Despite tough losses, Bengals coach maintains hope for ‘special season’
CINCINNATI (WKRC) – With his team wallowing in last place in the AFC North with a 5-6 record and needing to jump four teams in the AFC Wild Card race to make the playoffs, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said he still believes it is motivated to have a “special season.”
The Bengals have lost three straight games after Sunday’s 16-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a game looming on Monday night at the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“These guys understand what’s still in front of them,” Taylor said on Monday during his regularly scheduled press conference. “There’s plenty of opportunity in front of us. This team has faced adversity before. This isn’t the first time. Part of what you appreciate about approaching December and being in a tough three-game stretch is you get a chance to learn way more about yourself and those around you than when you’re in a three-game winning streak. This team has proven to me time and time again, as well as our coaching staff, is they’re willing to fight through it and pull together and take ownership of the things they can control and maintain a positive attitude. We’ve still got a good team. I sit in the team meeting and stare at the guys and feel really good about guys wanting to pull through this and making this a special season.”
When asked what would make this a special season, Taylor said: “Find wins. Find a way one week at a time. What better opportunity than primetime Monday night to maybe change a narrative that’s occured the last couple weeks because we haven’t been on winning side of things. What better opportunity to get ourselves back into it by finding a way to win on primetime with our backs against the wall a bit. Our guys take great pride in that, and you’ll see their best this week. Thinking about it makes me excited to take the field with these guys after four or five great days of work and find a way to get a win and change the narrative and find a way to keep playing meaningful football.”
He’ll have to try and find those wins behind an inexperience quarterback in Jake Browning, who made his first career NFL start on Sunday, and finished with a solid stat line: 19 completions in 26 attempts for 227 yards, one touchdown and one interception for a passer rating of 96.2. Taylor said he was pleased with Browning’s performance after watching the film.
“I thought he was really sound in his decision making,” said Taylor. “You look at the normal downs in the first half (first and second down), he was 8 of 10 with seven of those being efficient, leading us down there, scoring a touchdown. There were some things I thought he handled very well and there were some things with the experience portion of things will really help him as he moves forward. And when I walked away, I was impressed with how he handled it on the sidelines and his demeanor in the game and rebounding from a tough interception is difficult, and still have a lot of confidence in him moving forward. It’s always good for a game like that you get a chance to step back and kind of let the night go and have a chance to sleep on it, come back and watch the tape, and it’s like, ‘OK, there are some really positive things here we can continue to build on.'”
What wasn’t positive was how poorly the Bengals ran the ball (11 times for 25 times, including 16 yards on eight carries by running back Joe Mixon) and how they failed to consistently stop the run (Pittsburgh had 153 yards on 33 attempts). Taylor admitted his team has to be better physically in the trenches than it has been for parts of this season, especially against teams from the AFC North, against whom the Bengals are 0-4.
“I think you look at our rush offense and our rush defense particularly in this last game and it’s got to improve,” said Taylor. “Giving up that many rushing yards and having that few of rushing yards on offense is not a great way to play the game, and puts a lot of pressure on different areas. Our guys take great pride in that and own up to that. It’s something we’ve got to continue to improve on. I think looking at the recent game that’s certainly something that’s got to change as we go forward here in December, which is the time of year where injuries pile up for a lot of different teams and the weather doesn’t get better, so you’ve got to rely on those two areas and we have to be stronger there.”
