The Cincinnati Bengals failed Joe Burrow this season. And now, one of the team’s coaches is paying the price.
Joe Burrow had an MVP-caliber season for the Cincinnati Bengals this year, leading the entire league in passing yards and passing touchdowns while ranking in the top five in the league in both quarterback rating and completion percentage.
Burrow also set an NFL record eight straight games of 250 yards and three touchdowns.
He was consistently one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but the Bengals defense consistently let him down.
The Bengals lost four games this season in games in which Burrow and the offense scored 30 or more points – by far the most of any team in the league.
While the Bengals offense set a franchise record with 472 points – the sixth most in the league – the defense allowed the fifth most in the league with 434.
The Bengals are one of seven teams to have more than 40 touchdown passes in a single season over the last decade and the other six each won at least one game in the playoffs. The Bengals did not even make the playoffs.
As a result of this wasted season from Burrow, the Bengals decided to part ways with defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo.
“I just felt like we needed a change,” Taylor said according to the team website. “I thought long and hard about it. Lou’s been doing this for six years here and the success that we’ve had he’s been a big reason why we’ve had a lot of the success. I don’t take this lightly; put a lot of thought into it. It’s not an easy day for any of us. I just felt like we need to perform better as a football team. It’s not in any specific one area. I think we’ve got to be better in all three phases of our team and these are the decisions I made today and we’ll work to be better.”
We’ll have to see who the team hires to replace him next season.
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