Cincy Jungle
After another inexplicable meltdown at Paycor Stadium against the Bears, the team’s defensive unit has justifiably come under major scrutiny. After allowing 86 points in the last two games (both home games), the Bengals’ defense is flirting with dubious NFL history.
In terms of overall points allowed, Cincinnati is on pace to allow 567 yards over this 17-game season.
Oddly enough, the current holders of this distinction are the Carolina Panthers from just last season, who allowed 534 points.
Now, the caveat regarding “NFL history” is that the regular season is longer than it was in earlier days of the league. Another metric to gauge performance is points allowed per game. By that standard, Cincinnati’s defense is similarly horrible, averaging 33.33 points per game.
That number is one of the worst ever in professional football, despite what era one uses as a measuring stick. It’s no secret that this has been a major part of the recent 1-3 slide, despite the team averaging 32.75 points scored.
Of course, outliers such as defensive or special teams touchdowns allowed exist, as do offensive turnovers resulting in points for the opposition, but these are largely statistics pointing directly at defensive performance, or lack thereof.
Oddly enough, there are a lot of similarities in what the Bengals are currently experiencing to that of Marvin Lewis’ final season with the club in 2018. After starting off 3-1 that season, Cincinnati hit an absolute wall, allowing 39.5 points per game in Weeks 6-10 (they had a bye in Week that year).
Teryl Austin was in his first year as defensive coordinator for the Bengals that season, overseeing this particularly poor stretch of play. He was fired on November 12, 2018, a day after a 54-14 home blowout by the Saints coming out of that bye.
That’s not necessarily a call that a similar thing has to occur with Al Golden this year, but rather relaying history that rings familiar. It is obvious, however, that major changes of some kind need to take place for Cincinnati to get back to anything resembling respectability on the defensive side of the ball.
