10-07-2016, 01:34 PM
(10-07-2016, 01:15 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: In summary, you don't think Marv has any major flaws and you have an excuse for 90% of his failures. At what point does the prime-time and playoff records become "not a coincidence"? This is Marv's 14th season and we have a mountain of evidence that involves 2 talented cores of players.
At what point do you stop making excuses (quality of opponent, not enough talent, etc) and start thinking maybe the problem is Marv and/or some of the more tenured coaches? Btw, if the team has lacked talent (you mention 05 and 09 specifically), then how did they win 21 games and division titles in those seasons? Does talent level only become evident in post season? We should've beaten the Sanchize Jets at home for sure. We were winning at half against the Steelers and Kitna came out hot, but per usual for the playoffs, we came out flat in the 2nd half.
Hell, then you got 5 more games after that. That's just playoffs. Not even touching on the prime time record. I could see excusing a couple games, but 7? At some point you have to stop picking out excuses for each individual game and start looking at the whole picture. 7 playoff games is plenty of evidence.
Lack of talent is not an "excuse". It is a reason. Marvin has lost 2 playoff games that he was favored to win, and I say the '09 team should not have been favored. Two games is not a "mountain of evidence".
If good coaching always trumps talent then why do most of the same coaches that win Super Bowls also have losing seasons? Jeff Fisher went to a Super Bowl but it would be crazy to claim he is a better coach than Marvin right now.
As far as his "prime time record" what most people here seem to be saying is that prime time games really don't make a difference and it is actually about losing to good teams. Over the last 3 years the Bengals have been one of the best teams in the league against other teams with winning records. What Marvin is accomplishing is very hard. Very few coaches have matched him.
Are there a few NFL coaches I thinkar better than Marvin? Absolutely. Are any of them available to come here and replace Marvin? No.
I can see rolling the dice with an unknown if we were floundering, but we are too close to take that chance.
