10-21-2022, 02:37 PM
(10-20-2022, 10:51 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Think about it: No second half touchdowns allowed all season. No second half touchdowns allowed by the Chiefs in either game last year. Only permitting 18 stingy points per game on average.
When Zac Taylor hired Lou Anarumo as his first defensive coordinator I had never heard of him. Who would have thought this unheralded defensive backs coach from the New York Giants would turn the Bengals’ defense into a run-stuffing pass-snatching beast?
Honestly I’m still gobsmacked. I didn’t see this coming in 2019 or early in 2020. The defensive draft selections got better. Reputable players began arriving via free agency. Then came THE play: Von Bell demolishing JuJu Smith-Schuster in prime time; I was at that game and the hit was SO loud. Now the Cincinnati defensive roster is loaded with stars and Lou might be the best coach I’ve ever seen with respect to not just making halftime adjustments but making adjustments between possessions.
Keeping Lou in Cincinnati for a long time needs to be a high priority.
Great thread FIK. I wanted Lou gone after his first 2 seasons here and boy was I wrong. Once his personnel was here you
could just see the Defense coming together. That hit you speak of by Bell should of stood out to me as the turning point but
I was already ready to move on from Lou and I was clearly wrong. His guys play their asses off for him and keep us in every
game and in the big games they seem to really come to play, same as Burrow on Offense.
It could be a lethal combination once the Offense plays decent and keeps this Defense fresh and we get healthy. Losing DJ
Reader hurt but we added Jay Tufele who flashed big time in just a few snaps against the Saints. This goes to show you the
eye that Lou has for defensive players as well as we wanted to draft Tufele before Shelvin, he was just drafted ahead of us.
Lou's halftime adjustments are sooo good and next man up is truly a thing here for once. Lou has the backups prepared it
seems often if we lose one of our starters, hope this continues with Tufele and Bailey to get us through while Reader and
Wilson are out. Props to Lou and the Defense no doubt.
