04-10-2019, 01:26 AM
(04-09-2019, 08:48 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: The Steelers team was only heavily favored because they were going against Marvin in the playoffs. They had one of the worst passing defenses in the league in '15.
...which is mitigated when you've got AJ McCarron playing QB for the Bengals instead of an MVP-caliber Andy Dalton. Knock Mark Sanchez and Matt Schaub if you want, both of those guys are better QBs than McCarron was.
That said, I'm not disagreeing with your point. The Bengals absolutely should've won a few of those games. Hell, outside of the Houston games I was at all of them lol. All I'm saying is, I'm not sure too many other coaches would've pulled off a win against Pittsburgh in '15 without Dalton, and even fewer would've gotten a playoff win with the few guys they had left in the Indy game in '14 (which would've been coached by Zimmer under your suggestion).
2012 and 2013 were the two games Marvin absolutely should have won. 2009 is debatable in my eyes, because I'm not sure that team was really all that good to begin with.