Here are five things the Bengals need to fix in 2017:
Pass protection
The 41 sacks the Bengals allowed were the third most in the Marvin Lewis era and a big reason why the offense struggled to score points.
Third-down sacks are one thing, where they aren’t that much more damaging than an incompletion or play short of the yard to gain. Ultimately, they all lead to punts.
But 19 of the 41 sacks the Bengals allowed came on first down to completely derail drives.
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Not all sacks fall on the shoulders on the offensive line, but it owned the bulk of the blame in a 2016 season when quarterback Andy Dalton showed great improvement in feeling and escaping pressure and making plays on the run.
It’s hard to imagine a major reduction in sacks if the Bengals let tackle Andrew Whitworth walk in free agency and do into 2017 with Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher as the starting tackles.
Looking long
Other than pass protection, the most glaring absence from the offense was the deep ball.
Three of the Bengals five longest pass plays of the year came all the way back in the season opener. And the longest one completed – the 86-yarder in Week 16 at Houston – was a simple slant in which Brandon LaFell out-ran the defense.
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But it wasn’t just the lack of deep connections that hurt the offense. Once A.J. Green was lost to a hamstring injury in Week 9, the Bengals rarely even attempted any shots down the field, which had a direct effect on the run game as teams loaded up the box.
One of the few deep shots Dalton took over the final month of the season didn’t connect but still turned out to be a big play as Pittsburgh cornerback Artie Burns got called for pass interference on LaFell in the end zone, leading to a 1-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Hill.
LaFell had a solid bounce-back season and rookie Tyler Boyd was solid as a rookie, but the Bengals need to find another field-stretching receiver to expand the passing game in 2017.
Forced fumbles
Of all the things that went wrong and all the numbers that dipped in 2016, nothing is more stunning than the lack of fumble recoveries.
Not only did the Bengals finish tied with Cleveland and Chicago for the fewest fumble recoveries in the league with three, they set a franchise record. The previous Bengals record of six was first set in the 1982 strike season when the team only played nine games.
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And the fewest fumbles the Bengals recovered in a 14-game season was nine in 1972.
They only forced 12 fumbles, which was one shy of the franchise low set the year before in 2015.
Despite the lack of forced and recovered fumbles, the Bengals finished plus-3 in turnover margin thanks to a ball-secure offense. If the defense can find a way to get the ball out more in 2017, it should result in more points and, ultimately, wins.
Clutch kicks
Missed extra points and field goals directly cost the Bengals three wins, making the open competition at kicker one of the most important position battles to watch next year in training camp.
Randy Bullock only missed one kick after replacing Mike Nugent, but it was a makeable 43-yarder on the final play in Houston, resulting in a 12-10 loss.
Bullock is one of 11 kickers with at least 100 career field goal attempts who will be free agents, so there should be plenty of options for the Bengals to stage a strong kicking competition. They also are projected to get four compensatory picks, so a late-round flyer on a guy such as Alabama’s Adam Griffith could be a possibility as well.
Finishing fortitude
The lowest-scoring quarter for the Bengals offense was the fourth. The highest-scoring quarter for Bengals opponents was the fourth.
That’s an awful combination.
Equally as damning is the fact that 10 of the 15 turnovers the Bengals offense committed came in the fourth quarter or overtime.
The offense went six consecutive games without scoring a fourth-quarter touchdown before LaFell turned a short slant into an 86-yard score for a 10-6 lead with 10:45 left in Houston.
But it wasn’t just the offense that showed an inability to finish games. An illustration of that came 124 seconds after that LaFell touchdown as the defense let the Texans go 75 yards in four plays to reclaim the lead.
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The Bengals surrendered fourth-quarter points in 13 of 16 games. The Bengals won two of the three games when it shut out the opponent in the final 15 points.
Cincinnati outscored the opponent in the fourth just twice in 2016, 5-3 in a loss at Baltimore and 14-0 in a loss at Dallas.
If the Bengals want to win more games in 2017, they have to win the fourth quarter.
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