CINCINNATI — Al Golden knows it’s been a long, hard year for his young defense.
He knows he’s a lightning rod of criticism for the Swiss cheese defense his unit was in the first 10 weeks of the season. The games against the Broncos, Lions, Jets and Bears were glaring examples of a young defense that was out of its league and not ready for primetime.
The linebackers were out of position. The defensive line wasn’t getting consistent pressure on the quarterback. The corners were inconsistent at times and the safeties couldn’t cover tight ends and couldn’t tackle.
All of it led to the Bengals ranking dead last in total yards allowed in the NFL for most of the season. Even with the improvement in the last eight weeks since the bye, the Bengals are allowing 392.2 yards a game, 32nd of 32. They are on the verge of allowing more yardage and touchdowns to tight ends than any team in NFL history.
The Bengals knew they would experience growing pains on defense when they drafted linebackers Barrett Carter, Demetrius Knight Jr. and defensive end Shemar Stewart and decided to toss them lots of opportunity and responsibility.
“It’s been a hard year,” Golden said. “It’s been challenging, and the personal growth comes from a lot of consistency, desire to improve the willingness to accept coaching, and at the same time blocking out any external factors that may impede that.”
Golden made a point Monday of highlighting the growth he’s seen from the likes of Myles Murphy, Cedric Johnson and even DJ Ivey, who got looks Sunday in dime packages featuring six defensive backs as the Bengals did everything in their power to contain tight end Trey McBride.
Head coach Zac Taylor and the Bengals front office thought Golden could help mitigate some of those issues with his previous work with Bengals linebackers in 2020 and ’21 and his three-year stint with Notre Dame, serving as defensive coordinator.
“That’s why he’s here,” Taylor told me. “I’ve got such a high opinion of him, and the proof is in the pudding with how he’s coached when he was here (in 2020, ’21), the development he had at the linebacker position, the effect he had on our Super Bowl team, and then going to Notre Dame, and having the success that he had. (They) played for national championship and developed a ton of players along the way. And now he’s here.
“Early in the season, we were playing a lot of guys that are new to it, and they’re all developing at the same time. And so now that he’s been able to get these guys to really understand what we’re asking of them, coaching staff, by the way, that’s never coached together before. Now for everybody to get into a groove, and now you get to expand what we’re asking these guys to do and really attack teams. You’re really seeing what we’re capable of, and that’s exciting. So I’ve seen that all along. I’ve known where this thing was headed. I’ve known where this thing is going to end up, and we’re going to continue to prove in the offseason as well. But I think he’s done a really good job, particularly since the bye. Since the bye week, we gave up (31) however many to Buffalo outside the pick-6. No team has scored more than 19 against our defense. They’ve done a great job creating turnovers, limiting drives, and giving us a great chance to win.”
The Bengals turned over their defense drastically since 2023, losing the likes of Vonn Bell, Germaine Pratt, Logan Wilson, Chido Awuzie, Mike Hilton, DJ Reader and Sam Hubbard. When you go through this kind of change, it’s unrealistic not to expect a falloff in defensive performance. The problem of replacing that kind of talent have come equally in the draft and in free agency. They have drafted the likes of DJ Turner and Dax Hill and safety Jordan Battle. But Battle has taken longer than expected to adapt his downhill style to the middle of the field and has had issues with tackling. Hill has been moved all around in the Bengals secondary. DJ Turner, just this season, has started to emerge. The Bengals did nothing in the draft or free agency to add to the safety room and Geno Stone hasn’t emerged as a consistent leader in the safety room.
As a matter of fact, instead of adding to the safety room, the Bengals biggest move was to ask Stone to take a pay cut for 2025 (from $6.5 million to $4.9 million). All of the above adds up to a failure of a season on defense for this year’s Bengals. Still, as he always does, Taylor chooses to look at the bright side of things and the future, which looks more and more like it will include Taylor and Golden in 2026.
“I think I said (there is) a lot of youth on defense,” Taylor said. “A lot of guys getting their first taste of playing defense. We played two rookie linebackers together for a really long time. Some of the other young players have really done a great job developing. That’s a credit to them. That’s a credit to their coaches. Now, you see a really cohesive unit that understands everything we’re trying to do. We understand their strengths and playing into their strengths, and they’ve got a lot of confidence. And that’s a big part of things – is just establishing and maintaining that confidence. It’s a unit where all 11 guys are playing together, which is critical. At about the halfway point of the season, that’s where you really started to see that, so we’ve just got to continue to build off that.”
Golden has taken a lot of bullets this season, including standing up for the embattled Stone as a starting safety. He didn’t waver on Monday when speaking about the free safety, insisting that much of the turnaround on defense is a credit to Stone’s play and communication.
“The success that we’ve had in the whatever it is the final eight, a lot of it can be attributed to Geno,” Golden said. “I think he’s been a really good leader for us. I think his communication is exceptional. I think he gets us in the right defense when we need to be in the right defense. I think Jordan, Geno, myself included, would all say, ‘Man, we’d like to have one playback here, one playback there.’ But get in line. And that’s me included in terms of putting the guys in the best position possible who wouldn’t want to have a play or a call back. So again, I think he’s improved from last year. And again, I’m always looking at the positive, and I and I see a path forward for him to get better, continue to improve, and and we’re going to keep coaching him.”
With Myles Garrett on the verge of a new single-season sack record, the Bengals will do everything within reason to keep him from reaching it. Garrett famously was held without a sack last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who Garrett said were more concerned with him not breaking the 22.5 sack mark held T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan than winning the game. The Browns beat the Steelers, 13-6, as Aaron Rodgers was held without a touchdown and released the ball, on average, in 2.39 seconds from snap. Garrett has had his big games against the Bengals and Joe Burrow, and just one more sack would allow him to set a new NFL record. Garrett had two sacks against Burrow in Cincinnati’s 17-16 win in Week 1 in Cleveland.
“He’s the best, I mean, he’s the best defensive player on planet Earth,” Taylor raved on Monday. “I can’t put in words. I mean, he’s hard to describe what your plan has to be when you play against him, and it’s all hands on deck. I have as much respect for him as any player we’ve ever gone against. It’s not a fun process pre games, not a fun process during the game, we take a lot of pride having a great plan to try to give us our best chance of success. And I think the fact that he’s in position where he’s at for this record is is credit to him that he’s done it at such a high level repeatedly, over and over and over again. He’s an absolute nightmare. And so, no, I don’t enjoy one second of preparing for him.”
“He’s the best defensive player in the world,” offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “He can do things that nobody else can do, and so he better be at the forefront of your mind and every play that’s on the sheet and every play you call. He’s got rare gifts matched with rare technical skill. And he just can do things physically that nobody else can do.”
