01-24-2023, 12:10 PM
I liked Marvin. I thought he would bring a SB home with the Bengals. I truly appreciated what he did for the team (which was in a ditch with a blown motor when he took over).
I think we all know that discipline was an issue for ML. He wanted the “thugs” like he had in Baltimore. That’s how we ended up with Odell, PacMan, Burfict, etc. ML gave lip service to discipline, but rarely showed any desire to actually instill it.
Even Chad was off the chain under Marvin. I can’t even imagine Chase or Higgins doing any of the stuff Ocho did.
Still, Marvin seemed to endear himself to Mike Brown….always mentioning him as more of a friend than his boss. That, gave him a little reprieve I think.
He had been flailing for a while. But, that last season was ugly. Even his coaching hires had big flaws (Hue Jackson, Jon Gruden, Leslie Frazier, Vance Joseph, etc). Yeah, they had some limited success. Some went on to bigger-better things. But ultimately, they all crashed and burned.
Definition of insanity, doing the same failed things over and over and expecting different results. That was Marvin’s undoing.
Zak? Totally opposite. Knew he couldn’t win with what he had after that first season (Dalton, AJ Green, John Ross, Dunlap, Atkinson, William Jackson, etc). Some of those guys are still playing, but not nearly at the level needed to move up the performance ladder with the team.
So, somehow-someway (after the fan base was calling for his head those first two seasons). He stuck with his play. More importantly, he got the Brown family to understand what he wanted to do, and executed the plan.
He even got a practice bubble.
The rest, is history.
I do believe at some point (hopefully way far in the future), he’ll falter. As they say, NFL HCs are hired to be fired. But, I hope it’s more of a Bellichick career than it is a Marvin Lewis career trajectory.
I think we all know that discipline was an issue for ML. He wanted the “thugs” like he had in Baltimore. That’s how we ended up with Odell, PacMan, Burfict, etc. ML gave lip service to discipline, but rarely showed any desire to actually instill it.
Even Chad was off the chain under Marvin. I can’t even imagine Chase or Higgins doing any of the stuff Ocho did.
Still, Marvin seemed to endear himself to Mike Brown….always mentioning him as more of a friend than his boss. That, gave him a little reprieve I think.
He had been flailing for a while. But, that last season was ugly. Even his coaching hires had big flaws (Hue Jackson, Jon Gruden, Leslie Frazier, Vance Joseph, etc). Yeah, they had some limited success. Some went on to bigger-better things. But ultimately, they all crashed and burned.
Definition of insanity, doing the same failed things over and over and expecting different results. That was Marvin’s undoing.
Zak? Totally opposite. Knew he couldn’t win with what he had after that first season (Dalton, AJ Green, John Ross, Dunlap, Atkinson, William Jackson, etc). Some of those guys are still playing, but not nearly at the level needed to move up the performance ladder with the team.
So, somehow-someway (after the fan base was calling for his head those first two seasons). He stuck with his play. More importantly, he got the Brown family to understand what he wanted to do, and executed the plan.
He even got a practice bubble.
The rest, is history.
I do believe at some point (hopefully way far in the future), he’ll falter. As they say, NFL HCs are hired to be fired. But, I hope it’s more of a Bellichick career than it is a Marvin Lewis career trajectory.
