against the 6-4 Ravens.

In Thursday night’s (8:15-Cincinnati’s Channel 9, Amazon Prime) Red Zone Rally here at M&T Bank Stadium, the Bengals’ No. 3 red zone offense takes on the Ravens’ No. 1 red zone offense with 15 touchdowns in their last 18 trips inside the opposing 20 and 24 straight scores dating back to the opener.

Both quarterbacks, Bengals’ MVP candidate Joe Burrow and Ravens’ reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, often make it look like improvisation eclipses innovation when they see red.

More playground than playbook.

“You look around the league and when you’re down there, it’s a lot of quarterbacks making plays,” Burrow said this week after street-balling for three red-zone touchdowns against the Raiders.

“It’s hard to draw things to get guys open. Just because you have 10 yards to work with, you have to be quick and decisive. We run concepts that I’m familiar with, so I know somebody’s going to get open and when something’s not, I’m always confident in my ability to get out of the pocket and make a play, whether it’s running it or finding someone on the backline.”

“I’d say probably 50/50,” Burrow said when asked if improv plays score more than scripts.

Bengals three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who has scored two of his NFL-leading seven receiving touchdowns to limit red-zone drives, isn’t so sure.

“Everything is a playbook, it just turns into a street farm,” says Chase.

Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters says it can be a lot like basketball.

“Lose your husband. Be open. Make a move,” Walters says.

Why not? They have a wide receiver who is a former Tennessee Mr. Basketball in Tee Higgins and they have a tight end who is the 2014 New Jersey state dunk champion in Mike Gesicki. Throw in wide receiver Andrei Iosivas’ collegiate exploits in the heptathlon, and “We’re blessed to have a lot of different weapons when we get in the red zone,” passing game coordinator Justin Rascati says.

Both Burrow and Jackson have plenty of targets in there. The Bengals have seven players with red zone touchdown catches, four with more than one. The Ravens have six players with multiple touchdowns, nine total.

Regardless of what it looks like, Rascati and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher are collaborating each week to craft a deliberate plan to get an opportunity for Burrow early in his progression.

When they play Sunday games, they meet on Monday and Tuesday and present their plan to the team on Friday morning for Friday and Saturday reviews. This week it was condensed into Sunday and Monday with the review on Wednesday afternoon before they got on the plane.

“I’m not so sure,” Rascati says of the percentages. “Honestly, at the end of the day, we have a quarterback who gets it right. He does everything at such a high level. A great feel in the pocket. If he feels like he needs to go out and extend, do He did a fantastic job with it.”

The red area is Burrow’s playground, where he has thrown 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. The only quarterback who has thrown more touchdowns without a pick than Burrow is, of course, the Ravens’ Jackson.

It should be harder down there with the less real estate you get. But they’re both equally lethal inside the 10, where they each have ten touchdowns and no picks. Only Minnesota’s Sam Darnold has more with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Bengals slot cornerback Mike Hilton, who went against Burrow daily in this final training camp, echoes what Gesicki said after last Sunday’s game. Burrow is actually underrated in something that is key in red-zone production.

“He doesn’t get respect for his elusiveness,” says Hilton, who says Burrow and Buffalo’s Josh Allen are the two toughest red-zone quarterbacks he’s faced. “He has pocket presence, but he extends plays as well as anyone.”

Look at last Sunday against Las Vegas when he went out of script to three different receivers in the scramble drill for red zone touchdowns. But what looks improvised can also be a product of planning.

Take tight end Drew Sample’s two-yard touchdown catch. Sample started the play by blocking so his man fell, and Burrow finished it by doing everything you shouldn’t as he rolled to the right sideline and threw across his body.

Maybe they didn’t talk about that particular scenario in a walkthrough or a meeting or a sideline. But both Burrow and Sample executed the basics of the scramble drill, which is practiced and taught weekly. It started early and often when tight ends coach James Casey introduced the scramble drill to the offense during an extended session in the spring.

“The No. 1 thing is high-effort play,” Rascati says of the scramble drill. “Find out where Joe’s escaped, go to that side and attack the front line and the back line. You want to find space. You don’t want to handcuff these guys. Maybe it won’t be talked about in a review. But there are things It is assumed that you will disclose based on what the defense is doing.

And what may look awkward is really attentive. Sure, Burrow Sample’s throw hit his body, but he and quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe work daily on throws off the platform. These statuary practice shots of Burrow in the pocket are a rarity. Usually that’s the time he works on the funky throws.

“It’s his ability to keep plays alive,” Gesicki says. “Throw up the speed. Weird arm angles. Guys moving targets. All that kind of stuff. He gets a lot of credit there.”

Or, as Walters says, “The red zone throws have to be so accurate. And that’s what he excels at.”

This close to the goal line, offenses usually have to solve seven- and eight-man zones designed to eliminate those spaces, especially inside the ten.

But take last month against the Ravens, when the Bengals scored three scripted touchdowns from the 11. Higgins (quad), doubtful to play Thursday, scored on slants from the 11 and 5. The first came when both Higgins and Chase both ran slants . The second came off a blitz and the middle opened up. Running back Chase Brown added the third when he ran an option play with Gesicki and scored from the 4.

Iosivas, who has eight red-zone touchdowns among his 30 career catches, also scored on an early opportunity last week when he went across the middle of the Raiders zone from ten yards out and ran it in from the 5 after escaping a tackle.

“There was a gap in the zone, they put the ball right on me and I was able to run away,” Iosivas says.

Two plays before that, the Bengals reached the tip of the red zone when Chase Brown ripped off a 12-yard gain on the ground. An effective running game is a virtual must to loosen looks inside the 20. And 4.1 yards per carry. carry is the most it has been midway through any of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor’s six seasons.

“If teams are down seven or eight or going two high safeties, you have to take advantage of the numbers in the box and the matchups you have,” Rascati says. “The ability to double team the run game. We feel confident scoring that way as well.”

Sometimes innovation looks like improvisation. When Iosivas scored on a huge fourth-and-three late in the third quarter in Kansas City, what looked like improvisation had been plotted in practice. As Burrow danced for a few seconds while staying in the pocket, Iosivas whipped cornerback Joshua Williams with a route he first took to the middle and then brutally cut back outside.

“Sometimes it’s drawn up, but I think Joe and I had talked about it in one of the reviews. If they play a certain way, you just go out again,” Iosivas said. “It can happen in the walkthrough, but you can see it on film, talk about it on the sidelines. I’d say it’s a hybrid. The big thing (in the red zone) is being aware of your surroundings.”

Take Gesicki’s first Bengals touchdown, an 11-yarder last Sunday in the left corner. The expected zone wasn’t there, and Gesicki had an immediate plan against man coverage that was the result of countless drills and reviews.

“I probably don’t get the ball right away. Then I turned and saw (Burrow) running,” says Gesicki. “I gave the quick 1-2 at the top of the route and I tried to go back to the side where Joe was running and he saw me.

“It’s really having an understanding. You just don’t go, ‘Oh scramble drill.’ If one comes over (route), you don’t want to run back to where the crosser is coming from.

Playground or playbook? The old Jersey dunk champion had to laugh.

“One day like the other, it becomes a playground,” says Gesicki. “Then you give credit to Joe.”