Michael Lombardi: What if Mike Tomlin coached the Cincinnati Bengals?

As a kid, I loved baseball even more than football. Even more than playing baseball, I loved hanging out with my buddies, Michael Sannino and Danny Reynolds, playing Strat-O-Matic baseball. Strat-O-Matic is a card game with one red and two white dice. The red dice tells the player which card to examine. Numbers 1-3 meant the result was on the hitter’s card. Numbers 4-6 meant the result was on the pitcher’s card. Add the two white dice together, and you get the result. Bingo! The game comes to life. Strat-O-Matic made me fall in love with team building, the draft, the management of the game. It became the reason I chased a dream to be an NFL general manager. 

We played from eight in the morning until well past midnight.  We would only leave my family’s kitchen table to go to baseball practice or check out Linda Bosbyshell’s bikini on the beach. (Linda was our Wendy Peffercorn from Sandlot fame. She was the only distraction we allowed into our Strat-O-Matic life.) We played our favorite teams: Sannino loved the White Sox, Reynolds the Red Sox, and I loved the Yankees. We kept score and hitting records, Sannino being the note keeper, and when someone got hot, someone cold, and the insults flew off the wall. The number one insult always occurred when Sannino was on a run. He would tell Reynolds or myself he could manage our teams better.  He would scream loud enough to wake my parents, “I’ll let you manage my team, and I’ll manage your team and still win.”  So humiliating. 

 

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Since those days, Sannino’s analogy has always been in my head, causing me to ask his version of the question to some professional teams.  For example, what would happen if Mike Tomlin woke up in Cincinnati and coached the Bengals and Zak Taylor was in the Steel City and walked into the Steelers’ office? Think about that for a moment. You know, as well as I do, Cincinnati would be in first place and look completely different. This isn’t about the talent on the field but how a coach molds the talent. Tomlin isn’t coaching the most talented team in the NFL, yet he is getting them to function well on all three levels. He never turns down points and can win close games. In fact, his team relishes being in close games. The pressure never bothers them, as we saw last night when the Giants had a chance to come back. TJ Watt made plays to end their hopes. 

Two bad New York teams have traveled to Pittsburgh in the last two weeks. The Jets are 2-6, and the Giants are now 2-6. The Jets led their game 15-13 at halftime, and the Giants were tied at 9. Both teams fizzled in the second half as the Steelers took over the game.  

The Steelers are tough and resilient. They have taken on Tomlin’s personality. If Tomlin had switched sides at halftime, the outcome would have been different because he makes his team a carbon copy of himself. They are his clones, all of them, and if they don’t become clones, they don’t last in their culture. Meanwhile, the Bengals are Zac Taylor’s clone.  Easy going, friendly, the nice neighbor who hands out great candy at Halloween and never gets mad at people’s dog poop on his lawn. You want Taylor as your neighbor, not as the man who can lead the Bengals back to being a respectable team. 

The Cincinnati Bengals have no physical toughness. This isn’t a knock on their players. This criticism is directed at the coaching. The Bengals don’t demand being tough. They are so talented at the skill positions; they can overcome almost anything. They don’t have to dig in and get that tough yard. The game is always in Joe Burrow’s hand, and like what happened in the Baltimore game or last week vs. Philadelphia, something bad can happen. They are a 7-on-7 team—if blocking and tackling were excluded from the game. 

Yes, I know Taylor took this team to the Super Bowl. So did Raymond Berry, Jeff Fisher, Ron Rivera and Lovie Smith. Anyone can catch lightning in a bottle once. What has happened to the Bengals is their lack of physical play has eroded their defense. Now they are the worst combination of a team: one that cannot run the ball or stop the run. They run plays, but they don’t impose their will. And despite Burrow saying they can win ten games, there is zero evidence this team has the mental toughness or physical toughness to place a bet for them to reach the playoffs.  I’d rather bet on the Browns digging themselves out of this hole than wager on the Cincinnati Bengals. The Browns can play defense. They have mental toughness. They want to be physical. The Bengals don’t. 

The Eagles did whatever they wanted in the game. The longer the game, the fewer chances the Bengals had to win, and the clearer it became they are fundamentally flawed. They are too nice of a team—they lack a dog mentality.  But if Tomlin coached them, they would be in the running for the Super Bowl. 

Ask yourself the Tomlin question about your favorite team—you might not like the answer.

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