T.J. Houshmandzadeh says blame for Bengals struggles will fall on 1 person
In a way, former Cincinnati Bengals wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh is just like fans.
Houshmandzadeh is, in a word, disgusted with what he sees from the Bengals so far on the offensive side of the football.
And while the blame falls on a lot of different pieces, such as Joe Burrow’s injured calf, Houshmandzadeh said during his spot on “Airing It Out” on Fubo Sports that just one man will take the full brunt of the blame if things keep going in this manner.
“If heads start to roll, it’s going to be Zac Taylor. Because Joe is going nowhere,” Houshmandzadeh said. “Joe will play with the Bengals until he retires. They’re not letting Joe go play for another team. Zac needs to figure out where is the disconnect and say, ‘Why aren’t we moving the ball? The Bengals should be much better and Zac Taylor, ultimately, if it continues down this path, will take the lion’s share of the blame. There’s just no other way around it. So he needs to figure this out sooner than later because they went into the season not with aspirations of winning the division… And right now they aren’t even going to get into the playoffs.”
It’s easy to think Taylor is bulletproof in Cincinnati after turning the program around and finding the success he has over the last few years.
But that might not be the case if say, all indications are Burrow gets back to 100 percent health and things don’t change.
Realistically, it is safe to presume things get better alongside Burrow’s calf, which will save the day in terms of jobs regardless of what the final record looks like. But proper coaching adjustments that produce results regardless of the calf will go a long way in deciding — over the next few weeks — whether this is a playoff season or we need to start talking about the 2024 draft.
