Marvin Lewis has taken the Cincinnati Bengals to the playoffs in each of the last five seasons. However, his career playoff victory total with the Bengals clocks in at a whopping zero.
As Lewis enters the last year of his contract, that goose egg is apparently weighing heavily on the mind of owner Mike Brown, according to a report from Jason Cole at Bleacher Report.
Lewis has been with the Bengals for 13 seasons, which is the longest active tenure among NFL coaches with their current teams. In addition to the recent five-year playoff streak, Lewis has totaled seven playoff appearances in his time in Cincinnati. The Bengals have only had a losing record in three seasons since Lewis arrived in 2003.
Still, the lack of playoff wins is a troubling statistic. It seemed the team was primed to break the streak this past postseason, but fate intervened. The Bengals lost starting quarterback Andy Dalton to an ill-timed season-ending broken thumb. Despite that, Cincinnati was still in position to beat the Steelers in the AFC Wild Card round before bonehead plays by Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones led to an improbable Pittsburgh comeback.
A failure to take home a playoff victory in 2016 could mean the end of Lewis’ time in Cincinnati. However, as Mike Florio points out, Brown needs to be sure he can find a superior replacement. In the 14 seasons before Lewis arrived, the Bengals finished last or second to last nine times.
Lewis said the team would “bury” that devastating playoff loss to Pittsburgh later this month. He needs to hope that does the trick because it sounds like a flop in 2016 will not be acceptable.
