A Rock

Upon further review, you are correct sir. I've always kinda remembered and felt like that was a year we were destined to do more damage if not for the Palmer injury. The team, in fact, took their foot off the pedal after locking up the playoff berth. I probably remember it differently as it was early in Marvin's tenure, and I hadn't become so cynical about the team and him in particular yet. The 2015 team started 8-0, and couldn't swing a bye either. Still pissed about Kimo. Still pissed about Mitchell's ridiculous targeting of Eifert as well. Especially after Pittsburgh players made threats prior to the game. No one in the Bengal hierarchy says a word about it and Shazier feels free to brutally uppercut Gio with his helmet in the wildcard game. The refs feel free to not throw a flag, and in fact award Pittsburgh the ball. Anyway, yeah, we weren't as red hot as I had remembered it. Still think that last lunge by Kimo was BS.

Kimo Von Oelhoffen did not need to take that last lunge into Palmer's knee and change history. The ball was completely out of Carson's hand, which Kimo might have noticed if he wasn't so busy putting his full weight behind his shoulder and snapping his leg. We were red hot that year and it certainly appeared the team was unstoppable. You know what you call a thousand Bengal victories over Pittsburgh that completely devastates and demoralizes them to no end? A good start.

I like the Rams. Amazing how much they've dropped off since Cupp was injured, but they're still super potent on offense. They were also my first team. My first game was Rams vs. Vikings at the Coliseum in 1975. That was a hell of a rivalry then. I adopted the Bengals when the Rams skipped out, and have been steadfastly loyal since. I remember screaming, "touchdown!", when Esiason hit Mcgee in the end zone at the Coliseum, then immediately sitting back down after remembering where I was. Those L.A. Raider fans were pretty nasty sometimes. That was the same year we ended Bo Jackson's career on what seemed like a pretty innocuous tackle by the Bengals.

Anyone who'll go for it on 4th and 1 at the Steeler 40 yard line will meet my criteria.

I remember we destroyed them, and the commentators talking about the Houston Oilers downfall that day. "What does a run and shoot offense do when run and shoot isn't working? More run and shoot." They had a lot of success with that formula, but had nothing else. Suffice it to say, I really hope something changes around here and soon. We've been the 90 Oilers every time we were fortunate to even get a wild card spot.

Here's a theory. Marvin Lewis is completely enamored of his formula, his scheme, his way of football, and could give a flying F about anything else. Being 0-7 in the playoffs isn't the story. Losing in primetime isn't the story. Losing to the Stealers isn't the story. Losing games we've completely dominated in the first half isn't the story. Why is everyone bitching. Any complaints are just dummies who don't understand football. The formula is superior and that's all that matters. Being defensive coordinator for arguably the greatest defense ever, on one of the most formulaic Super Bowl winners ever, the 2000 Ravens, may have something to do with cementing this in his psyche. I don't know. He does know football. Turning the Bengals from a laughingstock to a perennial playoff contender also probably reinforced his belief in his way of doing things. The problem seems to be the clear ceiling. This scheme never wins playoff games. It never wins games to earn a bye. It rarely wins against the Stealers. These are big games against quality opponents who do things we don't. Play with the score, the clock, and the performance of both teams in mind. His .524 winning percentage doesn't show how many games we lost we should've won. Nor does it show how many meaningless games we won. The Marvin Lewis football model works... to a point. Do we really need more evidence where that point lies? In a sport rife with injuries where 22 men participate in each play, the opportunity for excuses is legion. Besides the playoff futility record, the team is currently setting records for defensive ineptitude. I don't think it will matter. He'll be back. Gametime adjustments are just "more journalism jargon than truth." Keep your head down. Keep clapping. You've already won. We're running a superior system. Nothing else matters.

D Risk Kill

Has Mike Brown ever intimated that there is even a problem? Serious question. Ever a public comment on the team's nosedive?

I've been nothing but terribly critical of this team and especially Marvin for a while now. I feel justified in this attitude. I've been a die hard since 85, but my fandom has taken some serious hits lately. I stopped purchasing Bengal merchandise after the Steeler wild card meltdown, and have taken the unusual step of requesting friends and family to not buy me any of the inevitable Bengal Christmas gifts I'd become accustomed to. I can't support giving this team money til they use it to make obviously needed changes. That said, I still root for this team. Charlie Brown galloping towards Lucy with the sincere belief that this time he'll kick that football is in my DNA. The 49ers were the team I dreaded the most in the 80's. Super Bowl losses to them used to be the ceiling for disappointment. Now any game with Pittsburgh is. So here we are, seriously discussing wether we can beat the Browns at home. With AJ Green out, it's a coin toss. It feels like a win though. One of those games we play inexplicably well across the board. In the recent past this would give rise to hope for a turnaround, but I personally don't know anyone who'd fall into that trap currently. Besides the schizophrenic offense and having Lewis at the helm, the defense is just atrocious.

Agreed. What's also distressing is Marvin always being the one to have to call a time out in this situation. FFS, he's paid millions to prepare the team for games and he has exactly zero 4th and 1 plays ready to go. I have never seen one of his teams just go straight to the line and run a 4th and 1 play. I've seen lots of other good teams do it though. It's extremely advantageous to catch a defense unprepared and often results in a conversion or at least THEM calling a time out. I sincerely don't understand how this man still retains his job.

Wish Marvin had been gone the first time he "coached short of the design of the game." Everything that doesn't show up in the barely above .500 boxscore career of his has been driving me nuts for years. Can't believe so many defended him for so long.

I had to take a long break after that last post. Honestly, Carlos Dunlap said it pretty well, and I think he's quoting Einstein about the definition of insanity. I'm just over Marvin Lewis. Have been for a long time. He usually puts a real good team on the field, I have to give him that. I'm just tired of some of the asinine decisions that cost us games. The poor clock management, the lack of aggression when there's nothing left to lose. If we're on the other teams side of the field, down by a touchdown or more, and it's fourth and 1 in the 4th quarter, we need to have a few plays ready for that situation. Just get to the line quickly and run it. Force their hand on defense, make em call a timeout. Not only do we seemingly not have game plans for these type of situations, we almost always just straight up punt. It seems abundantly clear we're not gonna win big games til something changes. My definition of a big game at this point is a playoff game, or Pittsburgh. I know that's not even close to literally true, but I'm that worn out, lol. Marvin in playoff games, 0-7. Marvin career vs. Pittsburgh, 8-23. I don't know man, I guess that was the most bitter pill of all... the wild card. I belabored it too much in that last post, and it's useless to second guess, but at the least the Hill fumble represented a team without a solid plan in a huge situation. At least to me.

Watching Jeremy Hill score a touchdown in the preseason for the Patriots, and I wonder if I'll ever get the thought out of my head. How much, if at all, did Marvin Lewis stress ball security before the infamous wild card fumble? The 30 yard penalty against us at the end was, of course, bullshit, but the team held their own fate in their own hands after the Burfict pick. 1st and 10. Ball on the 26. 96 seconds left. Pittsburgh with all 3 of their timeouts. As an admitted novice football fan I remember instantly doing the math. Worst case scenario, (I thought), we run 3 plays without getting a 1st down and miss the ensuing field goal attempt. In this scenario Pittsburgh has no time outs, lost the time ticked off by the field goal attempt, and has significant ground to cover against an extremely fired up Burfict and company. If we make the field goal the ground for them to cover is even more since they'd need a touchdown. If we get a first down, time to take a knee, game over. Even the worst case scenario heavily favored the Bengals to win that game, AS LONG AS THEY DIDN'T LOSE THE FRICKING FOOTBALL. For Hill to go immediately screaming into the secondary alone and lose the football will make me wonder till I die, did he defy Marvin, or did Lewis even bring the subject up? That was the moment we went from being a perennial playoff threat, about to FINALLY get over the hump against the absolute dregs of the universe the Stealers, to a team with nothing to show for a strong era except a horrendous choke job.

Hard to know the carry over of who's gonna be easy to beat next year, but our Marvin Lewis Groundhog Day will probably continue. Stomp the shit out of bad teams, maybe the Dolphins or Colts. Split the difference, win some, lose some, with good teams. Then definitely lose the big ones, i.e. The Stealers or any game with true playoff implications. I hope I'm wrong.

No, I can't. Even more significant was the 4th and 1 from midfield with somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 minutes left. Sometimes you're just not gonna have a chance if you don't take a chance, and you have to know and even feel when that is.