The Bengals are hurting themselves with penalties and self-inflicted mistakes
In the middle of the 2021 season, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked about the Bengals being one of the least penalized teams in the NFL.
Taylor jumped in and said, “We’re really the least penalized team in the NFL.”
The Bengals were one of the best teams in the NFL in 2021 and 2022 because they never got in their own way. They executed play calls. They had great communication. They tackled. And they rarely gave opponents second chances by committing penalties.
In 2023, that strength has become a weakness for the Bengals. Even though the Bengals have a rare level of continuity on the roster and on the coaching staff, this year's team hasn’t played with much discipline.
“Our guys have gotten the impression that this isn’t our standard,” Taylor said. “We can step up, and we need to do it better. We don’t get up there and yell and scream (at them). It’s always a different person. As a unit, we’ve got to clean it up. I know they’re not doing it on purpose. We’ve just got to be a bit more focused and locked in.”
The margin for error is thin when a team has a quarterback who’s battling an injury, and the Bengals have been shooting themselves in the foot all season.
Film room: Missed chances, blitzes, play calls lead to Cincinnati Bengals' struggles
Week 1 vs. Cleveland Browns
It started in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals committed a delay of game penalty, a false start, an illegal shift and an illegal formation. Center Ted Karras called the communication “poor.” Three times, Joe Burrow threw the ball in one direction but his intended receiver was running a completely different route. On one play, Taylor was at fault for taking too long to relay the play call to Burrow.
After the game, Burrow said these mistakes are what happens when a quarterback misses all of training camp. But four weeks into the season, these issues haven’t gotten any better.
“We know what we’re capable of and what we expect of each other,” wide receiver Tyler Boyd said. “We’re not a team that has penalties like that and hurts ourselves. That’s not who we are. That’s not our identity. We’ve got to tighten up, and that’s not us. If we see it, the whole stadium is seeing it.”
Week 2 vs. Baltimore Ravens
In Week 2, a holding call on right guard Alex Cappa wiped away a first down and derailed a drive. Burrow threw his worst interception in years when he didn’t see Ravens’ backup safety looming in coverage in the end zone.
On defense, the Bengals left Ravens star tight end Mark Andrews wide open on 2nd and 3 and had a coverage breakdown on a deep ball to wide receiver Zay Flowers. The Bengals tackling, which has been a strength of the defense for the last three years, also started to slip.
“We’ve got a lot of things that we’ve given teams, communication-wise and penalty-wise,” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “Penalties have been killing us. It’s not like there’s no hope. We have a great idea of what we can do to get where we need to be. By no means is there no hope.”
Week 3 vs. Los Angeles Rams
The most concerning self-inflicted errors by the Bengals this year took place in their lone win. The Bengals’ offense had a terrible first half against the Los Angeles Rams because of drops and three false start penalties by veteran starters.
The home crowd at Paycor Stadium booed an offense that was supposed to be one of the best units in the NFL this season.
“The part that was frustrating was those pre-snap penalties,” Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “When you get to the things that we can control, those things have to be better. (We’ve all) been here for like 10 years apiece, so it's not hard for them to know what the cadence is and how to manage it. So those are the things that I think have held us back.”
Analysis: Who is to blame for Cincinnati Bengals' 1-3 start?
Week 4 vs. Tennessee Titans
It got even worse in Week 4. On the Bengals’ opening drive against the Tennessee Titans, the Bengals took a timeout before 3rd and goal from the 6-yard line. Coming out of the timeout, the Bengals nearly took a delay of game, checked to a run at the last second and eventually settled for a field goal. The communication on blitz pickups was bad all game, which led to Burrow taking unnecessary hits.
The experience on the Bengals’ defense was supposed to be its biggest strength, but that unit played like a group of unproven starters against the Titans. The Bengals missed 12 tackles, which was a three-year high. The Bengals gifted the Titans three first downs with penalties on third downs, including a costly late hit by safety Dax Hill and defensive holding penalties on cornerback Chidobe Awuzie and linebacker Germaine Pratt.
The communication over the middle of the field led to wide open space for a struggling Titans’ offense to find easy completions.
“The effort is there,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “It’s not like we’re talking about guys not running. We’ve just got to execute better.”
Preparing for Week 5 vs. Arizona Cardinals
On Wednesday, the Bengals went through a tedious tackling circuit during practice and focused on the basics. Taylor, Callahan and Anarumo have all seemed surprised to see a usually disciplined Bengals team get in its own way so much.
The Bengals’ continuity and experience were supposed to give them a big advantage this year. But they haven’t looked the part, and they’ve committed so many types of mistakes that there isn't a simple fix.
“The penalties, they’ve been something different each game,” Taylor said. “One game, it’s false starts. This one, we had a defensive hold. We had an offsides. We had an (unnecessary roughness) with the running back (Joe Mixon). We had a clip on a punt return when we were punting the ball. It’s all different stuff. It’s usually a different person each time. It’s been stuff that’s hurt us. So we’ve got to do a better job of that and I think our guys understand that.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bengals struggling with penalties, tackling and communication
