It's quite apparent after the Cincinnati Bengals' 32-14 romp over the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving that defensive coordinator Al Golden can scheme up an excellent game plan at the NFL level.
Forgive us as a collective Who Dey Nation, Al, for thinking otherwise. It's just that your defense was the type of bad that goes down in the record books.
Perhaps the weirdest part of all this is Cincinnati's allergy to complementary football since the 2023 season kicked off. Seems like whenever the offense is on, the defense can't get a stop, and when the defense actually balls out, the offense stalls for some odd reason.
What's more frustrating than anything else, however, is the most painful truth about Golden's defense in the aftermath of Week 13's Baltimore blowout.
Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden waited too long to adjust conservative tactics
Big ups to FOX19's Charlie Goldsmith for the advanced data here, which underscores how long into the season it took for Al Golden to dial up more blitzes.
The blitz rate on the season from the Bengals' defense: 19.7%.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) November 28, 2025
The Bengals' blitz rate over the last four weeks: 22%, 24%, 28%, 26%.
The third down blitz rate on the season: 25%.
The third down blitz rate over the last four weeks: 27%, 20%, 30%, 37%.
Al Golden is starting…
The Bengals still rank in the bottom three in sacks with only 18 on the season. Trey Hendrickson's injury has a lot to do with that. We can also look to a defensive end rotation that, until the last few games or so, has produced very little in terms of pass rush.
Golden started getting more aggressive, instead of just deploying a lot of four-man rushes and letting opponents pick apart his zones in perpetuity. It all culminated in a Thanksgiving breakout performance in which the Bengals rendered two-time MVP Lamar Jackson rather useless en route to forcing five takeaways.
From what I saw earlier in the year on the all-22 film, Golden called a lot of Cover 3 and Cover 6 Invert. Maybe some simulated pressures off those looks, but nothing crazy. Nothing to really threaten opposing offensive lines in terms of confusing them and putting them off their assignments.
As Cincinnati kept losing games, I guess Golden felt like he had little else to lose. He started sending more rushers.
The results speak for themselves. Players like Joseph Ossai and Myles Murphy are starting to ball out. Probably because the Bengals are becoming less predictable as far as who they're rushing and where they're coming from.
I just don't understand why this wasn't done sooner. DJ Turner has shown all season that he's a beast of a lockdown cornerback. That's basically a whole side of the field taken care of.
PFF has charged DJ Turner with allowing just 22 yards in coverage over the last 3 games.
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) November 28, 2025
He averages just 26.5 yards allowed per game this season. pic.twitter.com/PqA4zn0TvG
With such lackluster personnel in the defensive trenches, how could Golden not have moved to this more attack-minded approach? I wonder if it was his own innate conservatism, or if the orders came from head coach Zac Taylor. Whatever the case, it's likely cost the Bengals a third straight year of no playoffs in the Joe Burrow era, which is unacceptable.
At least there's next season to look forward to — assuming this recent defensive surge isn't a fleeting illusion.
A little anecdote to close this thang out if raging anger is your thing. Speaks to Golden's inability to adjust and makes me think it was his doing to not send more blitzes sooner! Hello Al! Anyone home? Where's the sense of urgency!?
Bengals DC Al Golden met with S Geno Stone to discuss his tackling and how it could be better. It made a big impact.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) November 26, 2025
Stone: "Al sat me down last week and said I need to start closing space more. He was telling me when Jessie (Bates) first got here, that’s how Jessie was, too."