Cincinnati's Head Coach Marvin Lewis

[BengalszoneBilly]

During the tenure so far of the Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, it can only be described as being conducted like a professional construction project, and he's the foreman. A blue collar, hard working type of builder. And just like those professionals I just compared him to, he has been steadily putting the plans together and building, piece by piece, HIS team as he sees fit to be NFL Champions. He should know! The man has first hand experience in helping to craft an NFL Super Bowl Champion team while being the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens and their dominating win over the New York Giants!

Granted, there were a few times when these "pieces" of his didn't work too well together. Okay, okay...I'll concede that many times they didn't work too well together! Yet the team still improved to 8-8 for both of his two seasons at the helm! Considering the 10 years prior to his arrival, it was then and still is now cause for great optimism!

Further fueling such optimism during the past two years were the awesome (albeit brief) glimpses of the incredible potential and future greatness that could soon very well become the standard reality for the long suffering Cincinnati football fans. Moments like...

When the over-confident and strutting like barnyard roosters, (and up to then undefeated) Kansas City Chiefs came into Cincinnati during the 2003 season, they were heavily favored by some to win this "Gimme Game" against the Bengals under their new leader. One problem though. That didn't happen. The Chiefs initial confidence turned to only somberness, having to leave town with heads hung low due to the Bengals basically handing them their asses, and showing them the door back to Kansas, taking with them a big "1" in the loss column where there had been a "0" just a couple of hours ago!

or...

Young QB Carson Palmer leading the stunning comeback win on the road, and against the Ravens in freakin' BALTIMORE of all places!! Even Ray Lewis himself couldn't defend his own house when Carson got hot and found "The Zone!" Still seen mumbling to himself about how the hell that could have happened!

you can't forget this one...

The completely focused, brilliantly coached, daringly executed, and most importantly excellently BALANCED team effort, both offensively and defensively, to rise to the occasion and handily beat the mighty Denver Bronco's on ABC's Monday Night Football, signaling the Bengals well deserved return to prime time!

this one did have the entire NFL talking about the Bengals...

The "Shootout in Cincy" against Cleveland where all the scoring back and forth by each team was reminiscent of a prize fight between two heavyweights where they just stand toe to toe and keep trading blows until the other goes down!

That "high-light reel" of sorts I listed above has some great memories in it, and there were many others I omitted simply to keep this as brief as I could. All I really got to say is that if this team Marvin Lewis has designed and is still building a few final pieces of, finds out during the season that all the right pieces have indeed come together, and then GELS... OMFG!!!

Moments like those above will become common place during a Bengals game! Team confidence will skyrocket to levels not seen in Cincinnati since '88! That confidence will lead to success and victories. Success and victories leads to playoffs appearances, and we all know where road that leads to...the Super Bowl!!

Oh, one more unimportant thing all that will lead to...we'll need to have lots of big sticks laying around the Bengals offices. That will be due to the Bengals front office people having to constantly beat all those "Big Name" free agents off of them because they'll be tripping all over themselves to come here and sign with Cincinnati to play for the Bengals! :player:

[Bobcat Bengal]

During the tenure so far of the Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, it can only be described as being conducted like a professional construction project, and he's the foreman. A blue collar, hard working type of builder. And just like those professionals I just compared him to, he has been steadily putting the plans together and building, piece by piece, HIS team as he sees fit to be NFL Champions. He should know! The man has first hand experience in helping to craft an NFL Super Bowl Champion team while being the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens and their dominating win over the New York Giants!

Granted, there were a few times when these "pieces" of his didn't work too well together. Okay, okay...I'll concede that many times they didn't work too well together! Yet the team still improved to 8-8 for both of his two seasons at the helm! Considering the 10 years prior to his arrival, it was then and still is now cause for great optimism!

Further fueling such optimism during the past two years were the awesome (albeit brief) glimpses of the incredible potential and future greatness that could soon very well become the standard reality for the long suffering Cincinnati football fans. Moments like...

When the over-confident and strutting like barnyard roosters, (and up to then undefeated) Kansas City Chiefs came into Cincinnati during the 2003 season, they were heavily favored by some to win this "Gimme Game" against the Bengals under their new leader. One problem though. That didn't happen. The Chiefs initial confidence turned to only somberness, having to leave town with heads hung low due to the Bengals basically handing them their asses, and showing them the door back to Kansas, taking with them a big "1" in the loss column where there had been a "0" just a couple of hours ago!

or...

Young QB Carson Palmer leading the stunning comeback win on the road, and against the Ravens in freakin' BALTIMORE of all places!! Even Ray Lewis himself couldn't defend his own house when Carson got hot and found "The Zone!" Still seen mumbling to himself about how the hell that could have happened!

you can't forget this one...

The completely focused, brilliantly coached, daringly executed, and most importantly excellently BALANCED team effort, both offensively and defensively, to rise to the occasion and handily beat the mighty Denver Bronco's on ABC's Monday Night Football, signaling the Bengals well deserved return to prime time!

this one did have the entire NFL talking about the Bengals...

The "Shootout in Cincy" against Cleveland where all the scoring back and forth by each team was reminiscent of a prize fight between two heavyweights where they just stand toe to toe and keep trading blows until the other goes down!

That "high-light reel" of sorts I listed above has some great memories in it, and there were many others I omitted simply to keep this as brief as I could. All I really got to say is that if this team Marvin Lewis has designed and is still building a few final pieces of, finds out during the season that all the right pieces have indeed come together, and then GELS... OMFG!!!

Moments like those above will become common place during a Bengals game! Team confidence will skyrocket to levels not seen in Cincinnati since '88! That confidence will lead to success and victories. Success and victories leads to playoffs appearances, and we all know where road that leads to...the Super Bowl!!

Oh, one more unimportant thing all that will lead to...we'll need to have lots of big sticks laying around the Bengals offices. That will be due to the Bengals front office people having to constantly beat all those "Big Name" free agents off of them because they'll be tripping all over themselves to come here and sign with Cincinnati to play for the Bengals! :player:

what he said. :player:

[Scottishbengal]

Billy - is this optimism borne out of drug abuse, alcohol overload or sleep deprivation?

[HairOnFire]

Let me get this one straight. You seem to be implying that the Bengals aren't...(dramatic pause)....DOOMED!

Hey, that's crazy talk.

Then again, rooting for a team that isn't doomed might be fun for a change.

But c'mon, we all know change comes slow in River City and would require a fan to cast off his favorite conspiracy theories. They'd no longer have any use for the little ball of hate that formed in their bellies years ago and immediately turned their poop black & watery.

But that could be seen as a good thing, right?

Alright, save me a seat on the bus.

[BengalByTheBay]

That explains the dump I took last week...Oh, and BB although there are a number of things to be excited and depressed about already in this offseason, I couldn't agree more that the Bengals feel (as much as any team in the league) like they have a solid leader with a plan that he intends to continue to follow regardless of day to day vagaries of the game. On that note, I watched some of the first Clowns game last night on NFL network which brought back bad memories of CP's (first half of the season) rookie gitters, O line inconsistencies, and D breakdowns which was, of course, depressing and evocative of unhappy memories and lost nights of sleep. However, it was a stark contrast to how the team ended the season and even then you couldn't help but notice just how well ML works the sideline and his team during the game.

[turningpoint]

Pretty much what I've been preaching for a long time now.

[BengalPappaw]

I like the way Marvin works the sidelines and the team during the games.

I also like his preparation before the games.

I even like ML's arrogance during interviews -- it shows me a level of confidence in his own abilities that he needs to be successful.

Bottomline: I TRUST MARVIN -- but in the back of my mind I still worry about Mikee getting too involved.

[schweinhart]

Marvin "Lombardi" Lewis.

He's got a real shot to help Bengals get the Big One. :player:

[BengalszoneBilly]

Let me get this one straight. You seem to be implying that the Bengals aren't...(dramatic pause)....DOOMED!

Hey, that's crazy talk.

...like who else do you go to when you only want the finest "crazy talk" available here? That's right. I'm your "Crazy Talkin' Daddy!" Your ONE source for all talk that's CERTIFIED CRAZY!!

Yeah, I just had to post something like this simply to counter all the "Chicken Littles" running around here bawling about how "The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!" They're laughing at us!! They're just using us again to drive up their price!! We'll never be any good because free agents don't like us...blah-ba-blah-ba-blah.

I appears the "Doom and Gloom" tag isn't just reserved for particular members of the democratic party anymore, now is it?

[Indycat]

Coach Lewis is great for:

- his community involvement and the way he's got the city supporting the Bengals

- how he's building this team into a team that can be good for an extended period of time

- how he brought in state of the art training equipment to help the athletes to continue to develop during the off season

- bringing in a scouting staff to evaluate talent and help prevent the draft bust of the past

Coach Lewis is not so good at:

- clock management at the end of the half and end of the game

- post game press conferences when he treats the reporters like the enemy and gets arrogant and defensive

[BengalszoneBilly]

Coach Lewis is not so good at:

- clock management at the end of the half and end of the game

- post game press conferences when he treats the reporters like the enemy and gets arrogant and defensive

There were some times when he surely could have better managed the clock. No question about it. But I'm pretty sure he had little or no experience in doing that job (or at that job with this level of pressure on you) before he came to Cincinnati.

As far as I know, that responsibility belongs to the head coach alone, throughout all levels of football. They may recieve varied forms and amounts of assistance in this from coaches on his staff, but if it all goes wrong, and turns to crap, only he will shoulder the blame for it.

As to the treatment of the media/reporters during post game interviews by Coach Lewis, in particular the accusations of him acting "arrogant" and regarding them as an "enemy"...well that's just a silly thing to say, because as everyone knows for a fact, sports writers/journalists and other members of the media are indeed his mortal enemy! Of course they're out to get him! C'mon, it's common knowlege! This "media/evil coalition" as I like to call it, is the nemesis of head coaches anywhere! They're devoted to this one sole agenda as it reads below:

We members of the media will strive (with the use of any means possible, be it lies, deception, devised schemes, quoting out of context, asking leading questions or questions with no possible correct answer...whatever dirty trick you can think of!) to make each and every head coach in any sport appear as utter buffoons and incompetent fools! We shall cast them in such a light to be the local embarrassing village idiot who should be fired now if not sooner!

What? Well if you don't believe me, just ask Bobby Knight! The incredible amout of abuse brought down unfairly upon the fine, loving, caring and gentle family man is well documented! I'm just kidding of course!

As to Marvin using an arrogant demeanor and lack of tact/treating them as an enemy, when he's dealing with the news media in Cincinnati is something I'm just not exposed to living out here in Arizona. I can tell you that the Cardinals head coach Dennis Green can get huffy and defensive upon occasion! Has anyone else here seen Coach Lewis act in such manners as IndyCat just described, or have an opinion of it?

[HairOnFire]

Two points to add.

When Lewis was hired the Bengals gave O-Line coach Paul Alexander the title of "Assistant Head Coach", a move that I immediately assumed was little more than window dressing. But later on it was mentioned that Alexander was given increased responsibility for game and clock management, allowing Lewis to concentrate on playcalling and quick meetings with team units on the sideline. Alexander was said to be chosen because of his experience and his close proximity to Lewis on the sideline during games...as opposed to other assistants who work from the coaches skybox. Last season Lewis was said to have assumed more of the game management responsibilities due to fewer demands on his time and greater comfort in the role of head coach.

In regards to the press, I think Marvin is confrontational only when someone attempts to perpetuate the negative team image Marvin inherited. I think he's got very little tolerance for that stuff and gets a little snappy from time to time. I can still remember the withering stinkeye glances he shot ESPN talking head (Neil Everett?) the day his hiring was announced. It was pretty funny, after the reporter mentioned the word Bungle everything about Lewis's demeanor changed, and it wasn't subtle. Polite words came from his mouth, but the facial expessions told a very different story. Plus, it wouldn't surprise me if indulged a grudge or two with local reporters by withholding information.

[BengalszoneBilly]

I can still remember the withering stinkeye glances he shot ESPN talking head (Neil Everett?) the day his hiring was announced. It was pretty funny, after the reporter mentioned the word Bungle everything about Lewis's demeanor changed, and it wasn't subtle.

I would have loved to have seen Marvin smile sweetly, motion ever so innoculously towards the groin and advise the offending reporter..."I got your "Bungle" right here pal. See me as usual after this interview is over!"

[Indycat]

Coach Lewis is not so good at:

- clock management at the end of the half and end of the game

- post game press conferences when he treats the reporters like the enemy and gets arrogant and defensive

I didn't mean to imply that these were permanent flaws.

I expect that as he gains experience that the clock management issues will disappear and I hope with a fast start and a winning record early he will be more comfortable and engaging in the press conferences.