So, let’s start this off by saying the whole tenure hasn’t been a bad marriage with Marvin Lewis, but I will say the last four years have been super dicey. Lewis has been the Cincinnati Bengals head coach for 16 years and last year it seemed their relationship would be severed, but two wins to knock Detroit and Baltimore out of the playoffs salvaged a dying partnership.
I’ve been living in Cincinnati for 18 years, so in a sense Mr. Lewis and I have been indirectly tied to the hip. I remember living on campus and seeing a huge billboard on Calhoun Street that had a huge picture of Lewis on it. In a town that I didn’t think would have an African American head coach, it was cool to see and then you started seeing change in the team’s play the Bengals were no longer a doormat team that you could just pad your stats against them to help get a better contract in the offseason. In his third season he won the AFC North Division and during the first drive the infamous Carson Palmer knee injury happened in the Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s led the Bengals to the playoffs seven times, but he is 0-7 in the playoffs. It is cool to get there, but you have to win when it is money time.
He currently has a career record of 130-120-3 and has won the AFC North four times during his tenure, but what loops over him and his failure in the playoffs whether it is injuries, players missing player or just not being discipline the one constant is Lewis. I’ve never seen a coach get this more leeway when they don’t win in the post season. Just look at the Green Bay Packers and Mike McCarthy, he was fired during the season and he is a Super Bowl winning head coach. Yet, the Bengals just let Lewis chill and collect a check.
Note: He has had a solid coaching tree producing three head coaches: Mike Zimmer, Vikings, Jay Gruden, Redskins and Hue Jackson, Browns (fired this season)
So, let’s fast forward to January 9th, 2016 when the Bengals snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory at home against the Steelers to lose 18-16. So many things happened wrong in the fourth quarter that I won’t reopen those wounds for Bengals fans. I just remember being like how did they lose this game they had it on lock, I was personally happy for the city to break the curse, but that was a figment of my imagination. Honestly, after the game Lewis should’ve been fired for a team to lose in that fashion and for him not to have any playoff clout that should’ve been the dagger.
Lewis has been about to finesse three more years out of the Bengals, but it proves that the front office is just ok with the team being mediocre. If I’m Lewis of course I’m taking the money, but at the end of the day how does a coach who hasn’t won a single playoff game get to stay with the same franchise for 16 years? They have to look within, so I write this article to say this Cincinnati deserves change, but will the change be a person already on the staff? Peeks over at Hue Jackson and is that what Bengals fans want?
