Bengals’ Hue Jackson: ‘First and foremost’ the offense must cut down turnovers

The Cincinnati Bengals have a new offensive coordinator in Hue Jackson and he is trying to get them over the hump and past the first round of the playoffs. Jackson praised his predecessor, Jay Gruden and went on to identify some areas that the Bengals needed to address, namely turnovers.

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“I don’t know. This was a very good offensive team a year ago. I’m inheriting it from Jay, whom did a great job. I don’t want it to go backwards,” Jackson said, via the team’s website. “When you start to lead a unit, you want it to be better. It was good a year ago, but we need to be better in some areas and that’s what were really going to harp on and talk about it and see if we can get it done.

“We’ve got to be better taking care of the football, first and foremost. We can’t give the other team the ball. The ball is one of the most precious things in the game and we have to protect it with everything we have. We have to find a way to consistently run the football and be a dominating, aggressive unit that we have the potential to be. As I said when I was hired, this team threw the ball over the yard and did it well. We still have to have the ability to do that. We have some very good skill players on the outside and we need to find ways to keep them included and playing at a high level. I don’t think you can just run and win. I don’t think you can just throw and win. I think you have to do both, but I think the mindset in which you do it out of has to be of a physical nature.”