Bengals' Lewis shuts down Mixon's complaint about role: 'Show maturity'

Actions speak louder than words in the mind of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.

He's not taking kindly to the request from rookie running back Joe Mixon for a larger role in the offense.

Related: Bengals' Mixon frustrated by lack of touches, points to Bell's workload

"You should show maturity just like everybody else. Everybody wants to be out there all the time," Lewis said Monday, according to Geoff Hobson of the Bengals' website.

"But we're not going to create a run when we are down by 12 or 15 (points). We're not going to create it. I saw a ball go on the ground when he received two balls thrown to him, which are the same situation. We got to handle it all the time the correct way, and be strong enough to not be led into questions after the game, which unfortunately he doesn't know enough about."

Mixon - who complained about his lack of touches after Sunday's loss to Pittsburgh - is averaging 3.2 yards per carry through six games, gaining a total of 235 yards on 74 attempts with just one touchdown in his first season. He's added another 98 yards while catching all 14 of his targets.

Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor was a little more lenient in his response, pointing to the overall struggles of the team as Mixon's largest hurdle to getting more work.

"When you have a 51-play game, no one gets it enough. And there were a couple plays we chose to put someone else in for particular things and it had nothing to do with Joe, it worked out that way," Lazor said. "And then we get to that point in the game where it's a passing game to try to catch up to win the game."

The Bengals rank just 29th with 16.3 points scored per game and are one of two teams to not yet reach 100 points on the season. Just two clubs are running fewer plays per game than the Bengals' 59.7, a statistic in which they ranked 11th last season with an average of 65.6 offensive plays.

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