_Their overall No. 1 franchise quarterback sidelined for a large chunk of the season giving way to a young backup who had moved on from the team that drafted him kept the Bengals in games with his smarts. In '08, it was Ryan Fitzpatrick relieving Carson Palmer for 12 games. As the Rams left tackle Whitworth was also a teammate of Burrow reliever Brandon Allen, making his fifth start of the year.
"B's got a great attitude to him," Whitworth says. "He's a tough kid."
_With their left tackle (Whitworth-Jonah Williams) joining the quarterback on injured reserve, the defense also took hits all year.
The 2008 season ended with starting cornerback Johnathan Joseph, starting defensive end Robert Geathers, starting safety Dexter Jackson, starting linebacker Keith Rivers and rotational defensive end Frostee Rucker on injured reserve while their most expensive free agent in history, defensive end Antwan Odom, was limited to eight starts.
Fast forward to 2020 and their three defensive tackles on injured reserve, including their perennial Pro Bowler Geno Atkins and their most expensive free agent ever, nose tackle D.J. Reader. And starting cornerback Trae Waynes never got on the practice field.
"Defensively, we were still pretty stout," says Crocker of what was then and now. "We were playing our butts off. Even though our record wasn't very good, we were out there kicking butt. We were having a lot of fun on defense. That's the one thing I remember. That was the mentality. Forget the record, just go out and beat people."
With the '20 defense forcing four huge turnovers in the last two games and holding teams to 20 points or less four times in the last six games, sound familiar?
_And if that doesn't, what about the added burden of the '20 team playing without two-time 1,000-yard rusher Joe Mixon for the last ten games? How about in '08, when the Bengals didn't have a bell cow running back until Cedric Benson signed Sept. 30 and the running game didn't get warmed up until that December he ran for 100 yards in each of the last two games? The Bengals prep for the ravenous Ravens pass rush with running games of 152 and 169 yards, respectively.
"We had a lot guys come back that '09 season. Carson. J. Joe. All across the board, guys who were hurt," Crocker says. "When you looked at Cincinnati, they had a lot talent with those first-round picks and at some point it was going to show and we had that, from '09 to (2015) a run. We had to build it up, but once we got it going we got going.
"We had a lot of guys who played (in '08) that benefitted from that experience. Those guys ended up being very, very good backups. Very, very good role players. Going into '09 and '10 and after that, we had a lot of depth in those positions."
Whitworth, who has missed the last six games with a knee injury, won't play again Sunday. But he's hoping for a Rams' win so he can return for next week's Wild Card. Back in '08, he was the Bengals left guard who moved to left tackle when Levi Jones went down and then he went down himself for the last six games with an ankle injury.
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