Golden has ALOT to fix

[Joelist]

(04-01-2025, 07:34 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: How quick do you think Lou should have given up on his guys not being able to run his defense?  6 or 7 weeks?  Shouldnt you expect these guys to be able to pick up an NFL defense without needing it to be so simplified?   If Golden's defense is struggling after 6 or 7 weeks should he be blamed for not having a more simple defense too? or should the players be expected to learn what Golden wants them to do in his particular style defense?

Really he should have pulled the plug and simplified after maybe game 4. That was more than enough to tell you the defense he installed was too complex. 

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(04-01-2025, 07:34 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: How quick do you think Lou should have given up on his guys not being able to run his defense?  6 or 7 weeks?  Shouldnt you expect these guys to be able to pick up an NFL defense without needing it to be so simplified?   If Golden's defense is struggling after 6 or 7 weeks should he be blamed for not having a more simple defense too? or should the players be expected to learn what Golden wants them to do in his particular style defense?

We were loooooong past 6 or 7 weeks with Lou.

I mean, Lou had 3 years of his guys not being able to run his defense, then 1 postseason and 1 regular season of them being able to do so, followed by 2 more years of not being able to run his defense. That's 5 out of 6 years, not weeks.

If it's 5 years, you can't try to blame the players anymore for not being able to pick it up, you are doing something wrong.

[007BengalsFan]

(04-01-2025, 08:54 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: We were loooooong past 6 or 7 weeks with Lou.

I mean, Lou had 3 years of his guys not being able to run his defense, then 1 postseason and 1 regular season of them being able to do so, followed by 2 more years of not being able to run his defense. That's 5 out of 6 years, not weeks.

If it's 5 years, you can't try to blame the players anymore for not being able to pick it up, you are doing something wrong.

Lou's defense carried us to the Super Bowl in 2021 and in 2022 were the #6 scoring defense in the NFL.  He did this with a defense that wasnt overly talented yet Bengals management decided to let leave some of the better talent Lou did have.  If Lou really was at fault and it wasnt a lack of talent on defense, the Bengals management should go all in on offense this draft and let Golden work with all this great talent Lou didnt coach up.  They already upgraded the DT spot and brought in a great LB free agent steal.  The offense needs a couple of guards, a true TE, another RB and could use another WR so the Bengals could spend all their draft picks on offense.

[SunsetBengal]

(3 hours ago)007BengalsFan Wrote:
Lou's defense carried us to the Super Bowl in 2021 and in 2022 were the #6 scoring defense in the NFL.  He did this with a defense that wasnt overly talented yet Bengals management decided to let leave some of the better talent Lou did have.  If Lou really was at fault and it wasnt a lack of talent on defense, the Bengals management should go all in on offense this draft and let Golden work with all this great talent Lou didnt coach up.  They already upgraded the DT spot and brought in a great LB free agent steal.  The offense needs a couple of guards, a true TE, another RB and could use another WR so the Bengals could spend all their draft picks on offense.

Those defenses did it with Jesse Bates III orchestrating the calls. It went to shit soon after Jesse left for Atlanta.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(3 hours ago)007BengalsFan Wrote: Lou's defense carried us to the Super Bowl in 2021 and in 2022 were the #6 scoring defense in the NFL.  He did this with a defense that wasnt overly talented yet Bengals management decided to let leave some of the better talent Lou did have.  If Lou really was at fault and it wasnt a lack of talent on defense, the Bengals management should go all in on offense this draft and let Golden work with all this great talent Lou didnt coach up.  They already upgraded the DT spot and brought in a great LB free agent steal.  The offense needs a couple of guards, a true TE, another RB and could use another WR so the Bengals could spend all their draft picks on offense.

Lou's defense carried us in the 2021 playoffs. It was a bad defense during the regular season.

2022 is the 1 year out of 6 that I mentioned.

The Bengals spent more money on Lou's defense bringing in outside FAs than they did on FAs in the entire rest of Bengals outside FA history COMBINED. We were among the top cap spenders on defense in the entire NFL for most of Lou's time here.

[Joelist]

(1 hour ago)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Lou's defense carried us in the 2021 playoffs. It was a bad defense during the regular season.

2022 is the 1 year out of 6 that I mentioned.

The Bengals spent more money on Lou's defense bringing in outside FAs than they did on FAs in the entire rest of Bengals outside FA history COMBINED. We were among the top cap spenders on defense in the entire NFL for most of Lou's time here.

Exactly. Lou's defense did not lack for resources. Unfortunately his alignments and calls were too complex for less experienced players to pick up and the combination of Hubbard and Bell hitting the physical wall at the same time didn't help. He needed to simplify the defense a LOT sooner than he did. He also needed to turn players loose to attack a lot sooner than he did. 

We'll have to see Golden's system but supposedly a strength of his is adapting to his players and also developing players.