10-08-2024, 04:45 PM
Excerpts from his article today
Why the Bengals’ dire situation has glimmer of hope as defense seeks answers
…. A day later, the feeling hadn’t subsided from the coaching staff and players off to the worst start since 2019 and a defense that’s allowed more points per drive through five games than any Bengalsteam this decade.
They’ve allowed at least 108 yards rushing to every opponent, an average of 151 per game and a defensive rushing success percentage of 47.1, 5 percentage points worse than anyone else in football. And when they sold out to stop it Sunday, Lamar Jackson lit them up for 348 yards and four touchdowns through the air. This just two weeks after Jayden Daniels and the Commandersscored on every possession excluding kneeldowns, with him completing a rookie-record 91 percent of his passes.
Somehow, an offense that scored 33, 34 and 38 points over the last three weeks won only once.
Now the Bengals just lost their most consistent starting cornerback, Dax Hill, for the season with a torn ACL.
Only 9 percent of teams to start 1-4 over the last decade made the playoffs.
No, it’s not all that dumb to write them off. Recalibrating their situation after Sunday’s loss, the prospects are undeniably dire.
That doesn’t mean they are done.
There are too many factors keeping hope alive — none pumping more blood than Joe Burrow and the offense.
Joe Burrow through first five games
STAT 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Yards 1293 1401 1055 1409
Cmp% 71.7% 64.9% 62.4% 72.3%
TDs 11 10 5 12
Turnovers 6 6 4 3
Sacks 14 18 11 11
Teams playing at their level right now don’t keep losing, no matter how bad the defense. They just don’t. In fact, they’ve never lost at this level in the first place.
At 2.93 points per drive, the Bengals rank second in the NFL behind only the Commanders. That ranks 19th best by any team this century through the first five games of a season.
Of the 80 best offensive starts in that span, not a single other team won only one game. Only the Bengals.
Here are the five teams that won two games or fewer while posting at least 2.5 points per drive this century.
Offenses through five games since 2000
RK YR TEAM WINS FINAL
6th 2021 team-logo-46-50x50.pngChiefs 2 12-5
19th 2024 team-logo-37-50x50.pngBengals 1 ?
28th 2005 team-logo-56-50x50.pngChargers 2 9-7
55th 2016 team-logo-50-50x50.pngSaints 2 7-9
56th 2020 team-logo-47-50x50.pngDolphins 2 10-6
59th 2020 team-logo-39-50x50.pngCowboys 2 6-10
Just five teams won only twice. Notable among the group at 2-3 despite a dominant offense were the 2021 Chiefs, whom the Bengals beat in the AFC Championship Game. Their young defense came together just enough over the second half of the season for Patrick Mahomes to pull them back to the title game. Even they managed two wins to build on.
What the Bengals just pulled off over the first five weeks of the season is essentially unprecedented in modern football.
Breaking a decades-long precedent has to contain fluky finishes. A fourth-and-16 conversion by Mahomes via a penalty in Kansas City. A bad field goal hold by Ryan Rehkow against Baltimore. Two walk-off field goal losses. Four one-possession defeats by 15 total points.
They haven’t closed out games despite countless opportunities. That’s a potentially fatal flaw, maybe even more concerning than the defense. When scoring 30-plus points every week, that really shouldn’t matter. Right now, it has them buried.
Why the Bengals’ dire situation has glimmer of hope as defense seeks answers
…. A day later, the feeling hadn’t subsided from the coaching staff and players off to the worst start since 2019 and a defense that’s allowed more points per drive through five games than any Bengalsteam this decade.
They’ve allowed at least 108 yards rushing to every opponent, an average of 151 per game and a defensive rushing success percentage of 47.1, 5 percentage points worse than anyone else in football. And when they sold out to stop it Sunday, Lamar Jackson lit them up for 348 yards and four touchdowns through the air. This just two weeks after Jayden Daniels and the Commandersscored on every possession excluding kneeldowns, with him completing a rookie-record 91 percent of his passes.
Somehow, an offense that scored 33, 34 and 38 points over the last three weeks won only once.
Now the Bengals just lost their most consistent starting cornerback, Dax Hill, for the season with a torn ACL.
Only 9 percent of teams to start 1-4 over the last decade made the playoffs.
No, it’s not all that dumb to write them off. Recalibrating their situation after Sunday’s loss, the prospects are undeniably dire.
That doesn’t mean they are done.
There are too many factors keeping hope alive — none pumping more blood than Joe Burrow and the offense.
Joe Burrow through first five games
STAT 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Yards 1293 1401 1055 1409
Cmp% 71.7% 64.9% 62.4% 72.3%
TDs 11 10 5 12
Turnovers 6 6 4 3
Sacks 14 18 11 11
Teams playing at their level right now don’t keep losing, no matter how bad the defense. They just don’t. In fact, they’ve never lost at this level in the first place.
At 2.93 points per drive, the Bengals rank second in the NFL behind only the Commanders. That ranks 19th best by any team this century through the first five games of a season.
Of the 80 best offensive starts in that span, not a single other team won only one game. Only the Bengals.
Here are the five teams that won two games or fewer while posting at least 2.5 points per drive this century.
Offenses through five games since 2000
RK YR TEAM WINS FINAL
6th 2021 team-logo-46-50x50.pngChiefs 2 12-5
19th 2024 team-logo-37-50x50.pngBengals 1 ?
28th 2005 team-logo-56-50x50.pngChargers 2 9-7
55th 2016 team-logo-50-50x50.pngSaints 2 7-9
56th 2020 team-logo-47-50x50.pngDolphins 2 10-6
59th 2020 team-logo-39-50x50.pngCowboys 2 6-10
Just five teams won only twice. Notable among the group at 2-3 despite a dominant offense were the 2021 Chiefs, whom the Bengals beat in the AFC Championship Game. Their young defense came together just enough over the second half of the season for Patrick Mahomes to pull them back to the title game. Even they managed two wins to build on.
What the Bengals just pulled off over the first five weeks of the season is essentially unprecedented in modern football.
Breaking a decades-long precedent has to contain fluky finishes. A fourth-and-16 conversion by Mahomes via a penalty in Kansas City. A bad field goal hold by Ryan Rehkow against Baltimore. Two walk-off field goal losses. Four one-possession defeats by 15 total points.
They haven’t closed out games despite countless opportunities. That’s a potentially fatal flaw, maybe even more concerning than the defense. When scoring 30-plus points every week, that really shouldn’t matter. Right now, it has them buried.
Romo “ so impressed with Zac ...1 of the best in the NFL… they are just fundamentally sound. Taylor the best winning % in the Playoffs of current coaches. Joe Burrow” Zac is the best head coach in the NFL & that gives me a lot of confidence." Taylor led the Bengals to their first playoff win since 1990, ending the longest active drought in the four major North American sports, en and appeared in Super Bowl LVI, the first since 1988.
