Block & Tackle

[kevin]

In Round 1 the Bengals got Blocking. Now they need Tackling and increased Speed on Defense. In short, the Bengals 2018 Defense was too slow and can't tackle. They were awful. In order to have players flying to the ball and making plays, the D needs addressed now. You add Blocking and Tackling to Bengals, they could win. This team could be good if it could just Block and Tackle. Need more speed on D. Teams are going to that Tony Dungy style, but it takes very fast players, very fast players.

Round 1 looks great, we got the Blocker. Now lets add speed, talented athletes to D from front to back. You fix the blocking and tackling on this team and you fix a lot.

[fredtoast]

Bengals second round pick

[kevin]

I need to add that some pull out stats saying our D wasn't that bad. Those stats must be from very bad teams Bengals played. Good teams and semi good teams went through Bengals defense with great ease all game long. To say the Bengals Defense is Bad doesn't capture it. More accurate is to say the Bengals Defense Stinks. The good news is now that Bengals drafted a blocker some compare to Joe Thomas, the attention can now turn to this awful Defense. Adding talented Blockers and Tacklers is only way Bengals can Man Up against good teams. There is a reason Bengals fired D coach after 2017, fired D coach during 2018, brought in Hue and then fired Marvin and about all coaches end of season. The D Stinks. Hopefully in draft Help Is On The Way.

[Ravage]

Most of the defense that finished 2017 ranked 16th in points and 18th in yards were back for 2018 when they finished 30th and 32nd respectively. And yes there are most certainly holes to fill on defense. However, the biggest reason I saw for that fall off the cliff was Teryl Austin as the DC who couldn't coordinate his way out of a wet paper bag, let alone an NFL defense.

Austin "led" them to 3 straight games giving up over 500 yds, and two more games where they gave up over 480 yds. Only one game that he was the DC did the defense hold their opponent to less than 300 yds and that was 297 against Miami (not exactly an offensive juggernaut).

Meanwhile, once Austin was shown the door, the Defense in the 7 games that followed, allowed one 400+ yd game (to the Ravens that first week with a debuting Lamar Jackson), and held both the Chargers (a good offense) and the Raiders (a not so good offense) under 300 total yards.

My point is, while the D absolutely needs some new blood infused into it, the BIG problem with the D was solved Nov 12th, 2018. Austin was a liability, and once he was removed the D started to at least resemble a defense again.

They should go out and get a LB or two, a CB, and maybe some D-line help as well, but the pieces are there of a solid D. When the guy calling plays is wildly inept (as Austin was) there isn't much the players can do to overcome bad scheming. As long as Amarumo is at a minimum a competent DC, the D by nature of Austin just being gone, should be improved.