Week 2 Blunders Lead to questions on Zac Taylor
The Bengals went into Chicago cloud 9 after their thrilling week 1 victory. Riding on the coattails of Joe Mixon and the Bengals offense. The hope was that the Bengals could build off their week 1 victory priming them for Pittsburgh week 3. But conservative play calling and 4 turnovers derailed all ambitions of sitting 2-0, atop the division. The Bengals play calling was almost so conservative that it was destructive. That paired with the 4 turnovers the Bengals essentially had no chance of winning. Who is really to blame for the loss will be debated, and it seems it already has been between the players (Burrow, Chase) and coaches (Taylor, Callahan). A lot of people have started to call for Taylor’s firing but let's take a look at his career thus far.
When Zac Taylor was first hired by the Bengal’s the fans were promised Sean McVay, a young and aspiring head coach. Who, in his first 4 seasons sits with a record of 45-21 and went to a superbowl his second year. McVay is known for his offense, posting top 10 each year of his tenure. Using creative plays and utilizing his players is what makes the Ram’s offense so dangerous. So when the Bengals brought in the Ram’s Quarterbacks coach, and McVay's right hand man in the offense, you are expecting some offensive fireworks. That paired with three very talented receivers, people would hope for the same fireworks in Cincinnati.
But when you look at Zac Taylor’s approach to the Bengals you can't see the flares like you do with McVay. Now I will give a pass to Taylor his first season. He had to come into Cincinnati and change a culture, after replacing Marvin Lewis (16 seasons) as the Bengals head coach. Taylor and Lewis’ styles of coaching are very different, leading to some clashes of personalities and a general purge of players and coaches. In the second year of his tenure the Bengals drafted a young and promising quarterback that we have all come to love and adore in Joe Burrow. As we all know Burrow’s season ended week 11 to a pretty brutal injury. After his first two seasons Taylor was left with a 6-25-1 record, nothing to hang your hat on. With an offense that was extremely uninspiring. But in his third season all eyes are pointed to Taylor to see how his team will perform. The one thing Taylor has always had in Cincinnati is a locker room that believes in him. The question is what happens if that starts to wane.
After the week 2 loss to Chicago the first cracks to Taylors locker room are starting to show. In the press conference after the game both Burrow and Chase alluded to the play calling being the crippling reason for the Bengals struggles. When you look at the stats from the Bengals offense in week 2 they aren't wrong. The thing that really stuck out was the average depth of target. Let's take a deeper dive into that, for the point of this exercise I took the three interceptions out of the mix. 16 of the 27 pass attempts for Burrow were under 5 yards downfield, 59%. 8 of the 27 were 5 to 10 yards downfield, 29%. With 1 target going 10-15 yards downfield, and rounding it out with only three targets going 30+ yards downfield. Burrow stated that the Bears defense knew they were going to throw short routes. When the defense knows your tendences and can play against them, it's going to be hard to throw the ball.
At the end of the day the Bengals offense failed to hold up their end of the bargain. Hopefully the play calling changes for the Bengals in their first division game of the year. Pittsburgh's defense has always given the Bengals fits, but this is the perfect time for Zac Taylor to show off his offense and his shiny new toy Ja'Marr Chase.
