Never in the first 49 years of the franchise had the Cincinnati Bengals fired a coordinator midseason. Now they've done it in two straight.
The latest came Monday morning when the Bengals relieved defensive coordinator Teryl Austin of his duties only nine games into his tenure.
Last year the Bengals fired coordinator Ken Zampese after two games.
Austin, 53, joined the Bengals after spending the previous four seasons as the Detroit Lions defensive coordinator under head coach Jim Caldwell. He interviewed for the Lions' head coach job after Caldwell was fired, but Detroit hired Matt Patricia.
The Bengals became the first team in the Super Bowl Era to give up 500 yards in three straight games on Sunday and are on pace to give up the most yards in NFL history.
They didn't stop the Saints on Sunday from scoring on any of their nine possessions before taking a knee in field goal range to end the game in the 51-14 loss.
"It’s frustrating, man, I just hate losing," Shawn Williams vented after the game."I hate losing the way we are losing giving up 500 f------ yards every week. We got to figure out what we got to do to fix it."
When asked if he still believes in what's being called by the coordinator, Michael Johnson merely said, "everybody has to do their jobs better. It's a team."
This wasn't a locker room unleashing on its coordinator like we saw last year when Zampese was let go. This was about numbers. Ugly, ugly numbers.
They are on pace to break the all-time record for yards set in a season set by the 2012 Saints by almost 200 yards. They are allowing an average of 454 yards per game.
The Bengals are on pace to allow 512 points this season. The franchise record for most allowed in a season was set in 1999 at 460.
