By Marc Hardin
FOX Sports Ohio | Bengals Insider
Monday, December 13th, 2010
The Bengals are like a Rubik's Cube, a 2-11 puzzle, after losing 23-7 to the Steelers on Sunday in yet another mixed-up performance by the Bengals' passel of stars.
The Rubik's Cube mechanical puzzle, with six colors and six faces, is solved when each face is a solid color. Similarly, the Bengals' problems won't be solved until all phases of the team are solid. That includes the six-sided puzzle that is the Bengals' offense, defense, special teams, head coaching, scouting and ownership.
No matter how much the Bengals twist and turn the puzzle, they keep mixing up the metaphorical colors and failing to get all phases of their game lined up solidly.
In games such as Sunday's debacle when the Bengals' defense did not allow a touchdown but the offense gave Pittsburgh two scores via two Carson Palmer interception returns for touchdowns, Cincinnati had just one of two important phases solid.
In three games this season in which the Bengals have scored at least 30 points, they have lost all three because the defense and special teams were not solid.
When the Bengals get decent play from all sides of their attack, coaching conspires against them. Cincinnati coaching decisions have cost the Bengals a win against Tampa Bay and have confounded game plans and play-calling in several other games, if not every game. Game management is poor. Player substitutions are sloppy. Timeouts are wasted. And the postgame explanations for the in-game buffoonery are poorly explained.
When the Bengals seem to get it right on the field with coaches, players and schemes, such as they did most of last season while going 10-6 and making the playoffs for just the second time in 19 years, they fail to get it right off the field.
The Bengals' front office drafted offensive lineman Andre Smith in the first round in 2009 knowing there were red flags surrounding him while coming out of Alabama. They have received little in the way of a return and have paid the price with a sieve-like performance by the pass blockers on the right side.
The Bengals' front office signed wide receiver Antonio Bryant this year. They signed wide receiver Laveranues Coles the year prior. They signed defensive end Antwan Odom the year before that. They did sign Terrell Owens, who has paid dividends without getting hurt, but they did so only when they had to, following the realization that they were wrong about Bryant.
The Bengals' scouting department is still too small. Philadelphia receiver DeSean Jackson, as he demonstrated over the weekend for the Eagles, is still a lot better than Jerome Simpson, who was selected three picks before Jackson in the second round of the 2008 draft. The Bengals have just two players remaining from the 2007 draft, first-round pick Leon Hall and seventh-rounder Chinedum Ndukwe.
The same people in the Bengals' front office who are creating this kind of work culture, and this kind of team, probably will be using the same methods that have created all the losing if they decide to start from square one with the selection of a new coach after the conclusion of the season.
The Bengals' front office thought it had it right with Marvin Lewis, who has not been able to coach his way out of what has become the second-longest losing streak
