Film Breakdown: How Cincinnati Bengals Defense Became Historically Bad
November 11, 2025
Film Breakdown: How Cincinnati Bengals Defense Became Historically Bad
6 comments
Last section has no film it’s just a rant about how stupid it was to essentially run this defense back with a new DC and expect different results
It’s exactly as I feared it would be. I thought they were banking an awful lot on coaching being the entirety of the issue. It just made no sense to run it back with nearly the exact same roster on defense. How much truth is there to Ja’marr, Tee, and Trey occupying so much time in contract negotiations they weren’t able to properly focus on anything else? It sounds like an excuse for the front office to me.
So essentially the ceiling for this defense if they were able to tackle and take proper angles is mid 20s. The bottom is… well, what we are now.
And the front office and personal department who sat down for however long to discuss prospects, current players on the team and off, agreed players they choose are good enough are in charge of fixing it. Along with the coaches. Holy shit we are in trouble. I thought having the caliber of players we have at the most important position it would rare for us to miss the playoffs. But here we are
If you want to know why grown men suddenly forgot how to tackle, just remember, when the media asked D Knight if they could do tackling drills to minimize the mistake, he basically answered:
“No, we’re too busy preparing for our opponents to practice tackling this late in the season”
Top tier effort.
idk how to feel, these guys are professional football players who were all at the very worst above average in college, yet they are fundamentally failing at basic concepts like wrapping up, taking angles, and working around blocks. this almost makes me think Al is maybe a huge problem, but surely he knows these are problems.
it just doesn’t make sense how they cannot do these basic things.
it also doesn’t make any sense why the FO, who clearly had to rely on hitting in the draft, is drafting unproductive at best project type players. how is it the plan? it all makes no sense
People forget that physical ability is only about 50% of the equation. Being self-motivated , high intelligence, and playing with 100% effort all matter. The Bengals just draft physical ability apparently. Some of these guys couldn’t get passed an interview at McDonald’s for god’s sake
6 comments
Last section has no film it’s just a rant about how stupid it was to essentially run this defense back with a new DC and expect different results
It’s exactly as I feared it would be. I thought they were banking an awful lot on coaching being the entirety of the issue. It just made no sense to run it back with nearly the exact same roster on defense. How much truth is there to Ja’marr, Tee, and Trey occupying so much time in contract negotiations they weren’t able to properly focus on anything else? It sounds like an excuse for the front office to me.
So essentially the ceiling for this defense if they were able to tackle and take proper angles is mid 20s. The bottom is… well, what we are now.
And the front office and personal department who sat down for however long to discuss prospects, current players on the team and off, agreed players they choose are good enough are in charge of fixing it. Along with the coaches. Holy shit we are in trouble. I thought having the caliber of players we have at the most important position it would rare for us to miss the playoffs. But here we are
If you want to know why grown men suddenly forgot how to tackle, just remember, when the media asked D Knight if they could do tackling drills to minimize the mistake, he basically answered:
“No, we’re too busy preparing for our opponents to practice tackling this late in the season”
Top tier effort.
idk how to feel, these guys are professional football players who were all at the very worst above average in college, yet they are fundamentally failing at basic concepts like wrapping up, taking angles, and working around blocks. this almost makes me think Al is maybe a huge problem, but surely he knows these are problems.
it just doesn’t make sense how they cannot do these basic things.
it also doesn’t make any sense why the FO, who clearly had to rely on hitting in the draft, is drafting unproductive at best project type players. how is it the plan? it all makes no sense
People forget that physical ability is only about 50% of the equation. Being self-motivated , high intelligence, and playing with 100% effort all matter. The Bengals just draft physical ability apparently. Some of these guys couldn’t get passed an interview at McDonald’s for god’s sake