Bill Walsh and Greg Cook: What the Bengals could have been
Every team has their share of coulda, shoulda, wouldas. Cleveland fans have The Fumble and The Drive. Raider fans are left to wonder about the Immaculate Reception, the Tuck Rule and Bo. Buffalo fans, well, let’s not dredge up those memories again. Bengal fans have their own painful memories. Pete Johnson stuffed on 4th and 1 or Lewis Billups dropping an interception in the end zone at crucial points in separate Super Bowls, Carson Palmer lying in a heap in a 2005 playoff game and any number of failed top draft picks. The passing of offensive innovator and former Bengal assistant coach Bill Walsh may have reminded long time Cincinnati homers of possibly the biggest what could’ve been in franchise history.
Everyone knows the Bill Walsh story. Primary architect of one variation of the West Coast offense, three time Super Bowl winning head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and widely considered among the most innovative coaches of all time. Casual football fans may not know the rest of the story. Walsh got his start in the NFL as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders but made his name as an assistant offensive coach in Cincinnati after joining Paul Brown’s staff in 1968. Walsh brought the vertical passing game of another of the game’s offensive architects, Sid Gillman, to Cincinnati and soon had the perfect quarterback to run his playbook, Greg Cook.
Who the heck is Greg Cook you ask? As a rookie in 1969 in Walsh’s vertical offense, Cook rode his freakish combination of arm strength, touch and deep accuracy to an amazing 17.5 yards per completed pass. Put in perspective, Daunte Culpepper averaged 12.4 yards per completion in his historic 2004, Peyton Manning 13.6. Some of the best deep receiving threats in the league today fall short of that number. Unfortunately, Cook, the 1969 AFL Rookie of the Year blew out his shoulder in third game of the year. Although he finished the year, Cook was never the same and attempted only three more passes after the 1969 season — four seasons later.
In later interviews, Walsh still lamented what could have been with Cook. In fact, Walsh himself wonders if he would’ve created the West Coast offense if Cook had stayed healthy and fulfilled his promise. Paul Zimmerman asked Walsh how things would’ve been different if he had Cook for more than one season. Things would have been “completely different,” Walsh said. “It would’ve started off the deep strike and everything else would’ve played off that. It would’ve set records that would have never been broken.” This from the man who coached Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.
Unfortunately for Bengal fans, that’s only half the story.
Although Walsh’s version of the vertical offense could have been sick with Greg Cook and Isaac Curtis, the innovator found a way to modify his passing attack with short, precise passes and mulitple wide receiving options putting pressure on the defense with timing routes — what is now known as the West Coast offense but could rightly be called the Cincinnati offense. Walsh again found a near perfect fit for his new playbook in Ken Anderson, a smart, calm, precise passer. Walsh’s offense was clicking for the Bengals in the early 1970s. By the end of the 1975 season, Anderson was running the offense to perfection with a 60% plus completion rate and 8 yards plus per passing attempt. Curtis had been to three consecutive Pro Bowls and was a star. The Bengals had made the playoffs in 1973 and 1975. The future was ridiculously bright.
Then Bengal head coach and patriarch Paul Brown retired and handed the reins to long time offensive assistant Tiger Johnson instead of Walsh, who resigned in disappointment. The rest, as they say, is history. Walsh spent a season in San Diego as an assistant and coached Stanford for two seasons before taking the head coaching job in San Francisco where his offense flourished under Joe Montana. Johnson’s Bengal teams steadily declined and he was fired in 1978. Cincinnati made two Super Bowls in the 1980s, only to lose both to the franchise Bill Walsh built.
Rest in peace, Bill Walsh. This Bengal fan still longs for what could’ve been.
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[…] tribute to the recently departed Bill Walsh, Cincinnati Bengals fan Jene Bramel reflects on what might have been. Although Walsh’s version of the vertical offense could have […]
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