FanPost

The answer is "D" - All of the Above

What the hell is going on here? A question that everybody has an answer to. It's Carson; no it's management; wrong again, it's the coaching; it's the offensive line; nope, the defense is just too old and slow; it's that they don't have any heart in them this year; actually it's the little execution details; actually it's the freakshow in the lockerroom; or maybe it's the pass rush...

Remember back to those days of standardized testing and then you got stuck on that one question that you didn't have time to study for??? And do you remember just praying that the answer to the question would just have that one beautiful answer that just summed things up perfectly? What was that answer again?

Let's be real people. Anytime you have a problem as big as what the Bengals seem to have this year, it's not one or the other - it's all of the above. The fact is that there isn't any ONE thing that has gone wrong this year. It's not like the Bengals made one little dookie that will easily fit into the doggie bag, which you can throw away at the next garbage can. The Bengals have had some massive football diarrhea, equivalent to what happens when you give an elephant a steady diet of chocolate Ex-Lax.

So why don't we take a look at all the games that the men in Orange and Black have lost this year, and talk about what went wrong. Shall we?

Loss 1: Cincy v. New England

The defense and the offense both come out soft. They end the first half in a 24-3 hole. They let Wes Welker run all over them, and then open up the second half by allowing a 97 yard kick return. The defense put ZERO pressure on Brady. The fact is, it was an epic defensive and special teams failure. This team was designed to keep the games close, control the clock, and control the ball. The Bengals failed in all three categories.

Culprit: No defensive pressure on Brady, no offensive rhythm, turnovers.

Loss 2: Cincy v. Cleveland

A game where everything went wrong. Carson somehow lost two fumbles, Benson couldn't find any space to run, the whistles all seemed to be blowing against our favor, and our defense made a white guy from Arkansas look like a roided up Barry Sanders. Stupid penalties cost us drives, while they sustained drives for the browns. We out-gained them by 100 yards, TO went for 220 and a score, Palmer had a QB rating of 121.4 and still found a way to lose.

Culprit: Turnovers, lack of defensive pressure, penalties, poor redzone execution.

Loss 3: Cincy v. Tampa

This one is almost too heartbreaking to recount. The offense was sluggish for most of the game, except for Ced the Pred, who had his 2010 coming out party. Two minutes to go and a 7 point lead Carson throws a pick, then Tampa quickly marches down the field and gets a TD to tie it. Carson gets the ball back with a minute, starts a drive that looks promising; one deflected pass off of Ocho's hands later and that's the ball game. And to add insult to injury, the coaches decide that throwing on a 3rd and 13 is a better idea than punting.

Culprit: Carson's turnovers, Chad's drop, coaching errors.

Loss 4: Cincy v. Atlanta

The game started eerily like the New England Game, with the first half ending 24-3. Again, the Bengals offense showed some fight in the second half (with the no huddle), but the defense came out with the worst performance I have every witnessed from them. Outside of two big plays from Leon and Adam, they were carved up like a thanksgiving turkey. This was the only game this year where we won the turnover battle, but lost the game.

Culprit: Defensive meltdown, offense coming out sluggish, poor tackling, poor gameplanning for Roddy White.

So maybe there are some things that you can point to that have been a common theme throughout the year: lack of a pass rush, the offense not starting well or running smoothly out of the huddle, poor game planning by the coaches, and the biggest one (IMHO): poor execution (unforced turnovers, penalties, bad routes, etc). But the fact is, it's not one thing or the other, it's all of the above.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan, which is as important as the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors.