There are way too many factors to blame for the absolute disaster that was the Steelers/Bengals melee. The city Cincinnati woke up with severe depression after witnessing what should have been a sure-fire win evaporate in the span of two game minutes. Once again knocked out of the first round. Once again losing to the dreaded Pittsburgh Steelers. Once again got bit by the injury bug. And once again, blowing a lead in all the wrong times. It is unfathomable to find a worse way to lose the way the Bengals lost last night.
Might be karma, for the fans throwing crap on to the field when Big Ben got injured (although it might be retaliation for one of their players being knocked unconscious and the Steelers celebrating it). It might just be the inability to overcome the hurdle of bad history in the playoffs. But there is a person that should receive none of the blame. None of it.
Marvin Lewis.
Keep that man’s job. It is not his fault that he was dealt a bad hand. It is not his fault that the heart and soul of the organization got hurt on the final weeks of the season and was unavailable to help out. Up until the injury, Andy Dalton’s Bengals were one of the best threats in the entire league---even clinging to the #1 seed at one point. I had predicted that this was going to be Dalton's coming out party---similar to when Flacco finally took the next step with the Ravens back in 2013. It is not Lewis’ fault that the Bengals front office staff also rounded up a squad with toxic players prone to self-destructing.
Marvin Lewis kept the team intact, prevented them from panicking, and coached them to within two minutes of a victory. With a back-up quarterback that clearly wasn’t prepared going up against a Pittsburgh squad that has a Super Bowl-winning quarterback at the helm, this team was destined to lose in the first place. I had all my money on the Steelers. No Dalton, no victory. In the NFL, you cannot win without your leader at center—it has become impossible in this pass/offense-crazy league.
Excellent teachers can wind up with bad classes of students. Great poker players can be dealt bad hands. Marvin Lewis was dealt an ugly scenario with emotional players knowing they won’t go far without the entire team losing their cool because their victory disappeared after a series of terrible decisions that was the result of the melee that had transpired during the previous 58 minutes.
Once upon a time, the Cincinnati Bengals was the best team in the AFC. Lewis’ job was not in jeopardy then, and it shouldn’t be now. The game was disgusting, didn’t have to reach that point, and the sooner everyone forgets about it, the better.
The 2015-2016 Bengals minus Andy Dalton was not meant to win. Don’t throw Lewis under the bus because of this.
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