Fool's Gold

[Essex Johnson]

(12-23-2020, 06:53 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: A couple of excerpts from Dehner's latest article, that I agree with and was trying to say after the Steelers game:

'Was that the win that saved Zac Taylor’s job? The immediate reaction and euphoria Bengals fans experienced with the stunning 27-17 win against the Steelers on Monday Night Football had so many of you sending this question to me on Twitter.


I don’t know if Monday “saved” his job or merely secured it. But it’s safe to say breaking through against the Steelers in the intimidating fashion in which the Bengals did feels like the win he needed to provide belief and much-needed proof of concept for this staff to earn one more run with the intended pieces, plus another player cycle churning their guys.'


'This was one win. They are 5-24-1. This was one night where the players spent all week being disrespected and were about to play on national television knowing the entire football world was watching, waiting for them to meltdown.


Those are unique circumstances and hard not to wonder where the hell that kind of effort, energy and momentum have been all season. Part of the wave of momentum might be circumstantial considering the Steelers gifted the Bengals a few early turnovers.


You also wonder if this wasn’t a vintage ’90s Bengals December mirage.


Consider, the coaching staff was on the ropes every year from 1998-2001. During that four-year stretch, miserable Bengals teams repeatedly won a game in which they were double-digit underdogs or strung together a few wins to build belief in the next year.


Each time it turned out to be fool’s gold.'


The Steelers win was awesome and very fun to watch, but that game alone should have no impact on Taylor's future, IMO. Now if they win both of the next 2 games, then maybe it's a little more reasonable to talk about a 3rd year...but end of the years wins during lost seasons are always suspect in my mind, and history points to them not meaning much when it comes to the next season. 

Not trying to be negative here, only trying to look at things in terms of the overall picture. Outside of December, when the season is already in the crapper, Zac has a meager .114 win %. When the games actually count, he has done almost nothing. Like I said, winning both the remaining games would help his case, but I also think the overall body of work should still be a huge factor.

Of course, none of this probably matters at all because Mike has the final say on Zac's future and he's always seemed to put stock in these late season wins, using them to point to progress, regardless of how bad the season was as a whole. I expect Zac to be back, and I wouldn't be surprised if both Lou and Turner back as well. Personally, I don't think any of them should return because the overall body of work doesn't support bringing them back. 

That's just my opinion though and I know some will disagree, but I really think that bringing Zac back is just delaying the inevitable. I think it's a good time to make a change because there are a lot of solid potential HC and coordinator candidates that will be available and I doubt anyone would fault them for wanting to go in another direction.

Fools gold was "thinking " ZT was in danger of losing his job.. The Bengals signed him and showed no indication he was on a 2 year contract string, they were going to give him a fair time to turn this team around so not sure where we got on this bandwagon that ZT was gone if he does not win in 2nd season but it seems on the Board we sure did