Andy Dalton Not Only Problem in Cincinnati, Bengals Defense Must Step Up

Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals offense had an abominable showing against the Cleveland Browns Thursday night, putting up less than 200 yards of total offense. But the unit received no help from Cincinnati's defense, which has been failing to carry its weight all season.

That was especially true Thursday, when the Bengals allowed the Browns to gain 368 yards and 24 points against them, essentially making the Browns look like an AFC heavyweight in the process. 

What has happened to cause this unit to tumble so far from previously lofty preseason expectations? Andy Benoit of The MMQB said in a preview penned in August that the Bengals defense could "march on just fine post-Zimmer" largely because of its experienced personnel, such as playmaking safety Reggie Nelson and "rising star" Vontaze Burfict.

Cincinnati was also lauded for nabbing Darqueze Dennard in the first round of the draft to further improve its secondary.

But the Bengals lost valuable talent this offseason in James Harrison and Michael Johnson. And injuries have lowered the threshold of their potential—Burfict and defensive back Leon Hall sat out against the Browns, and their absence was notable.

Burfict had arthroscopic knee surgery a week ago, per Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer, after missing time this season to concussions and a neck injury. He led the league in tackles last season and was to play a large role in the defense this season.

Burfict's absence has left the run defense particularly susceptible. Heading into Week 10, it was ranked 30th in rushing yards allowed per game, with 139.6. Fellow linebacker Emmanuel Lamur also missed time this season, against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts rushed for 171 yards that week.

Have injuries and poor execution by players weighed the unit down? Or has the offseason departure of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer had more of an effect than previously thought?

After Thursday night, opposing offenses have now rushed for more than 100 yards against the Bengals for seven consecutive games, which, as ESPN.com's Coley Harvey points out, never happened under Zimmer. Under his watch, Cincinnati allowed a stretch of only five such games. 

The injuries have certainly played a part. The Bengals defense looked like an entirely different unit to start the season, before the injuries began to mount. The table below compares their start before the bye and their performance since. 

	Avg Pts Allowed	Avg Yds Allowed	Rush Yds Allowed	Takeaways/Game
Weeks 1-3	11	352.7	113.3	2.3
Weeks 5-10	29.7	411.5	157.8	1.2

Cincinnati dodged a bullet against Cleveland when defensive tackle Geno Atkins went out after appearing to re-injure his surgically repaired knee, per Tracy Wolfson on the NFL Network broadcast. Backup Devon Still replaced him briefly, but the team announced Atkins was expected to return and the organization no doubt breathed a sigh of relief. 

Atkins tore his ACL last October, and he has one sack so far in 2014. 

Execution has been an issue in addition to injuries. Defensive end Wallace Gilberry was tied for worst in the league in missed tackles at his position heading into Thursday night, with six. 

On the surface, it doesn't seem that Zimmer's absence is largely to blame for the downfall of the defense. His successor, Paul Guenther, was an assistant with the Bengals for nine years and has retained many of the aspects of Zimmer's scheme. However, in action, his game-planning has seemed off at times this season, with questionable in-game adjustments. 

Dalton and the offense performing as poorly as they did Thursday night certainly puts enormous, and undue, strain on Cincinnati's defense to step up. A defense shouldn't necessarily be expected to create opportunities to put points on the board, but that's exactly what the Bengals defense was able to do last season. 

In 2013, opponents scored 73 points off of Bengals turnovers, according to SportingCharts.com, but because Cincinnati's defense was able to score 91 points off its 13 takeaways, it was able to bail Dalton out from his 20 interceptions—the fourth-most in the league. 

This season, however, the Bengals defense has only generated 30 points off of takeaways, the seventh-least in the league per SportingCharts.com. If Dalton continues playing at this mediocre-at-best level, the Bengals will have to turn to their defense to start putting points on the board. 

Meanwhile, if the run defense continues to allow in excess of 125 rushing yards per game, things could spiral out of control quickly for Cincinnati. 

The Bengals have three opponents remaining on the schedule ranked top 10 in rushing offense in the Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers (twice).

Cleveland was only averaging 111.3 rushing yards per game heading into this matchup, and it came away with 170 Thursday. Houston, New Orleans and Pittsburgh are all over 1,000 yards rushing on the season and could win their matchups on the ground. 

The Saints and Steelers are both also averaging more than 27 points per game, near the top of the league. Simply protecting the football won't be enough for Dalton and the Bengals; they'll need to put significant points on the board.