Biggest difference we’ll see this year and why I’m so pumped.

[HarleyDog]

Nice article on difference between Merv and Zac. I feel it nails my perspective on the huge difference we will enjoy seeing each week. Not only us fans, but the players too.

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/5/4/18528197/bengals-a-j-green-already-sees-difference-of-having-an-offensive-minded-coach

Quote: A.J. Green already sees difference of having an offensive-minded coach
A.J. Green talks about how refreshing it is to have a head coach looking out for the offense. By PatrickJudis@PatrickJudis May 4, 2019, 7:00am EDT


It is no secret that this year’s offseason OTAs and training camp will be very different than ones in recent history.

Zac Taylor is taking over as head coach after the team parted ways with Marvin Lewis this offseason. It isn’t a secret that Taylor and Lewis are very different from each other.

Taylor is a young offensive mind that just spent two seasons learning the most modern ways to attack NFL defenses in Los Angeles with the Rams. Lewis was an old school defensive mind who was responsible for one of the greatest defenses in NFL history during his time with the Ravens. Lewis was also the second-longest tenured coach during his time with the Bengals, and Taylor has never even been a more than an interim offensive coordinator in the NFL.

Bengals players were able to get on the field with their new head coach recently, as the NFL allows teams with a new head coach to start a few weeks earlier than other teams. One of Cincinnati’s longest tenured offensive players, wide receiver A.J. Green, noticed the difference in the way Taylor ran things pretty quickly.

“Playing with coach Lewis, it’s all about the defense,” Green told Chris Simms of Pro Football Talk. “You don’t show up the defense at practice. But Zac is like, ‘OTA one, we’re going to kick the defense’s butt.’ That’s what we like to hear. I love the way he teaches. He’s not yelling at you, he’s teaching every little detail and having you understand why we run it this way.”

Green obviously didn’t say this with any malice (even though he probably should have). He is just protecting his new coach. He even talks about how refreshing that the offensive staff is so “high energy.” It is obvious he likes his new coach, but it isn’t necessarily an attack on his old one. Green is too good of a guy to do that.

I, however, am not above such standards. It seems absolutely ridiculous that an offensive player, especially one as important as Green, would ever feel like the head coach doesn’t want one side of the ball to show up the other. Whether Lewis verbalized these feelings or it was a vibe Green was picking up is pretty unacceptable.

A coach is obviously going to favor the side of the ball he comes from, but insinuating that you don’t want the offense to beat up on the defense too bad creates all sorts of problems with the team. The offense won’t try as hard, and the defense gains a false sense of confidence. It really explains why sometimes the Bengals struggled to have that killer mentality in games, that extra little push to pull of close games.

A head coach needs to ride that fine line of celebrating whichever side is having a good day, but also able to give constructive criticism to the side losing. While Taylor is an offensive minded guy, you can also tell he brings a fresh sense of energy to this team that Lewis had clearly lost over his time with this team.

Taylor may not be able to be as detail oriented with the defense, but his energy seems like it has become infectious over the entire team.

[Bngluv]

I agree.

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[Bngluv]

NEW DEY ft. Alicia Keys
https://youtu.be/C-GSc-eYv08

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[Luvnit2]

(05-04-2019, 08:55 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Nice article on difference between Merv and Zac. I feel it nails my perspective on the huge difference we will enjoy seeing each week. Not only us fans, but the players too.

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/5/4/18528197/bengals-a-j-green-already-sees-difference-of-having-an-offensive-minded-coach

We all thought ML would be produce dominant defenses over time. He had some very good ones, but not one dominant defense. If you preach defense first, you better be great. The part where AJ said he did not want the offense show up the defense is perplexing. How did you figure out weaknesses on defense if not in practice?

[Bengalitis]

(05-04-2019, 09:49 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: We all thought ML would be produce dominant defenses over time. He had some very good ones, but not one dominant defense. If you preach defense first, you better be great. The part where AJ said he did not want the offense show up the defense is perplexing. How did you figure out weaknesses on defense if not in practice?

Marvin knew our defense was no match for our offense or any other offense in the league. Probably wanted to spare the embarrassment?

[corpjet]

Another shocking nail in the coffin that defies why/how Marvin had a job for 16 years!

[*psychdoctor*]

(05-04-2019, 09:49 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: We all thought ML would be produce dominant defenses over time. He had some very good ones, but not one dominant defense. If you preach defense first, you better be great. The part where AJ said he did not want the offense show up the defense is perplexing. How did you figure out weaknesses on defense if not in practice?

Lewis brought in some real stinkers for DC position over the years.  He may have good judgment on selecting defensive players with potential with some exceptions but his judgment in hiring DC coaches was horrible for the most part.  defensive position coaches seemed fine.  

[grampahol]

We'll see.. The season hasn't started yet. All the hype in the world still doesn't win games.. I'll be completely sold when the team as a whole performs like champions over the course of a full season. Until then, just another Bengal's team hoping to compete.

[fredtoast]

Since the defense can't hit the QB during practice the offense has a huge advantage, so the offense should not be celebrating or talking smack in practice. But that is different from asking the offense to hold back on the defense.

I can understand a coach telling the offense not to "show up" the defense by talking smack. But I can't see a coach telling the offense to "take it easy" on the defense.

[HarleyDog]

Sounds like a bunch of coddling to me. No wonder we lacked discipline on the field when it counted. We also lacked heart in recent years. In 2017, merv seemed separated from the team and vice versa. In 2018 it got worse. Now things were good last year until we started losing, then separation set in fast. That’s bad coaching. Specially when a coach fails to take responsibility for those losses and puts it on the players. That’s not leadership.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

This is what we needed, a stark difference in the mentality of the HC, it is already filtering down to our great players like AJ Green.

Gonna be some fun times ahead people. Competition breeds excellence. Now if the Offense shows up the Defense the Defense will learn and hit back. Been watching the Germaine Pratt videos and i am finding a hard time seeing plays where he does something wrong, this is a great sign for our Linebackers. Pratt lines up at Corner at times and shuts down WR's on the edge, when is the last time we had a Linebacker do this?

Pratt never gives up on plays either and when other players got beat he would chase down the WR and stop a bad play from being a game changing one. He is great blitzing and tackling. I know this is not a Pratt thread but damn, Taylor, Lou and Tem have a great one to work with here. Future superstar is what i am seeing.

[THE PISTONS]

(05-04-2019, 10:55 AM)corpjet Wrote: Another shocking nail in the coffin that defies why/how Marvin had a job for 16 years!

And that goes to Management...which hasn't changed.

It's my big reason for skepticism.

It would be nice when I make my 4+ hour drive to watch a Game this year if they actually won! I think I'm going to go see them play the Cardinals in early October.

[Circleville Guy]

A new coach could bring positive change, he could also be as crappy as the Reds rookie manager. Some people are predicting 9-10 wins, I wish that I was that optimistic. I looked at the depth chart a couple of days ago. I counte 5 decent starters on D and 2 decent reserves. I counted the same on the Offense. That’s not very good!! I’m curious if others have looked at the depth chart at all. If so, what am I missing? Maybe that depth chart would make a good discussion. There may be better players there than I’m seeing but that was my impression.

[BengalChris]

(05-04-2019, 08:55 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Nice article on difference between Merv and Zac. I feel it nails my perspective on the huge difference we will enjoy seeing each week. Not only us fans, but the players too.

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/5/4/18528197/bengals-a-j-green-already-sees-difference-of-having-an-offensive-minded-coach

Hopefully we see a team that gets aggressive when it has the lead.

[THE PISTONS]

(05-04-2019, 06:59 PM)Circleville Guy Wrote: A new coach could bring positive change, he could also be as crappy as the Reds rookie manager. Some people are predicting 9-10 wins, I wish that I  was that optimistic. I looked at the depth chart a couple of days ago. I counte 5 decent starters on D and 2 decent reserves. I counted the same on the Offense. That’s not very good!! I’m curious if others have looked at the depth chart at all. If so, what am I missing? Maybe that depth chart would make a good discussion. There may be better players there than I’m seeing but that was my impression.

On offense: Mixon, Boyd, Green, and Eifert are as good as any RB/TE/WR 4-some in the league WHEN HEALTHY. I think that's the optimism for the team.

But, yeah...assuming Williams is an above average to good Pro as a rookie...we'll have 2 lineman in that category.

Dalton is an average to above average QB.

The defensive line and secondary are above average to good. Our LB's are terrible. If they could improve to atleast average, we'd have a decent defense.

You don't need stars at every position to win...you just can't have bad starters. We'll need guys like Price/Miller/Ross/Vigil/Pratt/Billings/Glenn to atleast play league average or better. We'll also need health because like you said, our depth is bad on the offensive line/LB/WR/QB. Any injury at those positions could be catastrophic.

I think we'll need A LOT of things to break right. Taylor and the Coaching staff will have to all be good coaches. Then, we'll need a bunch of players to take bigs steps forward to compete. And we'll need health.

[THE PISTONS]

I think our biggest risk is the inexperience of the coaching staff. I keep hearing people say that Taylor will bring the Rams offense and we're drafting to be the Rams. The thing is, he was assistant WR coach there in 1 year. Then QB coach in Year 2. He didn't build the Rams offense or call plays.

Callahan didn't call the plays with the Raiders. That's a HUGE Step up.

Plus, I hear people talk about Taylors drafting. Say he started here in Feb. In 3 months he would have had to:

-Assess the roster.
-Do scouting for draft.
-Do scouting for free agency.
-Evaluate coaches.
-Hire coaches.
-Determine which free agents to sign.
-Develop and offensive and defensive scheme.
-Design a playbook as he'll be the OC.
-Handle the draft.

That's a HUGE ask for an inexperience staff in 3 months to complete...and I doubt that Taylor is doing all of those things.

[SunsetBengal]

A complete 180 degree turn, not just in personality and philosophy, but in tempo, mood, and general spirit of the team. Just what the doctor ordered.

[Catmandude123]

(05-04-2019, 08:55 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Nice article on difference between Merv and Zac. I feel it nails my perspective on the huge difference we will enjoy seeing each week. Not only us fans, but the players too.

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/5/4/18528197/bengals-a-j-green-already-sees-difference-of-having-an-offensive-minded-coach

Hopefully the ability to adjust what the other team is doing on offense and defense when the game plan isn't working. 

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Once we “knew” Zac Taylor was coming our way I watched more Rams games, especially in the playoffs. What I noticed right away was how fast the team played on both offense and defense. If Cincinnati can play even a little faster I think we’ll see more wins. This is more crucial on defense than on offense because if the defense is fast enough, they “become” the offense because the opposing offense has to react to them instead of the other way around.

Sadly, none of Marvin Lewis’ defenses ever got to that point — although Mike Zimmer was the closest.

[*SHRacerX*]

(05-04-2019, 09:31 AM)Bngluv Wrote: NEW DEY ft. Alicia Keys
https://youtu.be/C-GSc-eYv08

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Seeing this video as a recap of some highlights in a lowlight season brought me to these conclusions:

Joe Mixon could be a star.

Gio Bernard is a beast when he is hit in stride and used as a receiver.

I love watching Piggy throw INTs and get sacked.

Andy Dalton has a very quick release and great accuracy, which is going to suit this offense beautifully.

AJ Green is unstoppable when he is seemingly pissed off.  I want to piss him off before every game. 

Alicia Keys has an amazing butt.