Talk to me about this defense

[kevin]

(07-29-2019, 05:17 PM)thompson19osu Wrote: With training camp here and the season just around the corner, I feel like i hear nothing and know nothing about this defense. Is their any reason to be optimistic for these guys? If there has been any hype around the D I have missed it. I don’t post on here much anymore but I will often peak in. Between the boards and the articles everything is focused on coaching staff, the o-line, and of course now with resigning of Boyd and Green’s injury, focus has shifted to WR core. Can someone shed some light on our LB core and will the rookie we drafted fight for a starting spot? How about our safety situation? For how many points the D gave up last year I feel like there has been no focus on them, which in that case makes me believe we should expect more of the same this year. Your knowledge is appreciated here! Thanks!

It's TOO EARLY for fans to talk O Line or Defense.  Now I put that in caps to highlight, not to yell.   The reason it is too early is you can't hire a new head coach and expect him to have the weakest parts of the team fixed on Day One of Training Camp.  It's not going to happen. We have to give these new coaches their first training camp and preseasons.   We also have to give them the 2019 season into the 2020 season.  The coaches we have now should be considered the coaches for 2020 also, unless Coach Taylor wants to change a coach. This is because you can not expect a new coach to fix a last place team overnight.  In college or pros you have to give a new coach years to recruit or draft players to fit his system. 

The Bengals were so bad on defense that they are on their 4th defensive coordinator in 3 years.  2 Training camps ago we had one DC.  Then last training camp another.  Then Marvin became DC in mid season as it got so bad that Hue Stinks Jackson was fired in Cleveland and brought back to Cincy so Marvin could focus on D.  This training camp all those coaches gone and a new DC.  

The Bengals so bad on O Line that this is their 3rd O Line coach in 3 years.  

The 2 go together.  The Best Defense is a Good Offense.  You control the clock.  You control the field position.  You don't put the D right back on the field with the other team in scoring position.  You don't leave your D on the field all game.  and you score points. You don't score 10 or 14 points and expect your D to shut the other team out.  In todays NFL, a team needs to score 30 points.  The rule changes make it more like touch football.  Teams are putting up points, maybe not the Bengals, but most teams.  You are going to see few 14 to 10 games. 

You can only have a good Offense if you have a Good Offensive Line.  If you have blocking you can win.  If you don't have blocking you can throw the entire playbook in the garbage can.   A Good O Line not only helps the Offense, but it helps the Defense, for reasons I've already mentioned on clock time and field position and the scoreboard.  

I could say I think the team will be better with Burfict who almost never played and so was not a leader. Also the Refs won't be ready to flag Burfict Bengals on every play, he's not on the team.  I could also say I think the D will be good again in 2019, but I have nothing to base that on.   All we can do is wait and see. 

I will add the Patriots D the last few years has started awful and finished great, but the Patriots D got better as Gronk and Edleman and Offensive players got healthy.  The 2 go together.  I would say our D could use some help from the Offense and our Offense could use some help from our D.   We also need good Special Teams.  

This I will say as a fact.  Anybody saying the Bengals D or team will be good or bad in 2019 is just talking out their rear end.  I go back to The Paul Brown Show with Phil Samp back around 1971 or 1972 in Training Camp.  Coach Brown said, "  This is the time of year all these magazines come out and tell you where every team is going to finish.   It makes you wonder why we should even play the NFL season.  Except every year these so called experts are always wrong at the end of the year, and teams don't finish as they predicted in early summer.  So I think we will just go ahead and play the season anyway ".