I Give Coach Lewis Credit For 7 Play-Off Seasons.

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(12-31-2018, 06:10 PM)kevin Wrote: Shula, Colslett, Lebeau combined for zero play-offs.  So Coach Lewis 7 Play-Off Seasons was an improvement. Coach Gregg had been only Bengals Coach to have 2 straight Play-Off Seasons. Coach Lewis made it 5 in a row and 6 in 7 years.  I also feel after 3 losing seasons it is time for Coach Lewis to go.  Had he stayed, he is talking retiring soon anyway.  Time to change.  Still, I give credit to Coach Lewis winning more than Shula, Coslett, Lebeau and I'll throw in Tiger Johnson and Homer Rice.   New Years Eve, so out with the old, in with the new, but hoping not in with the hue.

Good post. Marvin also kind of proved that the crazy Bengals philosophy is viable. You don't need to have 17 vice presidents of football size, shape, seams, operations, inflation etc. to be competitive in the NFL.

You need to be able to assess, assemble, and motivate talented players , and then teach the game and manage it. Marvin is exceptional in many of those areas, but not all of them. He also seems to impress most who meet him as a high character person. There is something to be said for a team running a clean house and its fans not having to worry about scandals and drama around the owner and coaches (and even most of our players now) and also being in the playoff hunt with some frequency.

So the team he coached is now a laughing stock because they haven't won a playoff game under his tenure. But under Marvin's tenure they made the playoffs, had marquee players some of whom shined here and some of whom shined when they moved on to other teams, had coaches whose careers advanced, etc. Laughinstock who gets bounced in 1st round of playoffs is a long way from laughingstock who is perennially about 4-12. 

It's time for the next chapter. In the Bengals book so far the best chapter was the Sam Wyche era. I wish that chapter had been longer. The next best was arguably the Marvin Lewis era, and likely it went on a little too long. 

Interested to see what will be written on the next pages and by whom...