The Bengals are wasting one of the best years of Joe Burrow’s career. He leads the NFL with 12 touchdown passes, is 6th in passing yards, 2nd in quarterback rating, and 2nd in completion percentage. Most importantly, his sack percentage is just 5.98% which is by far the best that figure has been since Burrow entered the league.
Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase are healthy. Chase Brown appears poised to breakout as a very good Bengals running back. All of the offensive pieces are there for this team to make a run at winning their first Super Bowl.
And yet the Bengals are 1-4, tied for last in the division, and hanging on to the barest hope to even make the playoffs this season. The numbers are bleak. Going back to 1970, 253 teams have opened a season at 1-4. Only 15 of those (or just 5.9%) ended up making the postseason, with the last team being Washington in 2020.
Unless one has been living under a rock for the past 5 weeks of the season, the main reason for this disaster of a situation has become clear.
This season, Lou Anarumo’s defense is 31st in points allowed per game (29.0), 26th in yards allowed (365.4), 30th in rush yards allowed (151.4), and 19th in pass yards allowed (214.0). For all that the Bengals’ offense has improved, the defense has devolved. Since the Super Bowl year of 2021 when their defense was 18th overall, it fell to 31st last year and shows no signs of real improvement.
But how much of the blame falls on Anarumo? It is fair to point out that the front office let several key defensive players walk, including Jessie Bates and D.J. Reader. However, a closer look at the roster paints a much more complicated picture.
The Bengals’ Super Bowl defense had the same starting defensive ends (Hendrickson and Hubbard). They had the same linebackers (Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt), and the same starting safety (Vonn Bell). In addition, this defense boasts not one, but two first-round picks in Dax Hill (though he is now injured) and Myles Murphy. The same core players that lead this defense to a potential championship in 2021 are still on this roster today.
And yet Anarumo’s players have failed to take measurable steps forward. “He doesn’t have the talent” simply should not be enough to shield the Bengals’ defensive coordinator from criticism this season. It is hard to imagine that so many talented Bengals would fall off so quickly in just two short years since losing to the Rams in the championship game. At the same time, it is clear that although Dax Hill and Myles Murphy have shown flashes, they are far from the dominant players one might expect from such high picks.
It’s not easy to determine who bears the brunt of the blame for the Bengals’ defensive woes. The front office has stood pat on players and been stubborn not to re-sign game-changing standouts on the defensive side of the ball. At the same time Anarumo hasn’t shown that he can get results with a defense that includes first-day draft picks and proven veteran players. But whomever it may be, the time for excuses is long past over. We’ve seen Cincinnati’s offense can continue to move the ball up and down the field like all-pros. Unfortunately, it simply will not be enough to have sustained success if the defense cannot stop an opponent from scoring at will and answering every Bengals touchdown with one of their own.
It is not all gloom and doom, though. There is hope ahead in that Cincinnati’s future schedule includes a bevy of games against struggling offenses. They will face the likes of quarterbacks Daniel Jones, Deshawn Watson, Will Levis, and Bo Nix. These are winnable games if Anarumo can find some way to get the right players on the field and the right schemes in place to field simply a league-average effort on defense. If he could, there is little doubt that such a prolific offense could carry this team far into the playoffs.
This next week presents the first of many such excellent opportunities for improvement. The New York Giants are 25th in total yards per game. Jones does have them at 13th overall in passing offense, but they are 24th on the ground. The Bengals held Derrick Henry in check for most of the game on Sunday and so can continue that success against New York. Jones is far from elite and even with Hill out, Cincinnati should have a strong chance to lock him down as well.
If the Bengals don’t contain the Giants offense, or at least improve significantly, there is no question that Anarumo’s seat may reach peak levels of heat. He must find a way to turn around the dismal product that Cincinnati fans have seen on the field through five weeks of the season. The redemption arc must start this Sunday, as the Bengals open as 3.5-point favorites against the Giants this week. They will square off on Sunday Night Football at MetLife Stadium.
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