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Teryl Austin Fired


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Here's a "what if" for you...What if this defense drastically improves under Marvin... which I think is a real possibility. What do the Bengals do going forward for next year? Leave Marvin in control of the defense and let him build on the improvements?  Or do they turn the defensive over to someone new and basically start all over again?

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On 11/12/2018 at 4:06 PM, HavePityPlease said:

Two years in a row, a major unit coordinator is fired mid-season.  Dysfunction much?  (as if we don't all expect it).

 

Austin should really be proud though, he really turfed this unit deep, deep into the ground.  Any of the Cincinnati-based folks around here have any juicy rumours about players not liking the guy, or similar?  There had to have been something more than just "he sucked and he was lazy and..", right?  Maybe not, maybe he is just that bad.

This little snippet from ML press conference says all you need to know.

Seems like TA was in over his head and refused Marvin's help

 

“Generally, your relationship goes way beyond this.

It’s very difficult.

The easiest thing to do is to change somebody, and the hardest thing to do is to try to help that person get better.

I’ve tried very hard to be a resource, but it wasn’t fitting right.”

 

giphy.gif

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Austin deserved to be fired but the defense had been slipping gradually the past two seasons before the bottom fell out.  I still think there's talent on the dline and secondary to play much better than they've shown to this point.  However, I have little hope for the LB corps with or without Burfict.  In fact, it seems like losing Vigil might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.  It won't be able to be fixed until the offseason.  Marvin is going to be running the defense and it's literally impossible to do significantly worse.  It's crazy how far they've fallen to reach this point.

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On 11/13/2018 at 8:38 PM, Bengal Cat said:

Here's a "what if" for you...What if this defense drastically improves under Marvin... which I think is a real possibility. What do the Bengals do going forward for next year? Leave Marvin in control of the defense and let him build on the improvements?  Or do they turn the defensive over to someone new and basically start all over again?

 

I think that is a great hypothetical. If that were to happen (which would be a good thing) I'd have to assume that they'd ride that horse until it breaks down.  You'd have to, right?

 

2 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

Austin deserved to be fired but the defense had been slipping gradually the past two seasons before the bottom fell out.  I still think there's talent on the dline and secondary to play much better than they've shown to this point.  However, I have little hope for the LB corps with or without Burfict.  In fact, it seems like losing Vigil might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.  It won't be able to be fixed until the offseason.  Marvin is going to be running the defense and it's literally impossible to do significantly worse.  It's crazy how far they've fallen to reach this point.

I agree with everything you're saying, especially the bolded. I wonder how Marvin will approach his dearth of talent at linebacker as the de facto DC? You're right, we still have what I would call "dormant" talent on defense on the front and back end, lots of high draft picks there, good players, etc.  Maybe we could shock the world for a couple games and run a 5-6 defense? I'm actually being serious. Some kind of hybrid D designed to confuse and actually go back to having our DB's not play so far off their man an be a little physical for a change.

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43 minutes ago, Le Tigre said:

Now it looks like Preston Brown is hurt (again) and will probably miss Sunday at a minimum.

 

Seems like every year we have to sign some aging vet LB to a 1-year deal where they make it painfully obvious they should've retired instead.

 

Can we try, maybe, not doing that?

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12 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 

Seems like every year we have to sign some aging vet LB to a 1-year deal where they make it painfully obvious they should've retired instead.

 

Can we try, maybe, not doing that?

I think Rey Maualuga is available. I'm sure he can be better this stint.

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8 minutes ago, High School Harry said:

Like how Ben Jarvis the Green Elephant never fumbled until he signed with us.

 

BTW, inside sources tell me that Pterodactyl Austin has been signed as a defensive coordinator by EA Sports.

Yep!

I think he's gonna have his hands full with that StartMeUp SMU guy.

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36 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 

Seems like every year we have to sign some aging vet LB to a 1-year deal where they make it painfully obvious they should've retired instead.

 

Can we try, maybe, not doing that?

Hell yes...stop doing that! Sign someone that is younger, more expensive and can actually play.

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1 hour ago, Bunghole said:

Hell yes...stop doing that! Sign someone that is younger, more expensive and can actually play.

All the younger guys who can actually play are already,..playing.  Not much left but bald tires and neverwere's available right now.  Maybe some diamond in the rough on a practice squad?

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The decline of the defense can mostly be blamed on a steady talent drain, both players and coaches.  Some of it was age and some of it was business related.  Long time contributors like Peko, Leon, Pacman, Nelson, Maualuga, Sims, and Gilberry left along with Zimmer, Joseph, and Guenther.  Many of replacement players and coaches haven't gotten the job done and it finally bottomed out with an overmatched coordinator in Austin.  One common denominator has been shaky LB play as we've repeatedly missed in both the draft and free agency.  

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Yeah, not sure about the talent drain theory, at least in terms of the players rather than the coaches. Some of the guys you mentioned simply got old (Leon) or weren't all that great to begin with (Peko, Gilberry, Maualuga). Losing Zimmer probably hurt this defense more than all the aforementioned players combined.

 

I don't know what the answer is but like T-Dub notes, we were solid, if unspectacular, last season. That talent is still there on the roster. Perhaps Austin's scheme was making them do things they weren't good at or comfortable with. I do know that our secondary players were playing a soft zone a lot instead of man or bumping and running.

 

The LB play (or lack thereof) is pretty well known by all of us, which is partly why we cannot cover TE's to save our lives. Then the league took away Burfict's bite and now all he has is his bark and poor tackling technique. Brown is always hurt. Vigil is now hurt. Our backups aren't any good. Yawn. Same old story.

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2 hours ago, T-Dub said:

The defense was ranked solidly average last season, I don't think the "talent drain" of Pacman & Iloka can account for going from there to historically bad.

They've been trending down since 2015.  Going from mediocre to bad was the final step. It took a number of subtractions over several years to reach this point.

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