CINCINNATI — In just two games, Trey Hendrickson has shown himself to be the most dominant player on the Bengals defense, and it’s not close.
His rushes have overwhelmed both starting left tackles of the Patriots and Chiefs, with rookie Kingsley Suamataia the latest victim Sunday in Kansas City, getting bench in the second half.
He had four tackles, two sacks and two hurries of Patrick Mahomes. The week prior he had two tackles and three hurries and forced Jacoby Brissett out of the pocket three times, only to see him escape up the soft underbelly of the Bengals defensive line.
The 29-year-old is coming off a career-best 18 sacks in 2023 and is showing why he believed he was worth a contract restructure in the offseason from his current one-year, $21 million extension for 2024.
Anyone who has watched Hendrickson in the first two weeks, realizes he still has lots left in the tank. The Bengals hope they can capitalize on his overpowering play.
“He’s a beast. He’s a beast. He won’t be stopped,” teammate Joseph Ossai beamed. “And I’m a man of God myself. I love when he’s able to do all that and then still give the glory and be humble, give all the glory to God.
“So, I’m watching, taking notes every day. Hoping to still learn how to get a couple things to take care of. Things are falling into place place. He’s one of the role models I spoke of, one of the captains that we all look up to and one of these days he’s definitely going to have his name up there in that stadium.”
Before earning a spot up on the East facade of Paycor Stadium in the Ring of Honor, Hendrickson would like to see this version of the Bengals defense catch fire and dominate an opposing offense. They came mighty close Sunday against Mahomes and the Chiefs. But they didn’t come up with the win.
“It’s great to be in the room with him,” Hendrickson said. “Watching him taking notes and seeing the things he does. He’s definitely going to have his name up there in that stadium. So it’s great to be in the room with him. Watching him taking notes and seeing the things he does.
While Ossai is learning from Hendrickson, he’s also trying to mentor a rookie who had a rough ending on Sunday.
Safety Daijahn Anthony was called for pass interference on Rashee Rice, setting up the 51-yard game-winning field goal as time expired to help the Chiefs walk away winners.
“I talked to him (and) told him to keep his head up and that one play doesn’t define him. Thankfully it’s a new day, it’s a new week. We got a new opponent to look forward to. So I just told him to ‘face it fix it, forget it.’ That’s something I learned in college. That’s something I’m still trying to implement in my everyday work ethic. But yeah, ‘face it, fix it, forget it.”
Daijahn Anthony called for an interesting PI on Rashee Rice 👀 pic.twitter.com/wncfLRpSEb
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) September 15, 2024
Of course, it was Ossai who had to face it, fix it and somehow forget the personal foul on Patrick Mahomes in the 2022 AFC Championship that set up the game-winning field goal.
“I’m not going to get into if I thought it was a penalty or not,” Ossai said. “But again, it happened. It is what it is, similar to what I did (in 2022 AFC Championship) but face it, fix it, forget it. We’ll move on. And next time that opportunity comes up, I have full confidence that he will pick it off and it’ll be a different conversation.”
Ossai nearly had the play of the game Sunday, just breaking through the line and nearly blocking the game-winning 51-yarder from Harrison Butker. He raised his two hands maybe a quarter of a second too late after brilliantly splitting the protection for Butker.
THANK YOU HARRISON BUTKER 🙌 pic.twitter.com/SFLjkrxgux
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) September 15, 2024
“I watch it probably 30 times,” Ossai said with a sigh. “We just got to keep going. It looked like the ball freaking curved and miss my hand. I don’t know how he did that but yeah, I just know the little thing with you got to take care of you feel like your mind.”
Ossai said credit goes to special teams coach Darrin Simmons for putting him in the position to nearly make the game-saving play.
“Throughout the game and then when it’s time to hit something like that to go try to win the game until something that works off of something, we work on a couple things we’ve been doing throughout the game,” Ossai said. “It just all fell in place kind of perfectly.
Like Zac Taylor Sunday postgame and Monday, Ossai repeated the positive mantra that this Bengals team believes it will rebound because of their experience and fire-branded toughness.
“It just speaks to the heart of the guys in those room, they’re willing to fight they’re willing to keep going,” Ossai said. “I think Zach (Carter) at one point played 15 plays in a row and as a D-tackle that’s rough. As a D-end, that’s rough. So he being able to do that and still keep fighting, still keep clawing speaks to the heart of this team and just speaks to every guy in the locker room, their character.
“They’re willing to go out there and do whatever it takes to win and coach Taylor was talking to us and he said, ‘Walking off the field. It felt like we lost a playoff game’ and that’s exactly what it felt like because of the way we were fighting. No one thought the game was over at any point, even at time until the clock clock hit zero, even to the field goal. No one thought the game was over. So there’s just a lot to build off of. There’s a lot to get better at and we’re very excited moving forward.”
