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continued from C1 backer Preston Brown afterward, who admitted: “I don’t know exactly what was going on.”
The guy paid to know — head coach Marvin Lewis — wasn’t offering any immediate solutions afterward either,
“I’m not going to get into any observations today with that,” he said when asked about the defensive scheme for the Saints.
Asked if he might make a change with his defensive coaches — and though it wasn’t voiced, the inference was his new defensive coordinator Teryl Austin — he wouldn’t commit one way or the other.
Granted, in the 8-1 Saints, Cincinnati played one of the best teams in the league and in Brees faced one of the greatest quarterbacks the game has known.
And it’s also true that Cincinnati’s defense is riddled with injury — specifically with linebackers Vontaze Burfict and Nick Vigil and cornerback Darqueze Dennard all sidelined.
But the Bengals still should have fared better than this.
“There’s no cavalry coming, as some people say,” said Rey. “The rest of us just have to go out and play.”
Veteran defensive end Michael Johnson agreed: “There’s no magic that’s going to happen. It’s just each of us who has to do a better job.”
On the sideline Johnson kept telling his teammates:
“Look, let’s just get one stop.”
As he explained, “Do that and then it goes from there. In order to get two stops you first have to get one. But we were never able to do that today. We couldn’t get just one.”
Meanwhile Cincinnati’s offense could never get rolling.
The Bengals were 0 for 6 on third down. Quarterback Andy Dalton threw two interceptions and was sacked four times. And running back Joe Mixon, who started out strong, was taken out of the offensive mix because the game got out of hand so quickly. He finished with 61 yards on 11 carries.
The game got so bad that William Jackson said he quit looking at the scoreboard, and afterward he wasn’t sure what the final score ended up.
Yet, for all the dire talk, the Bengals are still 5-4 and more than one player noted that with a win at Baltimore next week — a team that Cincinnati topped in Week 2 — and then another victory a week later over lowly Cleveland at Paul Brown Stadium, they would be right back in the playoff hunt.
“All I can point to is 2012,” said Johnson. “History — that’s all I got to draw on. We came out of the bye week then and lost to Denver — though it wasn’t as bad as this — but we finished winning seven of eight games and made the playoffs.
“Who knows, we may look back on this as a turning point.”
Rey pointed to another historical trend:
“It’s November and November is when you become who you become. Once Thanksgiving comes, that’s who you are. And Thanksgiving is coming.
“That’s when we find out who we are.”
In November, turkeys usually find out who they are, too.
And you know what happens to them on Thanksgiving.