The buck isn’t being passed. When it comes to the Cincinnati Bengals’ underwhelming 2024 campaign, head coach Zac Taylor is publicly shouldering the blame. Despite entering the season with Super Bowl aspirations, the Bengals fell to 4-8 after their 44-38 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13 and they’re poised to miss the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

Zac Taylor, Lou Anarumo know they haven’t been good enough

“I’m not going to sit here and put this on the players. As the head coach, you sit there and you’re 4-8,” Taylor said Monday. “You’re a 4-8 head coach. And that starts with you. To get the most out of everybody, that’s my job.”

It’s good to see Taylor taking some accountability, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. Cincinnati’s defense has been poor all season, and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is also at fault. A fact that isn’t lost on him.

“Obviously all of this starts and ends with me,” Anarumo said. “How we play is certainly my responsibility. I think the players have done a fantastic job of preparing, practicing with energy, giving us their best. I’m proud of the way we’ve gone about that. We need to do a better job — I need to do a better job of making sure it shows up on Sundays.”

Again, while it’s nice that the coaches are taking accountability, this all just kind of sounds like lip service until actual changes and improvements are made. When it comes to Anarumo specifically, the Bengals really might need to move on from him after the season. The defense has been that bad this year. The unit has no redeeming qualities, and there’s been a concerning lack of development from many young players on that side of the ball.

The team could consider moving on from Taylor, too. But, that seems somewhat less likely than making a coordinator change. Taylor built up a lot of good will within the organization after leading the Bengals to back-to-back AFC Championships and a Super Bowl berth, and it remains to be seen if the team is ready to make a move of that magnitude.

Perhaps it will depend on how the rest of the season goes. The Bengals still have five regular season games remaining. Would a good close to the season be enough to save some jobs? We’ll just have to wait and see.