(09-16-2019, 11:35 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Ever take a golf lesson?  I have -- many of them -- and at first I had the mistaken impression whatever the coach told me to change would immediately improve my swing when I hit the very next ball on the practice tee.  This is, of course, completely unrealistic.  Building a fundamentally correct golf swing which perfoms well under pressure takes time, effort, and patience.

A good golf swing coach will give a player two options:

(1) I can improve the swing you already have and make it as good as it can get.  You'll play much better but you'll never reach your true potential.  This won't take long.

(2) I can tear your swing down and rebuild one with no compensations.  It will take much longer to accomplish this but you'll be fundamentally correct.  This transition will be painful, frustrating, and you'll be tempted to revert back to old habits simply because they are comfortable and familiar.  However, if you stick with it, your new swing will take you to heights you never thought you could achieve.


Marvin Lewis did the first option and the Bengals became much more successful.  After the debacle which was the 1990s, Marvin retooled Cincinnati into a perennial playoff contender.  However, the team was not built to compete at the elite level which explains the Bengals' lack of postseason success in the Marvin Lewis era.  As proof I submit Marvin's record against winning teams in the regular season.  It wasn't that good.


What is happening right now under Zac Taylor is the second option.  It's a complete teardown of the previous playbook and, as a cascade effect, each player is now learning new techniques which support the new schemes on both sides of the ball.  It's a painful transition and we saw it unforld before our eyes yesterday agains the 49ers. 


Say your golf swing coach asks you to rotate your low hand grip to the left even half a centimeter for example; it feels totally uncomfortable at first.  The shots hit with the new grip might be squirrelly or off target -- but you stick with the new grip because it's fundamentally correct.  It's the same with blocking and tackling; new techniques are uncomfortable but being fundamentally correct for the first time in years -- like changing a golf grip -- will pay off in the long run for the Cincinnati Bengals.



What we saw against the Seahawks was promising, especially on defense.  What we saw against the 49ers was the result of old habits creeping back into individual players -- not to mention blown coverages.  Remember, a lot of the players on the Cincinnati roster have played under four -- or five counting Marvin -- different defensive coordinators and under five different offensive coordinators.  That's a lot of technique and scheme to completely deconstruct and rebuild!  In golf we don't want multiple coaches with disparate swing theories teaching us all at once and this anology works in football as well.  Scheme, technique, and the teaching thereof must be completely cohesive and seamless.

(09-16-2019, 11:52 AM)psychdoctor Wrote: Similarly, I saw poor discipline by players in staying in their lanes.  Players looked distracted and lost  as the game progressed.  Poor blocking and tackling.  The Bengals were out coached against 49ers.

(09-16-2019, 11:54 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: We have about as inexperienced of a staff as you will ever find in the NFL.

My guess is that now our offense and defense was on tape, the 49ers figured out how to attack it and we had no answers.

(09-16-2019, 12:01 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Then you obviously did not see the number of broken and missed tackles by the Bengals defense in Sunday's game.

There were clearly many mental mistakes made in pass defense by players, coaches, or both.  But the Bengals also just got out blocked and tackled.  

It was more than just getting a scheme figured out, although that could be part of it.

(09-16-2019, 11:38 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Honestly, I saw poor blocking and tackling. I didn't see growing pains from a new scheme.

It was a failure of football fundamentals mainly.

Yeah there were blown coverages here and there, but that wasn't the main issue.

(09-16-2019, 11:54 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: We have about as inexperienced of a staff as you will ever find in the NFL.

My guess is that now our offense and defense was on tape, the 49ers figured out how to attack it and we had no answers.