State of the Bengals Address
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by Mojokong
State of the Bengals Address
All is not well in Tiger Town. There isn’t a reason to panic per se, but a feeling of concern is definitely in order. Marvin continues to dish out the same rhetoric about needing to do better and make plays when it counts and coaching up the youngsters and blah, blah, blah. This is year five of his regime and his supposed genius for defense seems to have become worse over time. Call it stubbornness if you will but it’s clear Marvin will continue to run the team his way. What isn’t as clear is if that way actually works. Saying things like we’re not as bad as we were before he showed up doesn’t work anymore. The grace period given to Lewis has been more than fair to expect positive results.
Let’s not beat Marv up too badly here. We certainly aren’t a bad team destined for a lottery pick. The man hasn’t had a losing season here and even managed to make the playoffs once. But the fact remains that his troops have wilted under pressure time and again when it matters most. Even when Carson went down in the playoff game the Bengals had a halftime lead and blew it.
Alas, there are some bright spots going into this regular season. We do have a powerful offense, powerful enough to win games on their own. Indy won the Super Bowl with the worst ranked defense last year, and our team looks like the Colts junior. Bookends Levi and Willie are coming along nicely and change-of-pace back Chris Perry seems like he too will make an early regular season appearance. Chris Henry, as dumb as he is, has shown his big play ability in the preseason and will give the uber talented receiving corps a boost half way through the season.
But like always, it’s the defense that keeps us up at night worrying. Bresnahan and Marvin’s insistence on soft zone coverage platooned by a young unproven secondary makes us Bengal fans question the coaching philosophy. What I do understand is Lewis’ desire to bring in corners and safeties who can tackle. He has drafted guys who will allow receivers to make catches in front of them and come up to promptly bring them down. Within zone coverage this thinking does work. The problem is that these youngsters have traditionally allowed too much space between them and the receiver they’re covering to prevent first downs. The coaches’ perpetual phobia of allowing a big play has resulted in allowing a series of smaller plays with the same outcome. It’s as if Bresnahan and Lewis expect opposing offenses to stop themselves via bad throws or dropped passes. That kind approach may make sense in board rooms and film sessions but in reality we’ve seen the way offenses take what they need in crucial situations that result in Bengal losses.
Deltha O’Neil is a man with a lot to prove. On cloud nine one season and deep space the next, this veteran will be a significant determinant of the approaching season. For a position with a limited shelf-life, he is by all standards experienced bordering on old. He has two young, hungry corners prepared to not only take his starting job but eliminate any good reason the Bengals should keep him around at all. The man certainly has good ball skills and a good knowledge of opposing receiver routes but speed kills in this business and he hasn’t looked all that fast since 05’. He should be a positive veteran leader to the up and coming corners Joseph and Leon Hall. He should start this season with the mental preparation of them both soon taking over his role on this team. He should recognize that this is the twilight of his career, at least as a Bengal. Yet he hasn’t really demonstrated such a team mentality. He has grumbled about being overlooked of a contract extension. It’s been speculated of him not giving his best effort to the team because of it. He’s been in and out of Marvin’s doghouse the past year and a half and the message was made clear to him in the previous two first-round draft picks. If you can’t perform the way you did in 05’, we are prepared to move on without you. It would behoove him to listen to that message. Even if his future doesn’t lie within the Bengals plans, a good showing on the field coupled with a positive team mentality can only help his cause landing with another team. He’ll never see the kind of money he could have earned after his 10 interceptions in 05’ but there are plenty of teams still looking to bolster their secondary with a solid veteran (see New England). Whatever the case, the Bengals need successful defensive back play where ever they can find it. Hopefully Deltha can get on track.
The Baltimore opener looms much larger than when the schedule was first released. That was before Joey Harrington did his best Dan Marino imitation slicing up the Bengal secondary. A rookie backup safety blowing a coverage and missing a tackle in the preseason certainly isn’t the end of the world. After all, that’s what the preseason is for. But the general feeling that the Bengals D cant stop anyone smells like last year when the defense failed time and again to procure a playoff spot. Perhaps that isn’t fair. It was Shayne Graham’s leg that logistically kept us away from a wild card spot, twice. But those of us who watched every game last season knows that even a slightly better defense would have easily put us in. Going into the off-season every pundit in the world mentioned the need to improve that unit. I liked that we shed some dead weight in the form of slow, overpaid defenders. And realistically there weren’t many attractive free agents to bolster the defense. The last thing this team needs is to overpay a veteran at the end of his effective career. Marv grabbed a key defensive upgrade for the future in Leon Hall and has groomed Ahmad Brooks as a versatile linebacker/defensive end. Maybe it’s unrealistic to expect a complete facelift of a struggling unit in just one off-season, but the fact remains that Marvin has had five drafts to get better and I just don’t see it coming together that way. Some of it has been bad luck with injuries and suspensions. Some of it has just been misses (Ratliff, Askew, Rucker, Miller, ect.).
Preseason games matter little. We did beat the Ravens 13-6 last season in a defensive slugfest on a national broadcast last year. We are somewhat healthy at the start of this season. We do have more consistency in our coaching staff than most of the league. We are in the papers less for off-field issues these days. We do still have a top 3 quarterback and loads of weapons at his disposal. All is not lost, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s to hope.
Mojokong – keeping my fingers crossed.
