The Walkthru is a daily look at the Bengals, your questions and whatever else spills from the brains of beat writers Paul Dehner Jr. and Jim Owczarski. You can follow them on Twitter (@pauldehnerjr, @JimOwczarski), Instagram (@enqbengals) as well as Enquirer Sports on Facebook.

Let’s start with this before heaping too much praise. The Bengals offensive line took too long to figure out pass protection issues this season and far too long to figure out how they can establish any kind of run game this year. Those facts arguably played the largest role in dooming this season.

There’s not much room for debate in those facts.

With that established, it’s worth pointing out the running game over the past five weeks has done more than just pop off the mat from their previous pace of the fewest yards per carry by any team since 1996.

The last five games, they’ve actually become one of the better rushing attacks in the league.

Take a look at the first 10 games versus the last five.

FIRST 10

Rushes: 228

Yards: 680

Yards per carry: 2.98

TDs: 3

Rank: 32nd

LAST 5

Rushes: 119

Yards: 540

Yards per carry: 4.54

TDs: 3

Rank: 8th

Looking at a closer breakdown shows the numbers look even better than this would suggest. When breaking down just the carries of Giovani Bernard and Joe Mixon, the two averaged 4.71 yards per carry over the span.

In the case of Sunday, Bernard offered credit to the offensive line with new blood at guard with Christian Westerman and Alex Redmond, who both played well in the reworked front. For fans of Pro Football Focus, PFF graded Redmond as the top offensive player of the day at 84.2.

This goes beyond a substitution on the line, as illustrated by the numbers, this trend has been going on for over a month. This uptick goes back to altering the philosophy with less of the sideline to sideline stretch action that so often went down for a loss and focusing on a more aggressive, straight-ahead attitude.

When such a dramatic change on the offensive line takes place, it will take time to make adjustments. That ends up a story of this season. It took seven games for pass protection to rise to serviceable and 10 for the run game to ditch a pace for the worst this century.

The line clearly still needs addressed this offseason, but maybe the Bengals already found the answers in style.

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ON TAP TODAY

The Bengals will head to the University of Cincinnati's bubble with the cold temperatures. Also a press conference with Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton.

TWITTER QUESTION OF THE DAY

With one week left, the 2018 schedule is close to finalized. Wanted to quick run through the expected Bengals opponents (not counting the three division games).

Home: Denver, Oakland, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Miami or NY Jets

Away: Kansas City, LA Chargers, Atlanta, Carolina, Houston or Indianapolis

The final two spots will be solidified this weekend. Miami will be the opponent unless the Jets can upset the Patriots and Dolphins also lose to Buffalo.

The road game will be determined with the winner of the Houston-Indianapolis game in Indy this weekend being the Bengals' opponent.

From a team perspective, I always go back to quarterbacks. Would you rather face Ryan Tannehill or the Jets first-round pick QB? Would you rather face Andrew Luck or DeShaun Watson?

From a selfish perspective, I’m always rooting for a driveable roadie. No better exists than the quick trip up 74 to Indianapolis.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Gio Bernard ended up the story of the day after Joe Mixon went down with an ankle injury. That and more in Jim’s analysis from the win.

First look at Baltimore, playing for their playoff life.

My story on the half-empty Paul Brown Stadium, the smallest crowd since Christmas Eve 2011. One element left without doubt, those that came really love the Bengals.

Hope you had time to read Jim’s Gameday cover this week, sitting down with Clint and Kelly Boling to talk about life as a football family.

INSTAGRAM POST OF THE DAY

Carl Lawson with 10 sacks on the mind. He’s now up to 8.5 on the season. He needs one more to tie Carlos Dunlap for the Bengals rookie record.

AROUND THE DIVISION

Steelers (12-3): James Harrison was cut by the Steelers and signed with the Patriots. The gamesmanship is in full force with January approaching.

Ravens (9-6): Baltimore's not happy this weekend’s game was flexed to 4:25 p.m., fearing they will lose some of their crowd with it being NYE.

Browns (0-15): Josh Rosen reiterating what everyone should assume by now, he does not want to get drafted by the Browns.

AND FINALLY

Petty with the theme of the week.