How Do You Solve a Problem Like The Bengals?

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to admit defeat, The Cincinnati Bengals have invented new ways of shading the obvious. First, one has to admit that there are four parts to a winning football team in the NFL. The parts are as follows: Offense, Defense, Special teams and coaching\management. We look at the offense first, An elite but injured quarterback, a fragile ego in the receiving attack, and a running game that a turtle could beat.

     The quarterback should be back to his old pro bowl stats next year and if the Bengals come out swinging, the ego can be healed, but the big problem is the running game or lack thereof. What blame Perry, Benson and company? NO, Not at all! The real problem is in the offensive line riddled with injury, filled with inexperience and in general not getting the job done. The Bengals can't get a quick fix with the draft, so they will have no choice but to look to free agency, a dirty phrase in the kingdom of bengaldom. I see the only "quick" fix as being a big name on the offensive line to protect Palmer and open the holes that haven't been there this season.

        The Defense, actually may be the least of the Bengals problems, save the fact that Dexter Jackson rides more pine than a Christmas ornament due to his injury prone tenure in Cincinnati. The corner backs are young, but they have at times been competent on the field. The young defense needs to focus on avoiding the big play and get more out of third down situations. The Draft could play a part in adding some depth in this aspect of the game.

 The Special Teams are too inconsistent. They have no big play threats or impact players that stand out to make the big hit, cause turnovers, or focus on making the basic cleanly executed tackle. I believe the draft could once again help the Bengals here, since there is alot of speed coming out of the college ranks since the bowl winners tend to be from the speedy SEC conference.

Lastly, in the Management/Coaching category, Marvin Lewis is still a good coach. The problem is he has lost some credibility with his team and with fans. Lewis can still recover from this pitfall, by laying down the law and reigning his team back to a focal point. He has already started this concept by suspending Ocho Cinco for being Ocho Cinco. Ownership has to start "owning up" to their part of the problem by NOT interfering with the coaching staff, aka Chris Henry. Ahh yes, all I want for Christmas is a real general manager not an owner who thinks he knows best. The only other thing that might help, is to have a real scouting department instead of the current skeleton crew of scouts employed by the Bengals. The NFL stands for Not For Long and the Bengals don't have to be at bottom forever but these issues must be addressed or it may be another decade of orange and black Debauchery. This is my take, Whats your take? You can email me at [e-mail]. Responses may be used in future articles.