Head coach Lewis hopes to fix Bengals defense
The Cincinnati Bengals are on pace to allow the most yards in the Super Bowl era and made dubious history by allowing at least 500 yards for the third straight game, also a first in this era.
In the wake of an atrocious 51-14 home loss to the New Orleans Saints, it was apparent to management that someone had to go.
And since many of the players cannot be fired the fall guy is the boss and on Monday it was first-year defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who was fired after nine games and replaced by head coach Marvin Lewis.
“This is a business at the end of the day, and business hasn’t been going good,” defensive end Carlos Dunlap said.
“We’re not going to say it’s our fault for him getting fired,” rookie safety Jessie Bates said. But we’re not playing well and something had to change, and unfortunately, he had to get fired.”
Now Lewis will return to his roots as the defensive coordinator while also guiding the whole operation as head coach of the 5-4 Bengals, who visit Baltimore on Sunday in the first of four remaining divisional games.
Before joining the Bengals in 2003, Lewis was the defensive coordinator for the Ravens from 1996 to 2001 and the Washington Redskins in 2002.
Since taking the Bengals job, he has worked with five defensive coordinators (Leslie Frazier, Chuck Bresnahan, Mike Zimmer, Paul Guenther, and Austin). Now it’s the responsibility of Lewis, whose team has allowed over 30 points five times already to match the 2008, 2007 and 2004 team for the most times allowing at least 30 points in the Lewis era.
Now the Bengals will try to avoid allowing 30 for a sixth time, something they last did in 2002.
“We will turn it around,” Lewis said Monday. “We have to install with our players better. We have to understand how to get them to do their jobs better. And no matter who is in the game they have to do a better job of executing. That’s the important part. It’s unfortunate that Teryl has been the casualty of this. It’s not all his fault. It’s my fault. Anytime anything happens wrong around this building it’s my fault and I accept that.”
It is two years in a row the Bengals axed a coordinator in midseason after not doing so for the first 49 years of team history. Last year Bill Lazor took the fall for a middling offense after two games.
Now Lewis takes over a defensive group with plenty of dubious achievements on its resume.
One is third-down conversion rate, something the Bengals are allowing 56 percent of to be converted. It’s a noteworthy mark since no team has allowed higher than a 50 percent conversion rate.
The Bengals are allowing an average of 454 yards per game, putting them on pace to easily break the mark for yards allowed set by the 2012 Saints.
The next time Cincinnati allows at least 480 yards it will be the sixth time and the Bengals will be the owners of the league record.
Cincinnati also is on pace to allow 512 points, putting them well on course to set a team record and surpass the mark of 460 set by the 1999 team.
“As I told the entire building, we had to make a change,” Lewis said. “The easiest thing to do is to change somebody. The hard thing to do is try to help that person get better. I’ve tried very hard to be a resource. To be part of it. It just wasn’t fitting right.”
Maybe it will fit right this time, especially since the Bengals don’t play a top-10 scoring offense until facing the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14.
Technically this is not the first time Lewis is handling defensive play-calling. He did it for one game in place of Leslie Frazier in 2004 and the Bengals allowed 449 yards to the Cleveland Browns in a 34-17 loss when Jeff Garcia threw four touchdown passes and the Browns held the ball for 36:19.
After doing it unsuccessfully for one game, Lewis handed the reins back to Frazier and then fired him at the end of the season.
There are numerous head coaches who come from defensive backgrounds, but calling the plays in that capacity is rare and only Minnesota’s Mike Zimmer performs the dual role. Now it appears Lewis will be joining Zimmer in dual roles for the foreseeable future.
SERIES HISTORY: 46th regular-season meeting. Bengals lead series, 23-22. Cincinnati is 8-2 in the last 10 meetings. In Week 2, the Bengals claimed a 34-23 victory in Cincinnati despite being outgained 425-375. The Bengals built a pair of 21-point leads, sacked Joe Flacco four times and forced three turnovers.
