Bengals coach's explanation for a glaring issue incidentally highlights a much larger problem

There was very little to like about what the Cincinnati Bengals did during their 38-point loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Many of the problems stemmed from the offensive line having a terrible day.

"I hated my performance on Sunday," Center Ted Karras told reporters Monday. "I think a lot of guys feel that way too."

A new week of practice for Karras and his teammates begins today as Cincinnati gets set for a "Monday Night Football" clash with the Denver Broncos. Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher is one of the few figureheads tasked with ensuring Week 3 is not replicated anytime soon. That starts with identifying the cause behind why the o-line looked so bad last time out.

Dan Pitcher's take on where lack of physicality stems from

Karras, Pitcher, and anyone with an NFL Pro account could tell Cincinnati got punched in the mouth while trying to run the football against the Vikings. A lack of physicality for the group of five up front has been discussed in the days since. Pitcher realizes that, but doesn't think it's as simple as that descriptor.

"I think there's different reasons for that," Pitcher told Paul Dehner Jr. on an episode of The Growler podcast. "One could be that you don't have physical guys. You don't have guys that gravitate towards being physical. I don't believe that that's the case."

Bengals rushing stats from loss against Vikings

• 53 yards on 21 carries
• 2.5 yards per carry
• 32% success rate

Willingness to be physical can only showcase itself with confidence in one's assignment. This is more in line to what Pitcher saw last Sunday.

"Other reasons why lack of physicality could show up is is just being tentative," Pitcher explained. "Not quite sure of the look that you're getting. When a team brings pressure, it's not just the player that's pressuring, but it's all the other players that have to move so that they can stay gap sound. So it's both the pressure player and it's all the other pieces around the pressure player that move. And so we do our best to try to get tells on when that pressure is coming, so they can anticipate that movement and then adjust their combinations accordingly.

"That's a lot of moving pieces," Pitcher continued. "And sometimes the result of that is guys playing with hesitation, and that looks on tape like a lack of physicality, and it is, let's call it what it is, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's because guys are don't want to go play with physicality. And so that's where we have to figure out, how do we get our guys to do that. How do we operate in a world where they can feel like they can go play with physicality."

Those are good questions, but it sounds like Pitcher himself knows where the answers lie.

The larger problem goes beyond the players

Pitcher's explanation puts him and the rest of the coaches in the spotlight. If blockers are being hesitant and therefore not attacking when they should be, that's a coaching and preparation issue. Not being mentally ready to take on what the defense throws at you is the first step in playing well below expectation, and that was evident in Minnesota.

The personnel absolutely needs to play better, but if they aren't positioned to execute simple assignments, then it becomes so much easier for the opposition.

Monday night will be an extreme tell for whether or not progress has been made in this facet. Progress needs to begin Thursday afternoon when practice picks back up.