Paul Daughtery: Doc: Zac Taylor came in strutting, without actually strutting. He was

[George Cantstandya]

(05-11-2022, 10:16 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Bengal defense got worse when Dunlap left in 2020.

Not really or at least not a very noticeable difference.  Dunlop was traded on the 28th of October.  At that point they played 7 games.   During those 7 games the Bengals opponents averaged 27.7 points per game , 261 passing yards allowed, and 133 rushing yards allowed.

After that during the final nine games Bengals opponents averaged 25.5 points per game, 225 passing yards allowed and 159 rushing yards allowed.  As for the later rushing yards, that is a bit skewed because of the final game of the season they gave up 404 rushing yards to the Ravens.  If you exclude that game they gave up on average 129 rushing yards over the previous 8 games. 

So to me it does not seem like the defense got significantly worse after Dunlop left.  The only sort of noticeable difference was rushing yards allowed, 133 to 159 and again that final game against the Ravens skewed those stats a bit. I can't recall if the Bengals were playing a bunch of backups in that final game due to it being a lost season. 

Of course you could argue they played some more difficult opponents during those first 7 games, notably the Browns twice and the Ravens once. Also of note Burrow didn't play the last 6 games of the season so the offense was hampered possibly giving the opposing teams more offensive opportunities. Given that, I still don't think there is that big of a difference before and after Dunlop.

Edit here is my data for calculating those averages:

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cin/2020.htm