Bengals are proving to be a level of bad Zac Taylor can’t explain away
Zac Taylor’s seat looks extra warm after the Bengals fell flat for the second consecutive week.
Troy Aikman said it best as the game clock was a minute from expiring. The Cincinnati Bengals fell to the Denver Broncos, 28-3, and looked lifeless in the process.
“This has been an embarrassing effort by the Cincinnati Bengals,” Aikman said matter-of-factly to a national audience on ABC, at least to those who still had the broadcast on long after the game truly ended.
Cincinnati has taken some bad losses in the seven seasons Zac Taylor has been head coach. None have been as bad as the 48-10 nightmare given to them by the Minnesota Vikings last week, but there have been some stinkers along the way.
Pretty much every time right after the team found itself in the dumpster, Taylor would find a way to rally and at least show some fight the next week. Oftentimes they’d simply win.
Not Monday night. Not in the slightest. And that’s the problem Taylor can’t run from now.
The one thing Zac Taylor couldn’t allow to happen has happened
It was 2008. Carson Palmer had been out for several weeks with a season-ending elbow injury, and Ryan Fitzpatrick was doing what he could to keep the ship afloat. The ship was sinking, rather rapidly. The Bengals were an abysmal 1-9-1 entering a meeting with the Baltimore Ravens. They lost that game, 34-3. The next week they lost again, this time 35-3 to the Indianapolis Colts. Cincinnati was outscored by 63 points in a two-week span, and ended the season 4-11-1.
That negative point differential over the course of two consecutive losses has never happened before in franchise history and hadn’t happened since, until Monday night.
What happened in Minnesota could’ve been excused as a blip in the radar; an afternoon filled with bad luck and compounding terribleness that resulted in a dumpster fire.
The five turnovers didn’t follow Taylor’s Bengals to the base of the Rocky Mountains, but every other aspect of ineptitude and dreadfulness did.
Cincinnati earned six first downs by way of running or throwing the ball. Another three were given via penalties. Nine first downs in total, and they were outnumbered by the 11 penalties the road team was flagged for. 159 total yards of offense. 3.7 yards per play. Three points in total.
Lifeless is putting it lightly.
The Bengals were absolutely terrible, again, and that’s the last thing Taylor needs on his plate. When the ugly losses start stacking up, it becomes harder and harder to excuse them away. It puts even more stress on a locker room culture that’s become the head coach’s largest saving grace.
It becomes easier to argue the problem lies with him more than anyone else below the front office.
Cincinnati needed to bounce back. Win or lose, Taylor’s team needed to fight and looked notably improved. Monday night showed a much darker reality, one that doesn’t look too kindly for Taylor’s future with the Bengals.
Zac Taylor career coaching record
- 48-54-1 in regular season
- 5-2 in playoffs
- 9-16-1 in September
Cincinnati Bengals News
Bengals have already been declared massive underdogs for their next game before playing the Broncos on ‘Monday Night Football’
Betting markets are not expecting a close game for the Bengals in Week 5.
