How much did our defense really improve in second half of last season

[*SHRacerX*]

(06-05-2020, 12:42 AM)fredtoast Wrote: What I have done is not a complicated formula.  All I have done is measure our defense's performance based on the offense they were facing.  You will understand what I am saying as I analyze the season.  When I list an opponent's ranking it is final season.

The first game of the season was amazing.  Our defense held the #8 offense in the league (Seattle) to only 232 yards.  That was an incredible 142 yards below the Seahawks' season average.  I still can't explain how well we played, but I remember being shocked at the improvement of our defense from 2018.

Unfortunately over the next 7 weeks we got consistently curb stomped.  We allowed an average of 465 yards per game which was almost 100 yards (99.1) higher than those teams averaged for the season.  And while 3 of those seven teams had top ten offenses (#2 Bal, #4 SF, #7 Rams) none of the other 4 ranked higher than 20 (#30 Pit, #24 Buf, #21 Ari, #20 Jax).

I think about that first week a lot...probably because there isn't much else to over-analyze right now with respect to the Bengals.
I remember how ZT said he wanted his team to be the freshest and the fastest team on Sundays.  When I look back, I can't help but think ZT took it too easy on the players in camp leading up to the season.  They may have been fresh and fast that first Sunday, but they were dead as a door nail the following week.  I am sure the travel didn't help...nor did the brilliant decision to wear the black uniforms against the 49ers on one of the hottest days of the year.  
As a stupid analogy, in swimming, some teams would have very light work loads.  They recruited "wimps" that would never be able to put up with ridiculous 9000 yard practices (they were stupid anyways, but stick with me) and they touted to their athletes how they wouldn't beat them down all season.  Well, you hated competing against them early in the season.  They were all fast and fresh.  However, when it came time to taper (when yardage is greatly reduced and the body is allowed to heal) for the big end of season conference meet, they were nowhere to be found.  They hadn't put in the work and didn't get nearly as much out of taper as the other teams.  
I look at last year's week 1 Bengals and how they played only to see them struggle as though they could barely move the following weeks.  
I remember the soreness you felt after the first game of the season couldn't be duplicated in practice or the gym, but the better conditioned you were heading in to it, the faster you recovered.  If that was the case with the Bengals, I hope ZT turns up the intensity in camp this year.