Why The Bengals Will Return To Form In 2017

Easy Zampese…Again

To say his first year at the reins was disappointing is an understatement. The Bengals new offensive coordinator came aboard with fresh ideas and tons of hype. I’ll admit, my chops were watering thinking about the points that would be put up. What happened? Cincinnati moved the ball with ease. But, when it came to putting points on the board, the offense went flat.

Some of the blame can be placed on the shoulders of former kicker Mike Nugent. But, the Bengals found themselves in too many 3rd-and-long situations in the red zone. Speaking of that area, Cincinnati scored 53 percent of the time. Sounds decent enough. But, when compared to the 2015 average of 65 percent, the struggle becomes clear.

Zampese has taken the blame and says things will be different. He says the Bengals didn’t score touchdowns at the rate they were accustomed to. Scoring points is the bottom line. Everything else is frosting.

"The only thing that is encouraging is when you score and you win,” Zampese explained per Bengals.com. “The other stuff is just fluff to the end goal. We didn’t perform as well as we could have or should have. We didn’t make enough plays to win the end of those games. Our red zone production was just not good enough to score enough touchdowns when we got in there. That showed up a lot.”"

The OC knows the problem. Consider it fixed. Zampese has dedicated his offseason to analyzing every play.