Bungles fire Anarumo
 

Fired 3 times in a day.

Probably one he'd like to forget.

Just dumb, but thanks Bengals!

He just keeps getting fired

What's funny is, he was one of the few d-coordinators that could in fact give Pat some issues.

That will fix everything!

Yeah, I would have been a little disappointed if they fired Taylor. He seems to be a net negative based on his in-game decisions. Anarumo, on the other hand, always seemed to be a pain in our asses. Glad he's gone.

Now they will go to the Super Bowl!!

Go to the NFC, dirtbag!

Reminds me of Shanna Rat firing Wilks to cover his own ass

100%. For whatever reason his defense were the only ones that consistently gave Pat issues. Glad he's gone. LOL

A change made only to Save Taylor’s job for at least one more season.

I think Anarumo is a great DC. Even great DC's can't do much with a crap roster.

Benefits us. Scape goat move that will backfire when the Chiefs are scoring 35 on them every future game.

Couldn't agree more.

Hope he doesn’t end up with another AFC team.

Good job, Bengals. You just fired the coach most responsible for your one Super Bowl appearance this century.

Good. He knew how to scheme against the Chiefs, and nobody else.

Please go to the NFC.

Saleh
Lou
Merritt
Vrabel when he doesn’t get a HC job

Some really good defensive coordinator candidates available this cycle

Pretty good at slowing down Josh Allen too. Buffalo scored 10 and 18 in their last 2 games against Cincinnati. Additionally, I bet Lou has a better idea than any DC of how to mess with Burrow & Chase after watching them in practice for years.

Well...in one move, the narrative that the Bengals and Chiefs are rivals is dead.

Didn't the Bengals let a lot of their defensive talent walk last off-season...like both their safeties? Now the defense sucks and they blame the DC?

Works for me...

I wouldn't say that his were the only ones. Vance Joseph's defense has been pretty good against Mahomes in Denver and Vic Fangio was the first to really consistently give him problems. But Anuromo has probably been the worst. I sure hope that he doesn't wind up coaching for an AFC contender.

Sadly he will go to the AFC, there are too many NFC teams that don't give a shit about winning.

Talk about a scapegoat, this seems like a really bad decision on their part.

Considering the franchise we're talking about, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Looking forward to watching Tee walk and Chase hold out after they tag him and refuse to pay him. :)

When Spags was forced to play Sorenson in coverage it did not look pretty.

Unless Spags get a HC job.


Then I hope we hire him as DC.

I'm hoping Buffalo or Baltimore doesn't get him.

Such a stupid move, its been proven time and again that brilliant coordinators on both sides of the ball, are nothing without the talent to bring their schemes to life

I hope he ends up with Ben Johnson in Chicago

Baltimore just elevated a young guy that is running last year's defense.


Buffalo is run by Mcdermott who would not want someone of Anarumo's stature on his side of the ball.


I would call him as a consultant NOW for the playoff run.


Why not?

I would love to get him in the building. If nothing else, Andy & Patrick could pick his brain to find out what he has been doing to slow them down through the years. And hopefully Spags could pick up something from him to use against Josh Allen, who only scored 10 points and 18 points on Anarumo in their 2 recent games.

Man, bring him in as a defensive consultant or something.

Imagine him and Spags working on shit for Allen or Lamar in the AFC Championship...


Would be crazy.

Did seem like there were plenty of other teams that didn't really struggle with him much...

Never quite understood why he gave us the headaches he did. I think it was probably personnel more than Anarumo. Hendrickson always wrecked us. Bates played well until they let him go. Reader was an ANIMAL against us.

I dunno - I never felt like he deserved the credit he got. He didn't do anything unique (i.e. that Chargers asshole that screwed us up for about 6 weeks by playing to PM's tendency to roll out and then everyone copied the plan).

I just think he had players that presented matchup issues for us and PM played one of the most inexplicably bad halves of his career once in a playoff game against him.

Cullen will get interviews again I'd guess as well.

Might be the year we finally lose some coaches. Maybe not coordinators, but we aren't going to be able to hold onto all these accomplished coaches much longer.

That 2nd half AFC Championship where Mahomes played poorly was one of the best called defenses I have seen.

Anarumo had found every play that had given that version of the Chiefs problems and held it until that half where he unloaded everything on us and it worked.


Still, as bad as that went for KC, Mahomes did manage to get the team to a FG to bring the game to OT.

I still think Mahomes takes us to the SB if Tyreek didn't pop that ball up in OT for an INT.

The other reason why that Bengals D caused so many problems for us was the personnel matchups.

They would just straight up beat the crap out of whoever was in front of them and that muddied the pocket for Mahomes without forcing them to send extra guys, allowing Lou to have more guys in coverage.


It's interesting that KC started adding Bengals DL style players like Karlaftis and Omenihu.

Who’s the Bungles?

given the smoke so far i’d be surprised if vrabel doesnt get a HC gig. looking like he could be the guy in NE

A bunch of losers who couldn't make the playoffs.

It wasn't just one game though.

2021 regular season - Chiefs torched them in first half, barely did anything in 2nd half. Lou deserves credit for slowing them down in that 2nd half.

2021 Playoffs - Chiefs torched them in first half, barely did anything in 2nd half. Lou deserves credit for slowing them down in that 2nd half.

2022 regular season - Chiefs actually performed much better in this 2nd half than the first two games. But the Kelce fumble was HUGE. Basically a 10-14 point shift for the Bengals. I give Anarumo credit for coaching his guys to strip the ball. I swear the Bengals have had more lucky turnover BS than any team over the last 4 years, and I give DC Lou a ton of credit for coaching the players to force those turnovers.

2022 Playoffs - Chiefs only scored 23 points in this game. It was a major struggle. They only won because Spags was able to hold the Bengals to 20 points.

2023 regular season - Wasn't the prettiest game for Chiefs offense, but they scratched out a victory. Only 25 points scored here.

2024 regular season - UGLY game for Chiefs offense. Only scored 20 points on offense. Won the game 26-25 because of Joe Burrow's Fumble TD play.

The Bengals even had a 2022 game against Tom Brady where Tampa was up 17-0 and suddenly the Bengals forced turnovers on like 5-6 possessions in a row. Ridiculous shit against the GOAT. It's not like Tom Brady is known for having bad luck on turnovers (exact opposite...ahem Tuck Rule & Dee Ford), but somehow the Bengals managed to create an avalanche of turnovers on a Brady team.

Bengals also had the 98 yard fumble return TD to beat the Ravens in a Playoff game. 14-point swing on that play in a tie game. Now let's also throw in that DC Lou managed to hold Josh Allen to 10 points and 18 points in games played during 2023. That's ridiculous stuff right there considering how explosive Buffalo's offense usually is.

Have we signed this piece of s*** yet?

Were I a godforsaken Bengals fan, I’d be demorilized.

Nah. I'm booking a vaca to Belize w/my girlfriend.

Wanna see a pic of her elbow?

Is she wearing dish washing gloves for her work outfit?

I laughed way too hard at this. rep.:LOL:

Another stupid FO move to please a shitty owner!

Works for me! 👍

Historically, Vrabel seems a perfect fit for Chicago, but I'm sure they are desperate to change their franchise narrative and go Offensive Guru. Ben Johnson.

Did they fire him because we sat all of our key players in week 18?

would like to hear rfaulk's take on this. What's the feels from home?

Horrible owner and front office... couldn't be more clear.

And yet Taylor remains, I like this move.

From another thread.

I'm sure the Bengals will hire some Joseph/Fangio disciple to shut down Mahomes, right in time for NFL offenses to adjust again.

They're always 1 step behind.

I hope he goes to the Jets or Phins and makes Josh work for his division titles.

Dennis Allen was on Zac's short list the first go round. Golden and Eberflus are probably up there too, unless Zac decides to go 'young and hungry' with guys like Jim Leonhard or Aubrey Pleasant.

Right now, if i had to guess...i wouldn't have the first clue who he's seriously looking at.

I’m not rooting for Spags to leave at all. Love him as our DC.

If he did take one of these jobs, it would be hilarious if we hired Lou and beat the Bengals in the AFCCG next year.

No one knows Burrow better ROFL

Interestingly, there are some real parallels between Spags and Lou. At least Spags at the time we hired him.

Spags defensive rankings just weren't ever very good. And much of his reputation came from being a "Brady Killer" in his time as a DC.

I didn't like the Spags hire because at the time it was made, he had a couple of trophies that Lou doesn't have but he otherwise had a reputation that seemed greater than the defenses he put out there. And it did seem that the only time he had a premier defense was when he had EXACTLY the right pieces.

Lou seems pretty similar in that regard. His one great defense had some really ideal players for it. And most of his reputation stems from giving Mahomes a hard time in a few critical games.

I think what Spags has taught me is that if you can find a DC who does one thing extremely well, you're in good shape (for Spags, that's getting performance and production out of defensive backs. His DBs were always better than it seemed like they should be). And if they have some fallback assets (Spags blitz schemes, for instance) that's what may put them over the top.

It's like valuing traits over resume when you're looking at a prospect, I guess. Spags had some really interesting traits that I overlooked because I didn't like his resume.

Time will tell if Anarumo's career unfolds similarly.

What Anarumo and Spags have in common is the ability to craft unique defenses week to week in big playoff games.


If Spags left Anarumo would be the first guy to call.

Yeah it's almost like the rest of the league knew you have to run him out of his 8 man coverages.

Weird.

ARE YOU SERIOUSLY SHITTING ON ANDY REID OVER A COACH HE'S BEATEN THREE TIMES IN A ROW?

The Bengals rush defense was firmly mid-pack with a better YPC that most of the teams around them.

They weren't selling out to stop the pass by any means.

And the idea that Lou Anarumo is out there setting trends by using Drop 8 coverages is...odd. Everyone is using drop 8, especially on 3rd downs.

The issue against Cincy was a really simple one -- Kingsley sucked. Hendrickson face-raped us.

There was no secret sauce beyond that.

The secret sauce has always been, simply, get pressure on the QB. That's what i hated about '22. Mahomes injured in the game before, Lou should have been blitzing his ass off early to test it.

Nothing...unitl later in the game when it was absolutely necessary.

You’re weird dude

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Colts are hiring former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo as their defensive coordinator, per sources.</p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1881442289421341051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Brain Leftwich would be a great minority hire for the Bungals