Roy Williams Is The Key To The Bengal's Defense

Roy Williams Is The Answer To Bengal’s Defensive woes.

The Cincinnati Bengals have never been a Defensive Powerhouse. Everyone who loves the Game knows about the “Steel Curtain”. Ray Nitshke is the Patron Saint of Green Bay. The 1985 Chicago Bears were not known as much for the graceful passing of Jim McMahon as they were for the brutal bone fracturing hits of the likes of William “The Refrigerator” Perry, Richard Dent, and Mike Singletary. Their names almost sound like euphemisms for pain.

In the Bengals defensive canon, maybe a few names on the defensive side pop up. I can only think of three that would have fit in on those other legendary defensive squads, but I’m not going to mention them here because that would defeat the whole purpose of this piece.

No the purpose here is to point out what I consider the major historical failure of the Bengal’s mentality. Defense as an art and not a weapon…or if you like, the culture of the team has been one of worshipping the quarterback at all costs. See: Greg Cook, Ken Anderson, and the 7-8 attempts of Mike Brown to find Carson Palmer, before finding Carson Palmer.

The Bengal’s defensive strategy has been to keep the other team behind by a score or two. They have never embraced the idea of making their opponents fear things like the free safety blitz or a defensive line that exhausts your offensive line to the point that they are just plain giving up in the fourth quarter.

With the addition of Roy Williams, it appears that Marvin’s defensive DNA is coming to the surface. Mike Zimmer is a man of the old school. There is no way that he could’ve survived Jerry Jones being anything else. Picking up Roy Williams off waivers is proof positive of the new, I mean, old school Bengal’s defense of 2009.

Roy Williams may not have the speed that he did in 2002 when he was a first round pick, but he still understands that knocking a wide receiver’s guts out of their backside is almost as good as a pick and definitely more fun. On top of that, he is a veteran that can and should emerge as the conscience of the Defensive Squad. Coach Marvin and Palmer need another leader and the defense needs to learn how to be feared rather than tolerated.