Eagle Eye: Bengals Still Roar On Defense

When I first began my film study of the Cincinnati Bengals' defense, I had a certain picture in my mind of what to expect. This is a team led by head coach Marvin Lewis, who was the defensive coordinator of the Super Bowl-champion Baltimore Ravens in 2000. It's a defensive unit that had been coached by Mike Zimmer, who is now the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Cincinnati's defense is now led by one of Zimmer’s former assistants in Paul Guenther. I expected a pressure scheme with a lot of Double A-gap looks (like Zimmer’s Minnesota Vikings), and a lot of different combinations up front from a personnel standpoint. That was not the case, however, as I soon came to realize that the Bengals are primarily a four-man rush team. In fact, they blitz the quarterback less than any team in the NFL.

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