Bengals Vow to Make No Changes in Attempt to Win Playoff Game Next Year
Despite being bounced from the playoffs in the wildcard round for the fourth consecutive year, it appears the Cincinnati Bengals have no intention to make any changes before next season.
“You don’t just give in to four years of failure,” said Marvin Lewis. “We’re close. Imagine slamming your head into a brick wall for four years in a row. Eventually, if you keep doing that, for five years, six, seven, ten, whatever, that wall is going to weaken and break. Probably, right? Or you could just die of a brain hemorrhage. But we’re hoping the wall will weaken and break.”
Lewis has been at the helm for 12 years in Cincinnati and is 0-6 in the postseason. Andy Dalton has quarterbacked the team in the playoffs in each of his four seasons in the NFL and has no wins, one touchdown, six interceptions and a 57.8 quarterback rating to show for it.
“Sometimes you just have to go with what doesn’t work,” said Bengals president Mike Brown. “Having a coach and a quarterback who are proven winners is the easy way out. We don’t want to cut corners here in Cincinnati.”
Dalton said he thinks he deserves another chance “or ten.”
“All the critics don’t think I can win a Super Bowl or even a playoff game,” he said. “But people said Joe Flacco and Eli Manning couldn’t win a Super Bowl either. Granted, I am significantly worse than even those two deeply-flawed quarterbacks, but … I forget what my point was.”
Brown believes his team is years away from making any major changes.
“It used to be that we couldn’t win four games a year here,” said the president. “We would have loved four consecutive wildcard exits. Dreamed of it. Are we going to go beyond that level of limited success with Marvin and Andy? I mean, it doesn’t look like it. But what if we make a change and get worse? Why risk it? These are the glory years.”
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