Getty Images

The Bengals got run off the field by the Bears in a 33-7 loss last Sunday, dropping them to 5-8 on the season and amplifying the voices calling for a change at head coach.

One of Marvin Lewis’ players doesn’t think this loss should fall on Lewis’ shoulders, however. Defensive end Carlos Dunlap said he’s heard the calls for Lewis’ head, but said that the blowout loss fell on players because they “didn’t go out there and execute the game plan.”

“Players messed up plays that we worked on, it’s not like they give us the look that week in practice,” Dunlap said, via ESPN.com. “We talked about it, slowed it down, made sure to break it down and answer any questions they had. We didn’t execute. That’s on the players. Coach is going to have his days, he’s going to have his moments where it might be his mistake, his problem, and he’s going to own up to it, as he has. As a player, I take that on.”

The issue for Lewis is that the problems go well beyond one terrible game against a Bears team that had three wins heading into Sunday. The Bengals were lifeless against the Bears and that’s something that has come up too often over the last couple of seasons to be written off as a momentary lapse or a reaction to a slew of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

After 15 years on the job, it feels much more like a case of Lewis being the wrong guy to push the Bengals where they need to go and the loss to the Bears may have just been the point where it became impossible to argue otherwise.