Monday night aftermath
Who is responsible?
That seems to be the question of the day, following the Bengals' 34-13 loss Monday night at home to New England. Today feels like the week after the playoff loss after the 2005 season.
Will Marvin Lewis make good on his threat? Will any player actually say -- Keiwan Ratliff did -- that he doesn't want a job with the Bengals? How many changes will be made? How many can, in reality, be made? Football is different than trading for a pitcher or aging power hitter for the pennant drive in baseball.
What is clear is this: The 2007 are Marvin Lewis' football team. There is just one defensive player, end Justin Smith, left from Lewis took over. Lewis has had five drafts and five free-agency periods. The condition of the Bengals is the responsibility of two people, Lewis and, ultimately, team president Mike Brown.
They only have themselves to blame for the character issues with some players. They only have themselves to blame or credit for the drafts. They are responsible for how the salary cap money is used.
It's not just Lewis. It's Brown, maybe even more than Lewis because Brown holds veto power.
Brown refers to himself, his daughter, team vice president Katie Blackburn, and her husband, vice president Troy Blackburn, as the Bengals' composite general manager. Still others close to the team say Lewis is the de facto general manager, that the weight of personnel decision rests on him. Who knows for sure? Maybe the job of head coach-unofficial general manager is too large for one person. It was for Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren.
Maybe the Bengals need a general manager, someone like Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome or Indianapolis' Bill Polian.
Which leads to the question: Is Lewis in trouble? No. The stadium was sold-out Monday night for the 30th consecutive time, and the crowd was a franchise record. Merchandise is flying off shelves like never before. And maybe there's an attitude somewhere in the building that 8-8 and 9-7 are good records. After all, they're a lot better than 4-12.
posted by Mark at 3:49 PM
15 Comments:
at 10/02/2007 4:29 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 4:30 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 4:55 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:03 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:05 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:14 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:18 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:29 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 5:53 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 6:59 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 7:40 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 8:45 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 9:15 PM 
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at 10/02/2007 9:15 PM 
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at 10/05/2007 1:39 PM 
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Post a Comment*Of course the Browns think this is good enough. They have no pride; they've always been in it only for the money. Like sheep, the fans simply hand over their well earned money for a lousy product. Until the fans refuse to go the games and stop buying the merchandise, this is all the Browns will ever give you.
Marvin Lewis should do the noble thing and accept blame for NEVER having his team prepared. He continually tells us about "selfish" players and his line about "doing your job" is worn out. Marvin needs to do HIS job-selct better players, coach them up and hold his assistants to higher standards. He is stale.
*PAUL* Brown wasn't in it only for the money. He had pride, and he coached the expansion Bengals in a way that the city could be PROUD of. Since he passed away the Bungles have been nothing but an EMBARRASSING EXCUSE-MAKING JOKE OF A SPORTS FRANCHISE.
Marvin Lewis is in over his head. One thing he clearly did not have the skills or the control to do is pick his assistants. He inherited his offensive coordinator, of one of the better offenses in the league. The defensive people he has picked have STUNK. His defenses have STUNK for FIVE YEARS.
Clearly the Bengals *do* need someone who understands talent better running their drafts. They stink at drafting. The Marvin Lewis drafts have been pretty awful, except for picking Carson Palmer which was a fluke since it was the first pick. All the other top players on this team were drafted before Lewis came here, except Chris Henry, and he can't stay out of trouble.
Ultimately there is no accountability because MIKE BROWN is a terrible owner, and the fans of Cincy have to put up with this garbage year after stinky year. The stadium is full of suckers. We need a sucka free football team!
mark,
This team is very much on a free fall and unfortunetly I don't see and end to it anytime soon.
To begin with their are no leaders who will speak out and hold people accountable. The coach needs men who can command respect and not be afraid to hurt feelings.At his time i don"t think their is such a person.
The two people who can accomplish this ,Willie and Carson are for some reason not following through on their years in the NFL and their importance to the team.
So my two cents thinks this team will just be five hundred team again this year.
This team is a joke....Melvin Lewis is over his head, Mikey Brown has his head buried, and the Bengals Fans think they are one step from the super bowl...well after last night we are closer to the TOILET BOWL!!!
Thank god, 10 days or so till Basketball season
ALL TIME ATTENDANCE RECORD MERCHANDISE FLYING OFF THE SHELFS.SEE FANS ALL OVER WEARING BENGAL JERSEYS,SOME AT 75 BUCKS A POP,GOTTA FIGURE PEOPLE ARE HAPPY,THATS THE MESSAGE THEY SEND BY GOING TO THE GAME AND WHAT ALL THERE BUYING. THE BROWN FAMILY MUST BE PLEASED.
Losing against the Patriots isn't totally unexpected. They're simply a better team with better coaches. What is particularly worrisome here is the play of Carson. Before the season started I wouldn't have traded him for any other QB in the league. I believe he is now very suspect and is as much of the problem as a solution. Outside of his athletic ability, he doesn't seem to display football smarts, constantly making dumb plays at critical times. He seems unable to run an offense with a controlled passing attack; he can't throw any accurate five yard pass to move the chains. And one other thing, have you ever seen a player talk to an opposing coach during a game as Chad did last night? What in the hecks going on here. This team is a train wreck.
Boomer Esiason for general manager. Anything would be a major upgrade.
If I were the owner of the ANYTHING and produced results like the Reds or Bengals over the past two years, I'd apologize immediately, then sell the team.
As for Lewis's tirade, it demonstrates how out of touch he is.
The Bengals coaches are just a bunch of clueless losers. They're all football versions of Jerry Narron.
Don't blame the players for your inability to draft, inability to coach, and inability to call plays, make an effective game plan, and strategize on the fly during a game.
That's YOUR shortcoming, Lewis et al.
I can't wait until we get a new coaching staff and new head coach. Never has so little been done with so much!
Marvin Lewis is to head coaching what Britney Spears is to parenting.
Marvin is a very nice gentlemen. One of the organizations I serve on the board to has benefitted greatly from his foundation. But you know what? He has worn out his welcome and may be one of the most overrated coaches of all-time. It's a sad state of affairs that a .500 coach is so heralded. It's time for a change: www.bringthechintocincy.com.
Mike Brown has allowed this franchise to languish in an undisciplined stew for a long time and Marvin Lewis has done little to improve the situation.
If you want to know why the Bengals are a punchline year in and year out, look no further than three things: injuries, special teams and drafting.
Mike Brown thinks football is a sport where "we just get a great QB and we'll win" (or maybe what he REALLY thinks is "we'll get a great QB and we'll do well enough to keep people buying tickets).
No, Mike, you need:
a) REAL TRAINERS that properly warm the players up and ensure that asinine injuries do not occur. Remember how quick the New York Yankees were to change up their training staff earlier this year when they suffered shoddy injuries? The Yankees are a REAL sports organization dedicated to winning.
b) attention to special teams instead of acting like they're unimportant. They aren't. Do you think the Chicago Bears would have been half as dangerous without Devin Hester last year (and all the people blocking for him)? Teams that take care of special teams are the teams that are paying attention to detail. Mike and Marvin have let this slip away.
c) The Bengals continually have the smallest scouting department and Brown remains too cheap to change this and Lewis remains too cowardly to challenge him to give him more. Hence they don't have enough devil's advocates in their department to catch all of the injury history and character issues that their choices continually seem to have.
I don't know if it's too late for Lewis to set his foot down. But if he's going to do that, he's got some major work to do.
A GM could really help, but no outsider will ever be a GM here, at least as long as Mike is around. One of Paul's commandments was to never give someone else too much power, outside of the family.
It's like the freakin' Mafia here. The Brown family are stuck in a time warp and won't get out.
Marvin Lewis is a front man, a talking head, a U.S. President without a veto.
He isn't leading very well and he apparently is not doing a good job of convincing the Brown family of what he needs to win. Otherwise why are you still here coaching, if you can't do what you need to do? Desperation? I sense that's what Mike Brown likes in his head coaches - pre-determined loyalty and an affordable tag. Winning is secondary.
You have a top 3 QB, a top 3 WR, a top 6 RB, and a beat up, mismanaged o-line that never seems to have enough depth and always has problems staying the least bit healthy.
Protect Carson and you will succeed. Open holes for your Rudi and your team will win and play consistently.
Draft high upside LB's or pay $ for one, and you will see the defense come together.
It's so frustrating to watch this when something could've been done in the offseason to prevent a lot of it.
Get a GM Mike Brown, and enter 2007, you do not have to worry about someone buying out your franchise anymore, this isn't the 50's and 60's when there was no money in it. Geesh wake up Cincinnati.
Yes i agree about marvin. He has gone 8-8 in every year, but the playoff year and that year they played horrible teams. Marvin said he would fix odell and chris perry.
The bengals never should have released nate webster. He was a great guy and great player.
Mark,
Thanks for saying this, as none of the local media are getting to the root problem: the continued ineptness at the top.
While everyone wants to blame Marvin for the present situation, I highly doubt it was his decision to bring in zero significant free agents this offseason. I would suggest that any coach would struggle with this assortment of personel and the franchise will continue to struggle until a true general manager is hired.
You Fox News lovers need to settle down. The team is not in free fall like you all are stating. Managers and Coaches can be blamed for several things, but injuries is not one of them.
Injuries have seriously damaged the team this and last year, and it is not b/c Chris Perry is out. When a team loses 3/5 of its O-line and 100% of it LB's, you have serious problems. Without a healthy line they can't run the football, when you can run the ball you have a hard time passing. The playbook gets limited and predictable, and Palmer forces his throws.
When you have a 7th round rookie safety playing LB, you can't run stunts and blitzes. You can't out coach the opposing team, and if you can then the opposing team's coordinator needs to be fired.
The team will bounce back from this, so stop being ridiculous.
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