The Cincinnati Bengals terminated head coach Marvin Lewis on Monday, finishing his 16-year tenure in Cincinnati with a 131-122-3 regular-season record. His 131 successes are 15 more than the next two winningest coaches in franchise history joined (Sam Wyche, 61, and Paul Brown, 55). Despite the fact that he incorporated the most successes, he will ultimately be remembered for his 0-7 playoff record.
The postseason record is a knock on the coach who removed the Bengals from the doldrums of the 1990s, however it’s unquestionably not the whole story. The Bengals experienced 12 non-winning seasons certainly they hired Lewis in 2003, and he immediately transformed them into playoff contenders.
He should certainly be praised for that, particularly considering the unconventional way the Bengals operate. There are unique challenges to working for the Bengals, who run a little family-possessed activity and don’t have a general manager. Lewis needed to accomplish more with less for many years, working inside an association that was reluctant to surrender any command over personnel and the coaching staff, even forcing him to keep assistant coaches he didn’t hire.
There were things Lewis needed from the association and never got, for example, the indoor practice facility that was at one time a point of dispute among himself and Bengals proprietor Mike Brown. Those reasons almost led to a parting of ways after the 2010 season.
In the event that Lewis and Brown hadn’t worked out another agreement that year, maybe the Bengals wouldn’t have had the five-year playoff keep running from 2011 to 2015. Lewis may have been the best man for those five years that delivered 52 wins.
It’s difficult to state he is the best man for the activity now.
The NFL has evolved in many points of view since Lewis was hired, yet the Bengals never appeared to really evolve with the rest of the league. The things that plagued them five to 10 years ago are still issues.
The Bengals earned a reputation for absence of discipline under Lewis, and that was on full presentation the night they melted down against the Pittsburgh Steelers amid the 2015 AFC wild-card game. Despite the fact that they cleaned up most of the off-the-field issues, the absence of discipline on the field never appeared to leave.
At the point when the Bengals expected to hold off the Steelers early this season to preserve a success with two minutes left, a defensive penalty led to a game-winning drive. Those situations happened more than once throughout the year with no reprieve, indicating an issue with getting the message through to the players.
Be that as it may, the sort of 2018 season the Bengals endured would have been difficult for any association. In addition to the fact that they had to fire defensive coordinator Teryl Austin midseason, they were additionally decimated by injuries and lost their beginning quarterback.
It certainly could be utilized as a reason, but ultimately it shouldn’t be. The Bengals have been going the incorrect route since the 2015 meltdown, and the fans so desperately craved a change that they stopped showing up to games.
