For the first time since 1939, a team started the first two games of the season at home without scoring a touchdown. The Cincinnati Bengals have no one but themselves to thank for that accomplishment.
Facing a Houston Texans side with a depleted offensive line and a rookie quarterback making his first-ever pro start, the Bengals looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL. They couldn't block, couldn't catch, couldn't throw, couldn't tackle, couldn't get in the end zone, and couldn't get out of their own way.
The Bengals have done things their own way under owner Mike Brown for years - easily forgiving off-field transgressions, inexplicably re-signing their head coach despite a lack of progress, going off their own draft board, ignoring positions of weakness, and showing huge amounts of faith in players who don't seem to deserve it.
The player-coach marriage between Andy Dalton and Marvin Lewis has highlighted the Bengals' ineptitude. Every time either one is called upon to lead the team in a crucial contest, they choke. Lewis is in his 15th season with the team, having made the postseason seven times but achieving no playoff wins. In similar fashion, Dalton has been to three Pro Bowls in his career, all as an alternate, but has essentially been the benchmark for average quarterback play in his seven seasons.
When Dalton has enjoyed success, it's been more to do with the team around him than his own skills, but management hasn't stuck with what's worked.
After five straight playoff seasons between 2011-15 behind a solid offensive line, Cincinnati slowly let its blockers walk out the door in favor of recent draft selections. The losses of left tackle Andrew Whitworth and guard Kevin Zeitler in the 2017 offseason decimated the offense, as running backs now have no holes to run through and Dalton has no time to pass. Brown has notoriously been against shelling out big bucks for guards, which was working out alright until the team's scouting staff hit a wall in 2014.
Of the Bengals' 24 draft picks between 2014-16, no player has made a Pro Bowl, nor could any be called a successful starter, though several have been forced into first-string duty out of necessity. Meanwhile, the Bengals have made a series of questionable decisions regarding who they've kept around and who they've let go.
Adam Jones and Vontaze Burfict are examples of players who've continued to spark on-field, off-field, and locker-room conflicts, but still received contract extensions anyway. And with two capable running backs on the roster already, the Bengals still drafted Joe Mixon this past spring, who infamously punched a woman in the face during college.
A.J. Green used to have a small stable of supporting receivers to help pull coverage away from him, but the team elected to let Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu leave via free agency. The Bengals attempted to replace them with three receivers drafted over the last two years, but ended their postseason streak in the first year without those two veterans and are off to a terrible start in Year 2.
Missing a balanced passing game, above-average quarterback play, and a decent offensive line, it's no wonder the Bengals haven't scored a touchdown through two weeks, and there should be plenty of worry moving forward.
Even if Brown finally decides to move on from Lewis or Dalton, there's no guarantee anything will get better. From a coaching perspective, it could be tough to attract a good candidate when the owner has become synonymous with making rash, personally-influenced decisions. Replacing Lewis and his staff after 16 seasons would take a solid deal of time to recover from.
Cincinnati's remaining schedule includes the likes of the Buffalo Bills, the Chicago Bears, and the Cleveland Browns twice, so there's a solid chance the team won't have a record bad enough to get a top-three pick to grab a quarterback that can replace Dalton.
The Bengals are off to the worst start they've seen under Lewis, and there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
