Marvin Lewis walks out of postgame press conference after 4th-and-1 question

The Cincinnati Bengals dropped a pivotal game to their most hated rival on Sunday.

The Bengals had a chance to get to 3-3 and gain control of their season again. Unfortunately, they lost to the Steelers 14-29. It is understandable that tensions would be high after that.

Still, Marvin Lewis seemed to be more irritated than we’ve seen in quite some time. He ended up walking out of his post-game press conference.

This is probably the closest to Lewis pulling a Dennis Green. To be fair to Lewis, that was a very dumb question. What other answer did the reporter expect to get asking why a team would go for it on fourth down on the goal line?

Lewis was asked a series of questions that seemed to have obvious answers or could be frustrating to a head coach of an NFL football team.

“Did you think you were past the point of offense plays well for a half while defense plays well for the other half and vice versa?”

That is an example of a question that preceded the fourth and goal question. What answer are you looking for from a question like that? ‘Nope. In the game plan, we usually try to only score during one half, but we also let the other team score during that half.’

If you put yourself in Lewis’ shoes it is understandable how he got to that point.

All of this was on top of another poor showing against the Steelers. During the Andy Dalton and A.J. Green era, the Bengals just can’t seem to get over the Pittsburgh roadblock. The Bengals have only beaten the Steelers three times over that span. In this game, Lewis and the coaching staff should shoulder plenty of the blame though, which could explain the frustration.

A team coming off a bye week just laid an absolute egg in the biggest game of the season. The Bengals looked unprepared most of the game. I mean, the Steelers’ second touchdown was probably one of the easiest of Ben Roethlisberger’s career. JuJu Smith-Schuster just ran wide open without a defender in sight of him. That can’t happen in a game where points come at a premium.

The offense also abandoned the run in the second half. Joe Mixon, who had seven rushes for 48 yards, didn’t get a single opportunity in the second half. Green also didn’t catch a single pass in the second half. I just don’t get how that happens. Mixon even spoke up after the game about the lack of opportunities.

Lewis probably also knows that this loss is a huge blow to him keeping his job. Mike Brown didn’t give Lewis his annual one-year contract extension after going 6-9-1 last season. It seems like that was a cue to Lewis that another bad season wouldn’t be tolerated.

The Bengals starting out 2-4 probably won’t increase the odds of coming back next season, which at this point I think quite a few people would be happy about.