CINCINNATI - After falling 26-10 to the Indianapolis Colts in a woeful AFC Wild Card appearance on Sunday, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, yet to win a playoff game during his 12 year tenure, was asked if he would return to the helm next season.
"It's my plan," he said. "It's not about me. I'm talking about our football team, wherever our football team is. Obviously every year you create a new football team and that's part of it unfortunately. Tomorrow is not promised for anyone and so that's part of the life in the NFL and what these guys have in the finality of losing when you lose in the playoffs."
Cincinnati fell in their fourth straight postseason opener Sunday in Indianapolis, and Lewis became the second head coach in NFL history to lose his first six playoff appearances, the other being Jim Mora, who did not coach a seventh.
"I don't see why not," Bengals safety George Iloka said when asked if his coach should return. "He's been here since I've been here. He's done a good job. That loss ain't on him. That's on us. . . We were in the game in the fourth quarter. He ain't out there playing. Xs and Os are only going to take you so far, it's about the Joes out there."
It was a 13-10 contest to Indy's favor in the third quarter when Andrew Luck flung a 36 yard touchdown to Donte Moncrief as he was being tripped from behind on a blitz and a split second before falling face-first into the turf.
"It was the score there in the third quarter that you obviously don't want to give up," Lewis said sadly.
But give it up they did as the Bengals were held off the board over the latter thirty minutes, sending their long-time head coach into an unsure offseason.
"It's disappointing," he said when asked about his postseason record, "but I don't know any other way. Whenever the opportunity comes to build back up and get working and fight our way back through it."
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