'My Gosh, It Was Impressive' - Former Bengals Coach Gushes About Team's Defense to Start 2026 Season

Former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is very impressed with the Bengals' defensive performance in Week 1 as they try to parlay it into a 2-0 start on Sunday against the Texans.

He gushed about the four-turnover, four-sack outing on The Wingo Network.

"They played confident, man," Lewis said. "They stripped the football. They were going after it every play. And again, adding Boye Mafe from the Seahawks, Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook, who actually was a camper at the Marvin Lewis football camp and he reminded me of that when I was there. But then their second-round pick was also Cashius Howell. These dudes came through, man. The two young linebackers were not a liability on defense, and then the secondary played their tail off, and that's what they needed to have.

"And kudos to Duke Tobin because they get beat up on personnel all the time. Yeah, and him, Trey Brown, Stephen Radicevic, a little bird told me that Duke may have got a game ball. Now I guess it was his 200th victory for being in the building, but also for the additions they did on defense, and my gosh, it was impressive."

High Pressure

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle T.J. Slaton Jr. (98) runs off with a recovered fumble in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 1 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Lewis has been pretty supportive of the Bengals since taking on a larger media role this year and stepping back from the coaching spotlight.

Cincinnati created havoc all over in Week 1, sitting sixth in the NFL currently with an early 36.1% pressure rate. Warren Sharp also noted on X this week they are No. 1 havoc rate.

Speaking of coaching, Al Golden's system taking hold is a big reason for that.

"It was good. We played hard, we ran to the ball really well, we were relentless at times," Golden noted earlier this week. "A lot of little things we've got to clean up, both as a unit and in our collective positions and techniques. Great experience for a lot of guys. A lot of new faces. But we played hard and did what we had to do to win the game."

A great foundation to build on. Check out the full clip from Lewis below:

Marvin Lewis on how impressed he is with the Bengals defense … pic.twitter.com/hnP71XNPqO
— trey wingo (@wingoz) September 17, 2026

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