Golden has ALOT to fix

[Housh]

Got bored and watched a lot of tape on individual players and i could not help but recognize how shitty our D played for the majority of the plays. Guys being utterly dumbfounded by any trick play ever, guys not filling gaps on time, guys MISSING TACKLES, multiple guys on the same play hesitating to do ANYTHING. Guys not even in a position to lose a fight. Meaning guys on D weren’t even NEAR the ball so they couldn’t even get their ass beat. Like at least be Germaine Pratt and just get your ass beat in the hole. A lot of guys were so out of it they didn’t even propose a fight in the hole. They were just in a totally wrong gap then trying to group tackle 6 yards past the LOS.


Idk how it got this bad this quick. The front 7 was an absolute mess all year.

Golden needs to simply put get guys to at least be in a position to take an asswhoopin. If you get bodied out of a hole so be it but to not even be there to cause an issue is wild from NFL front 7 guys





Ngl idk how you fix this but Golden does and that’s why he gets the big bucks.


Quick note from the tapes i watched is we need a linebacker BAD. A lot of times we were kinda getting stalemates from the front 4 but idk what the hell
ADG, Njongmeta and Pratt were doing. There’d be a pulling guard and all 3 guys would be trying to contain the edge like dude someone has to fill gaps. Why would the RB bounce shit out if he has 6-7 yards right up the middle?

[*jason*]

(03-25-2025, 07:48 PM)Housh Wrote: Got bored and watched a lot of tape on individual players and i could not help but recognize how shitty our D played for the majority of the plays. Guys being utterly dumbfounded by any trick play ever, guys not filling gaps on time, guys MISSING TACKLES, multiple guys on the same play hesitating to do ANYTHING. Guys not even in a position to lose a fight. Meaning guys on D weren’t even NEAR the ball so they couldn’t even get their ass beat. Like at least be Germaine Pratt and just get your ass beat in the hole. A lot of guys were so out of it they didn’t even propose a fight in the hole. They were just in a totally wrong gap then trying to group tackle 6 yards past the LOS.


Idk how it got this bad this quick. The front 7 was an absolute mess all year.

Golden needs to simply put get guys to at least be in a position to take an asswhoopin. If you get bodied out of a hole so be it but to not even be there to cause an issue is wild from NFL front 7 guys





Ngl idk how you fix this but Golden does and that’s why he gets the big bucks.


Quick note from the tapes i watched is we need a linebacker BAD. A lot of times we were kinda getting stalemates from the front 4 but idk what the hell
ADG, Njongmeta and Pratt were doing. There’d be a pulling guard and all 3 guys would be trying to contain the edge like dude someone has to fill gaps. Why would the RB bounce shit out if he has 6-7 yards right up the middle?

It got this bad this quick cause it was never that good to begin with. The Bengals haven't had a good defense since 2015... That's 10 years for those counting.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

Just get back to the basics. Tackling #1 priority and covering #2. Lou clearly was getting away from the simple things and that is why the
Defense looked better later in the year when it was simpler.

[puddycat]

Two new DTs and 2 new safeties and your green dot Logan Wilson was injured. I'm not surprised.

[jj22]

He has a ton of work to do. He needs an influx of talent.

[THE PISTONS]

(03-25-2025, 09:29 PM)jj22 Wrote: He has a ton of work to do. He needs an influx of talent.

I think it's talent, but also they play a very vanilla scheme on defense. Guys can't tackle. Guys take the wrong angles a lot. Guys get fooled on misdirection.

In the secondary, guys are running wide open on the other team.

It's a total mess at every level.

[*bengalfan74*]

I can't disagree...

Our defense was just plain bad last season at every level. And I'm not one that buys very much that it got that much better late in the season. Did it improve some? Yes And I don't disagree that the scheme change helped that a bit. But I also think the level of our competition going down was a big factor as well.

We badly need a couple dynamic playmakers be it DE, S, DT or whatever. We mostly just had a bunch of "guys" last season and it showed.

[chrisball96]

(03-26-2025, 10:10 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think it's talent, but also they play a very vanilla scheme on defense. Guys can't tackle. Guys take the wrong angles a lot. Guys get fooled on misdirection.

In the secondary, guys are running wide open on the other team.

It's a total mess at every level.

Maybe I am baselessly optimistic, but so many of our secondary players were both young and hurt last year. Dax and DJ Turner specifically. If they get a year better and stay healthy, they could really help this defense improve, maybe not a ton, but enough to be serviceable against opposing QBs. And Al Goldin's scheme may help there as well. 

All you can really go off of is the facts: last year we were a bad defense, and we have (basically) the same players back again (barring something crazy) so I understand that doubt of their ability is totally legit because it's what they showed us on the field. 

And hoping that they can get better is just that: hope, but at least there is the potential for some improvement. 

[THE PISTONS]

(03-26-2025, 12:23 PM)chrisball96 Wrote: Maybe I am baselessly optimistic, but so many of our secondary players were both young and hurt last year. Dax and DJ Turner specifically. If they get a year better and stay healthy, they could really help this defense improve, maybe not a ton, but enough to be serviceable against opposing QBs. And Al Goldin's scheme may help there as well. 

All you can really go off of is the facts: last year we were a bad defense, and we have (basically) the same players back again (barring something crazy) so I understand that doubt of their ability is totally legit because it's what they showed us on the field. 

And hoping that they can get better is just that: hope, but at least there is the potential for some improvement. 

I think we got better when the young guys player, but I don't think the young guys were that good. I think the guys we had been playing were very bad.

And, likely there will be more injuries this year.

What I'll say is say they draft a LB like Jihaad Campbell...he could make the entire from 7 better. Or say they pick the right safety. Or DE.

1 impact player goes a long way.

[Soonerpeace]

(03-26-2025, 10:10 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think it's talent, but also they play a very vanilla scheme on defense. Guys can't tackle. Guys take the wrong angles a lot. Guys get fooled on misdirection.

In the secondary, guys are running wide open on the other team.

It's a total mess at every level.

They’ve missed in the draft. 2 first round picks in Murphy & Hill marginal after 2-3 years. CTB marginal. Battle? Personally I think that Lou had a lot of say in drafting for the defense. And why partially he’s gone.

[basballguy]

I see threads like this and i'm reminded that no matter how much I think otherwise, I'm just a casual fan. Never would I get bored and just go watch tape of Bengals players.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(03-26-2025, 01:40 PM)basballguy Wrote: I see threads like this and i'm reminded that no matter how much I think otherwise, I'm just a casual fan.  Never would I get bored and just go watch tape of Bengals players.

Casual fans can only name like 5 players on the team. You're a member of a Bengals forum with a couple thousand posts. I think it's pretty safe to say nobody on this board falls into casual fan territory. 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(03-26-2025, 12:23 PM)chrisball96 Wrote: Maybe I am baselessly optimistic, but so many of our secondary players were both young and hurt last year. Dax and DJ Turner specifically. If they get a year better and stay healthy, they could really help this defense improve, maybe not a ton, but enough to be serviceable against opposing QBs. And Al Goldin's scheme may help there as well. 

All you can really go off of is the facts: last year we were a bad defense, and we have (basically) the same players back again (barring something crazy) so I understand that doubt of their ability is totally legit because it's what they showed us on the field. 

And hoping that they can get better is just that: hope, but at least there is the potential for some improvement. 

I know we brought back players on that bad Defense, but they were the solid players besides Hilton, we let Rankins go who was just
terrible and a waste of money, ADG had his struggles last year as well. But BJ Hill was our one solid piece on the DL besides Trey.

Young players like Kris Jenkins, McKinnley Jackson, Cedric Johnson, DJ Turner, Jordan Battle and of course Dax could really grow this
season especially under new coaching that doesn't complicate things and lets the players just make plays. I like the additions of Oren
Burkes and Slaton.

[masonbengals fan]

I'm anxious to see how it plays out in his 1st year. Really need to hit on a pick or two. Still waiting on more free agent news also.

[Bengalbug]

Sounds an awful lot like bad coaching, players playing poorly n an island and not as a team. There is no way that every player, or the majority, don’t know the simple fundamentals of how to play football. These guys have been playing football their entire adolescent, and forward, life.

Put another way, at some point each of the guys on defense have been, or still are, better at their job… than almost all of us will ever be.

It needs to be broken down, and coached up.

Call me crazy, but I think they will respond to at least being a middle of the road D, that gives a lot of effort and makes an offense work hard. They may be missing the elite playmakers on defense, but they can certainly remember assignments, tackle, angles, etc.

[SunsetBengal]

(03-27-2025, 08:14 AM)Bengalbug Wrote: Sounds an awful lot like bad coaching, players playing poorly n an island and not as a team. There is no way that every player, or the majority, don’t know the simple fundamentals of how to play football.  These guys have been playing football their entire adolescent, and forward, life.

Put another way, at some point each of the guys on defense have been, or still are, better at their job… than almost all of us will ever be.  

It needs to be broken down, and coached up.  

Call me crazy, but I think they will respond to at least being a middle of the road D, that gives a lot of effort and makes an offense work hard.  They may be missing the elite playmakers on defense, but they can certainly remember assignments, tackle, angles, etc.

I've been thinking similar thoughts regarding the coaching and scheme of Anarumo, ever since they attributed the late season improvement on defensive performance on things being "simplified". Any time that a scheme is so complicated with options of assignments and responsibilities, it takes away the players ability to simply read and react to a play.

As I remember, the offense underwent a similar ordeal when Bill Lazor was the OC some years back.

[chrisball96]

(03-26-2025, 05:31 PM)masonbengals fan Wrote: I'm anxious to see how it plays out in his 1st year. Really need to hit on a pick or two. Still waiting on more free agent news also.

Whatever the team does in the draft and free agency, one thing I know is that the Bengals defense will be a true test of Al Goldin’s coaching ability. We're going to find out pretty quickly if he’s got the chops to get it done at this level.

[WeezyBengal]

(03-25-2025, 09:29 PM)jj22 Wrote: He has a ton of work to do. He needs an influx of talent.

This is the biggest thing IMO. 

The talent just isn't there and the front office has done nothing about it. 

[WeezyBengal]

(03-26-2025, 02:05 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Casual fans can only name like 5 players on the team. You're a member of a Bengals forum with a couple thousand posts. I think it's pretty safe to say nobody on this board falls into casual fan territory. 

It's insane the depth you can go with your fanhood. 

My father in law is a huge Bengals fan. I'd consider him the bigest fan I know, emotionally attached to the team. Been a fan for 40 years. He watches every game, but isn't nearly as in depth as we are around here.

When I start talking to him about roster depth, cap structure, organizational issues, etc. His eyes just gloss over. He has no clue. 

We are like the 5% that are actually in the weeds. 

[ERIC1]

(03-27-2025, 09:43 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: This is the biggest thing IMO. 

The talent just isn't there and the front office has done nothing about it. 

actually the talent is there and we have shored things up this off-season..the DL rookies were playing lights out the last 6 games of the year along with Murphy..team needs a guard, one more defensive lineman and maybe a linebacker and we should be fine