A look at the numbers...2018 defense.

[*ochocincos*]

(01-07-2019, 11:56 AM)ochocincos Wrote: Austin was fired after the team was 5-4 and coming off high-powered offenses TB, New Orleans, KC, and Pittsburgh.
From Game 10 on (Marvin Lewis defense), the team yards and points per game allowed...
PPG = 23.8
YPG = 361.0

Yards and points per game allowed during Austin's tenure (9 games)...
PPG = 32.0
YPG = 454.5

Once again, I'm going to reiterate that the Bengals went up against better offenses when Austin was here vs when he was not, so Austin's PPG and YPG likely would have gone down if he had stayed the whole year. However, it does look that Marvin was better than Austin even if Austin's defense did improve with him still there.

I should point out where Marvin's defense would have ranked if it was the same throughout the whole year...
361.0 YPG would be 22nd in the league.
23.8 PPG would be 19th in the league.