Former Cincinnati Bengals cornerstone tackle Andrew Whitworth has expressed his frustration with the team's recent loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Whitworth was frustrated by costly special teams mistakes that took the ball out of star quarterback Joe Burrow's hands.
Special teams played a big role in the Bengals' loss last week to the Steelers. The Bengals made two major blunders in the game. One was wide receiver Ke'Shawn Williams muffing a punt in the 4th quarter. Okay, mistakes happen; part of football is being able to bounce back when things don't go your way. The second error felt more like a self-inflicted wound. With the Bengals leading 20-17 and 6:48 left in the 3rd quarter, the Bengals defense finally got a stop and forced the Steelers to punt. What followed was certainly a head-scratcher.
Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons confirmed that they intentionally attempted to block the punt, saying, "Yeah, we were rushing him; we're coming after him. We're trying to block the punt."
Whitworth called out these frustrations on a recent episode of the Fitz & Whit podcast, saying, "Just get the ball back to Burrow and get off the grass." It's hard to argue with Whit's logic in a game that Burrow would finish 28/37, 282 yards, and 3 touchdown passes.
Whitworth isn't just calling out the team like another ordinary fan. He spent 16 seasons at left tackle between the Bengals and the Rams , winning many awards . A 4-time Pro Bowler, 2-time First-Team All-Pro, Super Bowl champion, and Walter Payton Man of the Year winner in 2021, he is a decorated and beloved player. He has also been vocal in support of the Bengals this season, naming them as Super Bowl contenders. On the Fitz & Whit podcast, he said in response to the Steelers game , "We had the game. I'm up here riding the Super Bowl train, and we're spotting teams 10 points. Dad-gummit!"
This is an interesting situation where you have two very respected Bengals seeing the game a different way. We've already established that Whitworth was a franchise icon for the Bengals, but special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons is no slouch either. He has been with the Bengals for a staggering 24 seasons, and the team's website calls him the leader of the special teams unit throughout his Bengals career. Head coach Zac Taylor has consistently praised Simmons as a coordinator, including a 2019 report from Geoff Hobson where he called him "one of the best special teams coordinators in this league."
As outsiders, we can't know everything that went into the game plan, everything the team studied or identified during the week on film. We can speculate and look back on the games with hindsight, but those minute-to-minute decisions during a game are ultimately left up to the coaches, and they must live with the results.
I think ultimately, both Whit and Simmons have defensible arguments in this situation. Fans can certainly appreciate Whit's frustration and question the decision-making on the attempted punt block. It's also defensible for Simmons to say that the play call was sound and the execution was lacking, which he alluded to when he said, "Ced got too close to him. I think it's a situation for Ced where the only way that you can get situations like that is to be live in a game." It's important to note that Simmons was not hypercritical of Johnson, later stressing the difficulty of making snap decisions like that in a game. In the end, the result is the same, and the 2-1 Bengals will look to clean up their special teams mistakes in a pivotal home matchup with Jacksonville.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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