11-05-2017, 12:19 PM
While wins and playoff success certainly don't point to the Bengals as being a 'great' franchise, the fact is that the modern NFL on both sides of the ball was in many ways created on the banks of the Ohio.
While everyone wants to pretend it came about in SF, the West Coast offense was created far from the West Coast by Bill Walsh while he was on the Bengals staff in the 70's.
Despite being synonymous with a certain unmentionable western PA team, the zone blitz got its start also in Cincy while Dick LeBeau was on the Bengals staff in the 80's if I recall correctly.
In addition, the no-huddle offense also started with the Bengals, leading a soon-to-be world class hypocrite (Bills coach Marv Levy) to cry to the NFL about it prior to a playoff game. The following season, Levy started going no-huddle himself, and rode it to 4 straight Super Bowl losses.
So, while on-field success has eluded the Bengals in their first half century, I'd argue as far as X's and O's that few teams have had as much of an impact on the NFL than the Bengals in that time frame, even if most don't realize it.
Sorry this wasn't too much about PB. But if you're looking at what makes a team great, I'd say continually revolutionizing the way the game is played should count, and the Bengals have actually been pretty innovative in that regard over their first 50 years.
While everyone wants to pretend it came about in SF, the West Coast offense was created far from the West Coast by Bill Walsh while he was on the Bengals staff in the 70's.
Despite being synonymous with a certain unmentionable western PA team, the zone blitz got its start also in Cincy while Dick LeBeau was on the Bengals staff in the 80's if I recall correctly.
In addition, the no-huddle offense also started with the Bengals, leading a soon-to-be world class hypocrite (Bills coach Marv Levy) to cry to the NFL about it prior to a playoff game. The following season, Levy started going no-huddle himself, and rode it to 4 straight Super Bowl losses.
So, while on-field success has eluded the Bengals in their first half century, I'd argue as far as X's and O's that few teams have had as much of an impact on the NFL than the Bengals in that time frame, even if most don't realize it.
Sorry this wasn't too much about PB. But if you're looking at what makes a team great, I'd say continually revolutionizing the way the game is played should count, and the Bengals have actually been pretty innovative in that regard over their first 50 years.
