Poor play due to poor coaching, defensive coordinator says

Bengals safety Dexter Jackson, right, can't believe what he sees on the scoreboard during Cincinnati's 51-45 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Marvin Lewis has had his chances to explain, and has mostly taken a pass.  Players have had their shot at describing what went wrong.  Yesterday, the man at the center of the storm stepped up to the plate. Chuck Bresnahan didn't leave the bat on his shoulder.

The Bengals defensive coordinator accepted responsibility for his unit's collapse in a 51-45 loss Sunday to the Cleveland Browns. He vowed improvement Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

"I didn't have them ready to play," he said. "For some reason, we blew very simple adjustments that we did the entire offseason. There was nothing special in this game plan. To not execute, I take that personally because I really believe the way you play is a direct reflection of the way you're coached. We'll have them ready to play (Sunday)."

Unlike Lewis, Bresnahan went into detail about what went wrong on some of the most egregious breakdowns. On Jamal Lewis' 66-yard touchdown run, Bresnahan said cornerback Leon Hall turned outside instead of inside as he rushed in on run support, which left a gaping hole.

"To give up a 66-yard run on a wrap lead that we've seen 300 times in the offseason, there's no excuse for it," Bresnahan said.

On a 17-yard touchdown reception by Braylon Edwards, cornerback Johnathan Joseph was supposed to maintain inside leverage. He didn't, allowing Edwards to cut inside for the easy catch and score.

Edwards later was open for a 37-yard touchdown catch. Both Hall and safety Madieu Williams were at fault, Bresnahan said. Hall was supposed to drop farther back because there was no other receiver in the area. Williams was supposed to be in the middle of the field.

"We don't do either one," Bresnahan said. "It looks like they've got no clue what they're doing."

That falls on him, he said.

"When you see a game like that, you better get yourself right," Bresnahan said. "That's from coaches right on down. Make sure you know what you're doing and carry it with confidence so the guy next to you trusts that you're going to do it right. Because as soon as you start compensating for somebody else, it opens up another lane."

The defense drew praise for its six-turnover performance against Baltimore. Sunday's disaster caused the long-standing criticisms of Cincinnati's defense to resurface.

"Until we play with a level of consistency on this defensive unit, we're going to continue to be very, very average," Bresnahan said. "And they know that. I'm not saying anything I haven't said to them."

He said he was particularly frustrated by a 12-play sequence rife with mental errors in two second-half possessions that allowed the Browns to extend their lead.

"There's no excuse for it," he said. "You want to tell them (what they're doing wrong) in the game, and you do tell them in the game. But it's one of those things where you can't believe what you just did. To me, is it close to being corrected? It's very easily correctable. But until we do it with consistency, we've got problems."

Bresnahan does not foresee personnel changes, at least not right away. With middle linebacker Ahmad Brooks likely to miss the Seattle game because of a groin pull, Caleb Miller again will fill in despite playing poorly against the Browns.

"The first game wasn't perfect," Bresnahan said. "But because of the energy and the turnovers, we turned potentially bad situations into good situations. You have to do that every week.

"We're not panicking one bit. We're going to step up and get ourselves back to where we walk with a swagger and play with some confidence and do the things that we know we can do."

Columbus Dispatch

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