TAMPA, Fla. -- Yes, there were smarter decisions the Cincinnati Bengals could have made near the end of the third quarter Sunday, but Marvin Lewis' choice to go for an onside kick was respectable, nonetheless.
You read that correctly.
Respectable.
Just because it was a "respectable" decision doesn't mean it was the absolute right play for the Bengals to employ at that time. There were other quite viable and quite intelligent options, too, like kicking the ball as deep as possible like normal and forcing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to start around their own 20.
Still, the tactic made more sense than some of you reading this might give it credit for. (I can already hear the keyboards cranking up to craft rebuttals.)
Many of you who follow me on Twitter, for instance, took exception to the following tweet I tapped out just after the onside kick. Overwhelmingly, most who responded to it thought the move was illogical and one that smacked of desperation.
I get it. I seriously do. At a time when the Bengals just snatched a bit of momentum in a horrendously ugly game, why in the world would they be greedy and run the risk of giving the football right back up and putting it in the hands of an offense that had remarkably poor field position?
Because football is a game about risks.
Given the way the Bengals' defense had been playing, it wasn't far fetched to assume the unit would hold for a field goal if the Bengals didn't recover the onside kick. In the last three weeks, the Bengals' defense has given up just 29 points for an average of 9.7 per game. In the previous six games, overall the Bengals had allowed an average 29.7 points.
Clearly, they had reason to be confident in their defense.
They also were hopeful about establishing confidence in their desperate-for-a-pulse offense. With their quarterback fighting through an illness, the Bengals were looking for anything that might disrupt the Buccaneers' defensive rhythm, and give themselves life as they tried to ease through the game. Like all the gadget plays the Bengals employed, an onside kick had the potential to do that.
Sure, they had a little momentum and heightened offensive confidence after A.J. Green's 13-yard touchdown catch with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter, but they could have used even more. After all, they were playing a team (that's now 2-10) they should have rolled. At that moment, the rolling very easily could have commenced.
Had the onside kick been recovered, perhaps it would have.
In addition to the schematic risks associated with going for the sneak special teams play, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis also said after the game he went for the onside kick because he and other coaches had been seeing something in Tampa Bay's kick return setup that led them to believe they could exploit a return.
"It's not that we're just going to do it," Lewis said. "We're going to do it because of the look. Good credit to No. 45 [Bucs linebacker Orie Lemon] because he did a great job. He came from the backside and recovered the football."
After Tampa Bay's onside recovery, the Buccaneers pushed downfield a few more yards before settling for a 42-yard field goal. Those were the only second-half points Cincinnati's defense allowed.
It may not have been the smartest decision, but there are reasons why the onside kick call was still a respectable one.