Why did it take so long?

[*SHRacerX*]

(12-12-2018, 07:56 AM)TheBengalsMind Wrote: Those, talking about the Bengals faithful, who have managed to make it through a Cincinnati Bengals game this season have noticed something off with this defense.

With the hiring of Teryl Austin our defense has ran a lot more zone coverage this year. We have seen it affect our CB's, our linebackers and even our star rookie last year Carl Lawson.

All of a sudden we weren't bringing Carl Lawson off the edge and leaving our CB's in man-to-man coverage. We would instead bring Lawson to drop back Atkins into a zone defense.

This last game against the Chargers we played our defense in a lot of man-to-man coverage and William Jackson responded by playing his best game all season and it isn’t a surprise.

Here’s what Sam Hubbard had to say: “We were playing a lot of man-to-man. Be fundamentally sound. Don’t cheat looking in the backfield and that was how the game went. Eye discipline. I think our secondary played really well and gave us a chance to get after the quarterback.”

The fact that Teryl Austin was fired isn't surprising, as our guys weren't responding to it well.

The fact that it took this long to change back…is very disturbing if your a Bengals fan.

William Jackson III according to PFF earned a season-high 86.5 overall grade against LAC on Sunday, as he allowed 2 receptions for 9 yards from 5 targets on the day.

This was the Jackson we saw last year.

In fact, if we have Dalton we win that game.

Because he settles down our entire offense when he's in. You can clearly see that in the way the offensive line plays without him.

Our offense lineman have had there fair share of mistakes and they even put the nail in the coffin for the season when Price got Dalton killed.

But the uptick in penalties on our offense line, since Dalton has been hurt, has been stark.

That's not to say Jeff has been bad, I think he's done good with all things considered.

But Dalton wins that game.

But back to the point.

Why did it take so long to go back to last years defensive formula?

Absolutely.  As far as it taking time to get the formula right, that is my #1 criticism with Marv.  Even bigger than game management.  Their adjustments, or lack thereof, drive me crazy.  Not only in-game, but through the season.  They are predictable beyond belief and it almost seems like a laziness in terms of their effort to improve things.

In the military, there is an old saying:  "Hope is not a strategy".  My father beat (not literally) saying in to my psyche.  You need to be the agent of change.  So many times, Marv just goes along hoping for his team to suddenly be able to tackle, and so on.  His game plan, on defense especially, is to rarely blitz and have a lot of bodies drop in to coverage.  They hope for QBs to make mistakes.  There simply isn't the dearth of talent at QB as there was a few years ago.  Unless it is some moron like Jameis Winston, QBs don't overthrow wide open receivers and end up getting picked off by a DB that is 5 yards behind the play.  They don't force the issue.  They get nickel and dimed all day long and waste the talent they have in the back end by not playing more man with an additional pass rusher.  We always hear how they are going to be aggressive and blitz more but it never happens.  Not only is it stupid but painfully boring to watch.  

I love this team, but I hate the way this team, as it is currently constructed, plays the game.