Bengals Beat: What The Return of Al Golden Means To The Defense And Why They Will Play With ‘One Heartbeat’

CINCINNATI — Al Golden knows the Bengals need to rediscover their attitude on defense.

The 55-year-old was brought back to Cincinnati to rejuvenate the Bengals unit that failed them in 2024. Monday, he outlined in general terms his vision for that rejuvenation.

“One heartbeat, for sure. We all have to believe in the same thing. We talked about it earlier,” Golden said. “There’s not going to be much gray. I don’t live in that gray world. Its very important for us to be a championship defense we are going to have to be empowered. I can’t make all the calls. Same thing with the staff. You make a certain call the players have to have the trust and ingenuity and confidence to make a specific adjustment on the field. Through my career at some point you have to turn the keys over to the players.

“There will be a certain way we will disrupt the football and specific way we tackle in certain environments and certain situations. There’s going to be indicators for us in situations that we are going to have to recognize the situation to perform accordingly. Ultimately, we want to be really good at tackling and doing the little things well. I think, one heartbeat, core fundamentals that bind us and ultimately a team that is player driven.

The 2024 Bengals under Lou Anarumo wanted to be physical on defense. The problem was that they were too often out of position to be so. In 2021 and ’22 the one thing that stood out about the defense is how good they were at swarming to the ball – or as Golden mentioned several times Monday – “disrupting the football”.

They were not the disruptors in 2024, they were the disrupted.

That’s got to change this season, starting with winning physical battles in the trenches, whether it’s defensive edges, tackles or linebackers.

“I think it is important, especially given our division,” Golden told me. “That will start, obviously, in the spring and then carry over into preseason camp. There’s no doubt about it. We need to be strong. We need to be able to stop the run. We need to get people behind the sticks and ultimately cash in on that on third down.

What was interesting in talking to Golden is that just being physical to him isn’t the key to overall success. It’s being physical with a specific purpose and emphasis on detail.

“Obviously, it all starts with your technique and you have to be doing the same technique as the guy next to you,” Golden told me. “You can’t be ripping off outside while he’s going arm-over inside and now we have a void. Physical football is doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and that’s tough. That’s mental toughness. That’s physical toughness. That’s knowing that ‘hey, this is a tough job for me to take this double team but if I spin out, I leave a void that my teammates can’t fill.’ Or if you’re going against a pin and pull series and I jump outside the pin, and now the linebackers or safeties don’t know where to fit. So, it’s not just as you think, like, conceptually physical strength. It’s the mental and physical toughness to do the little things correct when you’re under duress or under pressure.”

Golden is confident that whatever shape the rebuilt defensive roster takes in the coming months through free agency and the draft, the Bengals are capable of rediscovering that form from 2021 that he witnessed first-hand as linebackers coach.

“I do. I thought we were tough. I thought we were mentally tough. I thought we were physically tough,” Golden added. “I thought we ran the ball really well. Again, part of the challenge of being here or the challenge of watching TV yesterday is that it’s not a good feeling in terms of, we’re not there. That’s what motivates you to get up today and say, ‘OK, you’ve gotta do something about it.’ That’s what we plan to do.

“There’s a process involved in it. You identify what the errors are and are those errors systematic. If so you have to take a hard look at yourself and say, OK, what can we change. I think there is a way to teach certain things. I have really strong beliefs. Those beliefs will be tested by the staff as we get together and we’ll find a different way, a better way. Ultimately, we are going to convene and plot a course for how we want to tackle, how we want to disrupt the football.

“We are going to teach it, we are going to drill it. We are going to quality control it. We are going to show the application to the game and then we are going to show the standard. Whether that’s Bengals or other guys in our division or around the league that we are chasing that standard. We’ll repeat that process until it is refined and owned by the players. For that to happen it has to move from their head to their heart. Each guy takes a journey that is a little bit different, young guy versus a veteran. IF they can get tot he point we all believe in the same thing and start to see it on tape that’s when the magic happens.”

In other words, whoever is competing for spots on the defensive roster (and that should be everyone not named Trey Hendrickson), they better come with their thinking caps once offseason workouts and OTAs begin in the spring.

Watching the two winners on Sunday had to make Bengals fans think back to the games Cincinnati played this season against the two eventual Super Bowl LIX participants. In Week 2, the Bengals had the game in the bag at Kansas City before 4th-and-16 happened in the waning moments of the game. On Oct. 27, the Bengals were holding their own against Saquon Barkley and the Eagles, tied at 17 late in the third quarter before the Eagles scored the final 20 points.

“Well, the thing I’m coming back to is I’m re-energized, getting ready to go for next year,” Taylor said. “So, you take two or three days for yourself but you got these new hires coming into the building that re-energize you and get you ready to roll. Watching the (playoff) games like you mentioned we didn’t need that (re-energizing). But you want to be those games, you want to be in those moments. And we know that we’re capable of doing that and we didn’t handle everything we could have the right way this season. We put ourselves in a hole early, finished the right way and so we got to continue and build on that momentum. And I’m really excited to do that.”

The Bengals believe they are not that far away. Zac Taylor believes that, for sure. He thinks a tweak of the message and scheme, along with four or five new pieces along the defensive front, a rejuvenated Logan Wilson and perhaps a new partner with Geno Stone on the back end could be just what the Bengals need to turn back the clock to 2022.

Key takeaways from Al Golden Monday in first full session with media as Bengals DC:

There is little room gray areas for interpreting defensive calls “I don’t live in that gray world.”

Empower the players to make the right on-field adjustments. “For us to be a championship defense, we’re going to have to be empowered.”

Players have to be capable of making specific adjustment on field. “At some point, you have to turn the keys over to the players.”

“Disrupting the football” will be a focal point of defense. “Ultimately, we’re going to plot a course on how we want to tackle and how we want to disrupt the football.”

Zac Taylor says he knew Golden could walk into Paycor and “hit the ground running” with defensive plan and installs for 2025.

Wants more leaders “on every position on defense”

Golden says he wants players that “really have their house in order” after coaching a “really smart team” at ND.

Some other observations from Golden on Monday:

The translatable things from college defense at Notre Dame to the NFL:

“I think it’s closer now than it was a decade ago for sure. Certainly with the RPO and just watching yesterday with the quarterback run game, the read zone series or just the designed quarterback runs. So I think there’s a lot of carryover there. I was blessed to be around guys that had their house in order. They just wanted to learn ball. Really smart team, really high FBI, football intelligence. That kind of background allowed us to push them and coach them in a way that was very much similar to what we experience here or in Detroit when I was there. I think that’s really important because the biggest thing for us is it’s not so much we’re gonna do x, y and z. It’s the belief system that everybody involved believes the same thing. The secondary believes the same thing as the linebackers. The linebackers believe the same thing as the D line. And when you get that unit strength and you’re bound by certain fundamentals or techniques or concepts, great things can happen. Obviously that’s what we want to do here.”

The new defensive coaches – DL coach Jerry Montgomery and LB coach Mike Hodges – will have an immediate impact:

“Talented. I would say they’re very, very talented. Starting with Jerry on the D line, I was in the NFC North coaching offense while he was on defense. To stay nine years with one position speaks volumes to me. That you transcend head coaches or coordinators says a lot about who he is and the type of coach that he is. So I’m excited about him. Obviously I’ve worked with Jordan. Jordan was like my right-hand man when I was here last time and just watched him grow over the last couple of years. I had a chance to spend some time with (Burks) last Thursday in the building, and he grabbed the pen and we just sat there for like two hours covering so many different things, which was awesome. And then coach Hodges obviously comes well recommended. I had a chance to visit with him just recently. Same thing, six years in one place says a lot about him. I’m excited about those guys and getting together here on Monday and starting to plot a course.”

Assuming he is back in Stripes, Trey Hendrickson will be on board 100 percent and a huge piece of the puzzle again:

“I’ve already reached out to Trey. I had so much respect and a great relationship when I was here last time and just watching him evolve as a pass rusher. Again, our job is going to continue to put him in positions, number one, earn the right to rusher the passer, right? Get in more passing downs and get him opportunities and get him the matchup that we need to. Make no mistake. When you have somebody like that, it’s job No. 1 to put them in position to continue to do that or surpass that.”

The Golden File:

Golden, 55, previously served as the Bengals’ linebackers coach from 2020-21, before spending the past three seasons (’22-24) as defensive coordinator at the University of Notre Dame. He also held the title of linebackers coach for the Fighting Irish from 2022-23.

Under Golden in 2024, Notre Dame’s defense ranked second in the nation in points allowed (14.3 per game), fifth in INTs (19) and ninth in total yards allowed (298.3 per game). The unit held 12 opponents to 17 or fewer points, helping the Fighting Irish to a 14-2 overall record and an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

From 2022-23, Golden coached six players that went on to be selected in the NFL Draft. His defense in 2023 ranked fourth nationally in red zone TD percentage (70.6) and fourth in passing yards allowed (154.2).

In 2021, his most recent season on Cincinnati’s coaching staff, Golden worked with a defense that ranked fifth in the NFL in rushing yards allowed (102.5). He helped the Bengals win the AFC Championship and advance to Super Bowl LVI, with the defense totaling nine takeaways in the postseason.

Golden first broke into NFL coaching with the Detroit Lions, where he served as tight ends coach from 2016-17 and linebackers coach from ’18-19.

Prior to his stint with the Lions, Golden was a head coach at the college level for 10 years, spending the 2006-10 seasons at Temple University and ’11-15 at the University of Miami (Fla.). He began his coaching career in 1993 as offensive coordinator at Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, N.J., then later was a graduate assistant at the University of Virginia (’94-96), linebackers coach at Boston College (’97-99) and Penn State (2000), and defensive coordinator at Virginia (’01-05).

A native of Colts Neck, N.J., Golden played tight end at Penn State from 1988-91, then spent the 1992 season with the New England Patriots (no games played). He earned a bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Penn State in 1991, and a master’s degree in sports psychology from Virginia in 1996.