CINCINNATI (WKRC) – A couple of games into his first season as Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden said the first month is spent finding out what his unit does well, and what it doesn’t do well to help. Unfortunately for him there hasn’t been much good of late and there aren’t great indications that things will get better either.

The Bengals rank 30th in the NFL in yards allowed (397.8 per game) and 27th in points allowed per game (29.8) thanks to getting very little pressure on the passer (their six sacks rank 24th in the NFL), allowing too much on the ground (135.8 yards per game, which ranks 26th) and giving up far too many third down conversions (49.1 percent, which is third-worst in the NFL).

The defense is coming off a game at Denver in which it allowed 512 yards, including 186 on the ground in 38 carries. Over the last three games the unit allowed 421.3 yards per game, including 164.7 per game on the ground.

“I think obviously it’s hard to stomach,” Golden said of the defensive performance at Denver. “The loss is hard to stomach. The plays that I wish I had back are hard to stomach, and I know we have the right guys in locker room that feel the same way about their performance on certain plays. There’s a lot of good plays, and we got to continue to build off of that. “

There was some good on Monday night, like the three-and-out on Denver’s first offensive possession, and the fact the Broncos were forced to punt on each of their first three series of the second half, but there simply hasn’t been enough consistently good play.

“I think the biggest thing is we just haven’t put together an entire game,” said Golden. “There’s 60 plays (out of 80 Denver ran) that I really enjoyed in the game, that I really was proud of, but there’s too many, especially on third down, when they can convert and keep the ball. We need to be better on third down. We were better the week prior, the previous week, so I was disappointed there. We need to be better there. Certainly need to be better in the red zone. And then just the unforced errors. We can’t give anybody anything., and if we can spark our team by getting the ball back, that’s going to help us give the offense a short field.”

There was also confusion at times getting the right personnel groups on the field, which led to players not getting aligned properly. Golden said the issue was germaine to Denver, because of how often it switched personnel groupings, and that the Bengals are seeking clarity on how much time they are allowed to sub once the opponent subs.

“We’re trying to get an interpretation on that from the league in terms of the subbing and being able to match (personnel),” said Golden. “I could tell you the first one was completely an unforced error. Somebody subbed themselves and ran onto the field late. So that has nothing to do with anything else. Again, they do a good job of mixing personnel. I gotta do a better job of getting the call in clean and getting us lined up correctly. We’re going to make sure we’re doing things the right way. If we’re not handling it correctly, then we just need confirmation on that., but if we’re not handling a specific situation correctly in terms of being able to match personnel, then we need to change what we’re doing.”

Perhaps what needs to change is simply having better personnel. The Bengals weren’t very good on defense last season either when they ranked 25th in both yards and points allowed and the only new faces are rookie linebackers Demetrius Knight and backup Barrett Carter, defensive tackle TJ Slaton, who was signed as a free agent from the Green Bay Packers, and rookie defensive lineman Shemar Stewart, who hasn’t played since the opener due to an ankle injury.

Here are the ProFootballFocus grades (with 100 being the max) through the first four games for each of the 11 players who started in Monday night’s game at Denver along with a handful of key backups (rank among their position group in the NFL in parentheses):

DE Trey Hendrickson: 78.3 (25th of 165)DE Joseph Ossai: 56.8 (107/165)DT T.J. Slaton: 46.0 (146/178)DT B.J. Hill: 56.4 (102/178)LB Logan Wilson: 65.9 (49/131)LB Demetrius Knight: 41.5 (117/131)LB Oren Burks: 78.0 (21/131)CB Dax Hill: 72.7 (26/164)CB DJ Turner: 56.7 (103/164) S Geno Stone: 65.2 (57/129)S Jordan Battle: 70.8 (39/129)DE Myles Murphy: 71.8 (51/165)DT Kris Jenkins, Jr.: 58.7 (88/178)LB Barrett Carter: 53.4 (94/131)CB Cam Taylor-Britt: 55.6 (109/164)CB Josh Newton: 53.6 (117/164)

While I don’t think PFF grades are the gospel, they do give a glimpse into what you are seeing with your eyeballs, and much of what we’re seeing of late isn’t very good, which is reflected by so many poor grades. The personnel just isn’t good enough. It wasn’t good enough last season, and it’s not good enough this season.

Still, Golden has trudge forward to trying to put the best plan in place he can. His message at the moment is there are some fixable mistakes and that his players shouldn’t try to more than what their assignment calls for.

“Just defend your gap, keep the ball on your inside pad,” said Golden. “Just don’t try to do too much. There’s a human element, and I’m part of that, and the players are part of that. If we want to be part of the solution, we just have to do our job. Just, do 1/11th of the defense and execute, and don’t make it bigger than that. Play with leverage. Guys are hustling, guys are trying to generate a play, and the ball comes out the backside for a 20-yard gain. There’s some of that. I’ve got to put the guys in better position on some plays, and overall, the last two games, it needs to be better. “

The problem is it just may not be capable enough to be that much better.