The Cincinnati Bengals are coming off of an embarrassing loss to the New York Jets, so there was plenty for coach Zac Taylor to discuss during Monday’s press conference. If Cincinnati would have won, the Bengals would sit atop the AFC North rankings. Instead, the team is now in second-place behind the 5-2 Baltimore Ravens.
The Bengals aren’t at risk of not making the playoffs by any means, but losing to the Jets, of all teams, isn’t going to do them any favors moving forward. Cincinnati hosts Cleveland in Week 9, so it’s time to put yesterday’s awful outing in the past.
With Sunday’s loss come and gone, Cincinnati is now focused on taking down a division-rival. Still, during Taylor’s press availability on Monday, he was faced with questions about the team’s poor Week 8 performance.
Here’s the main takeaways from Taylor’s press conference.
Zac Taylor meets with the media on Monday, November 1. https://t.co/TSHPbrhZim
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) November 1, 2021
Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor speaks to the media
Taylor, who’s now had time to go back and watch at least parts of Sunday’s game film, addressed the elephant in the room right out of the gate:
"“It’s just a good reminder of what losing feels like – it stinks. We don’t want to be a part of it anymore. I’m confident that our guys will put that one behind us and move forward to Cleveland.”"
He’s right. While playing against New York indeed felt like a “trap game,” it’s important that the same mistakes that were made at MetLife Stadium don’t follow the team back to Ohio.
Taylor commented on rookie guard Jackson Carman, who was carted off the field after he went down in the fourth quarter with an apparent back injury. Luckily, according to coach, Carman is “doing better, its a day-to-day injury.” Whenever the cart comes out it usually means bad news, but it’s encouraging to hear that Carman isn’t dealing with a serious injury.
Receivers Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins stepped up in light of the Jets’ coverage on Ja’Marr Chase. The rookie from LSU finished with three catches for 32 yards and was targeted a total of nine times.
On New York stopping Chase:
"“They were pretty bent on not allowing that to happen. I think that it was smart of Joe to not force some balls into cloud coverage or double coverage. You could see what their mentality was coming into that game.”"
Taylor threw in some positivity ahead of the Bengals’ return to Paul Brown Stadium by saying: “This is our two-minute drive going into the halftime of our season.” If that means what we think it does, Cincinnati is going to enter its bye week with a 6-3 record.