Vontaze Burfict Admits He Needs To Change Playing Style

Marvin Lewis has been the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals for 13 seasons, and despite moments of great success, he still hasn’t won a playoff game in his tenure. It looked as though that would change last month when they had all but defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs, but two late personal fouls on his defense put the visitors in field goal range for the win.

The most egregious foul was committed by linebacker Vontaze Burfict who threw a shoulder into a defenseless Antonio Brown after a pass from Ben Roethlisberger sailed over his head.

It’s possible but very unlikely that the Steelers would’ve been able to set up a Chris Boswell field goal without that penalty as well as the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Pacman Jones that followed. The Bengals players at fault accepted very little responsibility for what happened in the closing moments of the game, though Burfict spoke with ESPN’s Josina Anderson Monday saying that his game needs to change.

“I don’t like hitting low, but I have to change because it’s getting flags because I hit him high or hit him in the helmet, and it’s so hard to determine where to hit the offender because they’re gonna tuck their body, and you have to pretty much tuck with them,” Burfict said. “I tried to pull up at the last second, but it was obviously too late.”

I don’t think many people buy his claim that the contact was unintentional. He had more than enough time to pull up, but went straight for Brown’s head.

Regardless, Burfict will serve a three-game suspension at the beginning of the 2016 season. Only time will tell whether he’ll take anything valuable away from the experience, but one thing is for sure — he’s running out of second chances.