There was a time when Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo openly detested rotations in his secondary. Didn’t want them. With a mix of consistency, communication and stability executing his scheme in the defensive backfield, change was often the enemy.
These days for Anarumo’s struggling defense, rotations are all he’s got.
He’s currently working some form of rotation at four of the five secondary spots, as well as edge rusher in the never-ending search for pressure opposite Trey Hendrickson.
Instead of rotating his players, it feels more like Anarumo is begging them.
“Ultimately, you’d like to just see somebody settle in and say, ‘This is mine,’” Anarumo said. “But again, I’ll say the word. It gets boring, but it’s just consistent. I just want to see consistency, play in, play out. And until we get that, we’ll continue to rotate.”
The rotations have become so convoluted that when the Bengals brought four-time Pro Bowler Xavien Howard in for a visit Monday, the fair question wasn’t if he would play should Cincinnati sign him, but rather, who would he replace? Would it be the struggling Cam Taylor-Britt or the struggling DJ Turner?
And then Howard left town without agreeing to a deal. Why would a team with the cornerback needs the Bengals have had since draft weekend wait until now to bring in Howard? Why would they be unable to reach a deal with him?
The answers are baked in the same stench. Everything surrounding this defense smells of desperation and exasperation.
Let’s start with Taylor-Britt, really the poster child of all that has gone wrong on this side of the ball. He entered the season with potential and hype to become the next great cornerback. The foundation all made sense. He entered his third season with two ascending, solid years under his belt. The path cleared to take over the top-corner gig. He went out against Kansas City and hauled in one of the best interceptions you’ll ever see. From that point forward, he’s become a liability Anarumo pulled and rotated during multiple games this season, including each of the last two weeks.
Pro Football Focus credited Taylor-Britt for allowing seven receptions on eight targets for 116 yards and three touchdowns for a perfect passer rating in that span. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson took a deep shot at Taylor-Britt on the first play of the game — just as Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew did five days prior — and never stopped.
When asked if he views Taylor-Britt as a liability, Anarumo toed the line between politically correct and over it.
“I hate to say that about any of our guys,” Anarumo said. “Certainly, those stats aren’t what you want. If we just tackle the guy on a 5-yard out — they tempoed us and he should have gotten up there and pressed him and it doesn’t even happen but we didn’t. We are never going to give up on a guy like that. He’s got the great want-to and he’s doing everything he can. But we’ve got to do it better, that’s for sure.”
In the meantime, fifth-round pick Josh Newton is the latest corner to receive a shot to become a part of the solution instead of another problem. The rookie played 13 snaps against Las Vegas and added another 19 against the Ravens. Anarumo suggested more of the same should be expected against the Chargers on Sunday.
“Josh has been a hard worker,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “I like his energy. I like his approach as a young player, so we’ll just continue to work with him and see how it plays out.”
Meanwhile, despite a search for answers in the secondary, Mike Hilton has been consistently supplying those plays. Hilton has the lowest missed-tackle rate (7.5 percent) and leads the secondary in stops (tackles for offensive failure) among the 17 players with at least 150 defensive snaps this year.
Yet, on third down, Anarumo opted to take Hilton off the field a little over half the time.
Why do that when he’s making a lot of plays?
“He is, on first and second down, sure is,” Anarumo said.
Hilton rotated in to play some safety on third downs last year and his overall snap percentage for the season was 80 percent. It’s down to 67 percent this year, largely because Anarumo hasn’t opted to move the 30-year-old to the safety spot again.
Third/fourth-down DB snaps last five games
• DJ Turner: 77
• Cam Taylor-Britt: 76
• Geno Stone: 76
• Vonn Bell: 58
• Mike Hilton: 43
• Josh Newton: 26
• Jordan Battle: 25
• DJ Ivey: 18
“It’s more of a matchup deal,” Anarumo said. “If we can get guys where we can match up on somebody who gives us our best chance from a coverage standpoint, then we will do it, but he’s out there on a lot of third downs, too … it’s just different packages. It’s not one thing or another, it’s maybe a man thing here or there but he’s out there in some man situations, too.”
Anarumo indicated the safety position feels more settled, largely resulting from Battle finally contributing in place of Bell. Anarumo cited his “young legs” being an advantage as Bell, who turns 30 next month, spends more time watching on the sideline.
Battle lived most of this season in Anarumo’s doghouse, but appears to be digging his way out.
“He’s headed in the right direction,” Taylor said.
Even with certain players headed in the right direction, everyone heading in so many directions can be nauseating. Almost as nauseating as watching the defense go from 7 points allowed through the first seven Ravens drives last Thursday, then watching them rip off four touchdowns in four straight drives to close out the 35-34 win.
Anarumo continues to throw bodies at the problem to see if any solutions surface. So far, they’ve more often than not gone belly up. Specifically, in the most high-leverage situations.
The Bengals over the last six weeks rank 31st in red zone percentage (80 percent) and 29th in third-down conversion percentage.
Combine the two? You’ve reached the 32nd-ranked, high-pressure core of the Bengals hurricane.
Since Week 5, they have faced 12 red zone third-down plays.
The results were five touchdowns, five conversions, one touchdown nullified by offensive holding and one stop.
You know what happened after the one stop? A fourth-down touchdown run by Nick Chubb.
“The third-down red zone plays have really been killers,” Anarumo said. “It starts with the red zone. It’s something we’ve done pretty well around here and we’re not right now. So we’ve honed in on some of those things. Third down. We have to do better there.”
The last red zone stop without penalty assistance was a goal-line stand against Carolina in September.
In high-leverage situations, the Bengals lose. So goes the season.
Anarumo will keep grasping at answers hoping something changes to try to save it.
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(Top photo: Sam Greene / Imagn Images)
