The tough numbers for Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor continue to roll in as his second season nears an end.
With this past weekend’s loss to Dallas, Taylor fell to 4-24-1 as a head coach. And with three games left, he’s yet to surpass last year’s win total of two.
Despite the adversity and a seat that should be warming up, Taylor remains adamant his guys are close to making the right players, as captured by Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“When you lose, it’s frustrating. It’s hard to get rid of this feeling that we feel at the end of every week. It’s frustrating, because we feel good about the position we’re about to put ourselves in (for the game). But it’s a myriad of reasons for why we lose. It 100 percent falls on me. It’s just frustrating. A lot of effort goes into this. Guys are pulling together, and it’s still a very close team. I think you can see that you see them out there playing. We just haven’t made the plays to put us in a position to win the game.”
Gil Brandt offered a sobering bit of context to Taylor’s struggles:
Coaches with the worst records over the last two years:
Zac Taylor 4-24-1 (.143)
Adam Gase 7-22 (.241)
Doug Marrone 7-22 (.241)
Matt Patricia 8-18-1 (.308)
Anthony Lynn 9-20 (.310)
Dan Quinn 7-14 (.333)
Vic Fangio 12-17 (.414)— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) December 14, 2020
While the Bengals are typically a patient organization, sometimes to a fault, no number of excuses can start to counteract the sheer brutal results in the win-loss column.
To make matters worse, this past weekend was a 30-7 blowout at the hands of a miserable Dallas team merely limping to the finish line. While the overwhelming buzz hasn’t suggested Taylor’s seat is overly hot, it’s hard to imagine the team can just ignore how things are finishing.
