While the Cincinnati Bengals offense may have once again looked superb against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the defense was again far below par. While the offense racked up 373 yards of total offense, Carolina actually outpaced them with 375 yards of total offense including a monstrous 104-yard effort from running back Chubba Hubbard. If anything has become clear so far this season, its that this is not going to be a team that can compete without explosive performances from the offense.
Cincinnati Bengals Defender Benched in Poor Performance
One of the biggest surprises to come out of the deplorable defensive performance was the extreme decline of starting cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt. Two weeks after his spectacular interception in Kansas City, Taylor-Britt put in an atrocious performance that almost singlehandedly allowed Carolina to march down the field in the first quarter. In that first quarter, Taylor-Britt was targeted six times and allowed five completions for 84 yards and a touchdown. While those numbers don’t sound great, the performance was actually far worse.
On virtually every play he was in, Taylor-Britt gave a massive cushion to the wide receiver including a play where Panthers receiver Diontae Johnson practically walked into the endzone after a 21-yard touchdown grab. The performance was actually so bad that defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo pulled him from the starting lineup after the first series of the game. After the game, Anarumo brushed off the decision and said that there will be no adjustment to next weeks depth chart.
“Cam will bounce back,” Anarumo said. “I have all the faith in Cam. He’s gave me a big hug right after the game, and (said) that’ll never happen again. I do trust him. He’s played too much good football here for us. But again, where we’re at, we can’t allow anything to slip. I didn’t bench him. He played the rest of the game. (He) just rotated.”
Anarumo was replaced with second-year cornerback D.J. Turner after the first series and Turner did the most with his increased workload. Given the lack of depth at the cornerback position, it may have been a blessing in disguise for Turner to prove that he was capable of taking on a higher snap count down the line if injuries were to play a factor later in the season.
While he is usually a solid player, Taylor-Britt almost certainly suffered the worst game of his young career so far. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the worst defense player this week after his poor coverage effort earned him an abysmal overall score of 28.2 for the game. While this is hopefully a fluke, the regression of one of the best players on this defense could be another poor sign for this unit as the season moves on.
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