CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor was careful not to make too much out of the gesture.
The return of the ping-pong tables in the Bengals locker room was intended to boost the team’s morale among each other.
Understandably, that morale reached a new low when the team walked off the field following a 34-27 loss to the Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Nov. 17.
The Bengals head coach figured, what is there to lose at this point?
The reason there were no gaming tables in the room was for aesthetics following the multi-million dollar renovation of the locker room in the offseason. Taylor and some vested veterans on the team didn’t want the space cluttered with the tables and wanted it to be a “cleaner” environment without as much clutter.
The problem with that is that players were quick to go their own way and go home as soon as they were released from daily meetings.
In years past, former players like Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon, Chido Awuzie, Jessie Bates and Trent Taylor would show their talents on the ping pong tables. There would be yelling, shouting, bragging and just the type of rowdiness that fostered camaraderie. Ja’Marr Chase, Trenton Irwin and even Joe Burrow would show their skill in the games.
But this year, there was none of that. The locker room had become a quiet place, with little action.
That changed on Monday. There was yelling and tomfoolery that was representative of players staying long after meetings ended just to spend time around each other. In other words, a new energy.
“I just want guys to interact and so that’s one way to do it,” Taylor said. “I’m not overthinking it too much, but here’s a way to create some energy and get guys up and active.
“Just create energy in the locker room. It’s December football now, and (we) need everyone to be at their best, need everyone to have energy when they walk in the building. That creates some competitiveness. That’s about all there is to it.”
The reaction from the players?
“I wouldn’t say it was much of a reaction,” Taylor said.
Ping pong tables don’t win NFL games. Better play – especially defense – does, and that’s what Taylor is hope to be inspiring with the move, which has been in the works for a couple of weeks before the players went on their bye.
For the umpteenth time this season, the Bengals are preaching the “everything is in front of us” credo as they prepare for a game against the Steelers that could rejuvenate their season much more than yelling and screaming over a ping pong contest in the locker room.
“What a great opportunity for us,” Taylor said. “At home against Pittsburgh and a divisional game, no better way to get our season back on track right now than to have our best week. And so I thought the energy was tremendous when played the Raiders here recently, from the crowd. I expect the same we’re playing Pittsburgh players will certainly match that energy as well. And so just a phenomenal opportunity.
“This is December football. This is where it means something, regardless what our record is right now, you need to play your best football in December, and now, more than ever, we’re going to need that from our guys, and they understand that. They subscribe to it, and we just keep more moving forward from here.”
Sure, NFL Films “Hard Knocks” just coincidentally began filming of their AFC North series that will begin on Dec. 3, two days after the game with the Steelers. And yes, that will make for great footage.
And yes, the Bengals are image-conscious. They want to project the image of a team that is hungry to make a push over the final six games. But will their defense give them a chance?
Josh Newton is about to get his first NFL start on Sunday against Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Newton is the fifth-round pick out of TCU that was just spending time in his rookie season getting his reps in practice and selected reps in games before the Bengals secondary was depleted by a season-ending ACL injury to Dax Hill and a broken clavicle to DJ Turner on Nov. 17 in LA. Add in the shaky play of Cam Taylor-Britt and you have a secondary that is in desperate need of Newton’s swagger, fearlessness and confidence.
Anyone who has watched the Bengals in 2024 knows the defense has been a massive Achilles heel throughout the season. Specifically, the inability to defend the explosive pass play has been a major problem. Between the lack of pressure on the quarterback by anyone not named Trey Hendrickson combined with defensive backs allowing 20-30-yard completions has been the biggest reason the Bengals haven’t been able to close out games against the likes of the Chiefs, the Ravens (2x), the Commanders and the Chargers.
“I mean a Hall of Fame, quarterback, Super Bowl, champ, long time in the league. Gotta respect him, but also can’t fear him,” Newton said Monday of Wilson. “When they went to the Super Bowl (2013, 2014) that was around Junior High. Yeah, I like the (Legion of Boom) defense, for sure. But I mean, I mean the quarterback, I mean, gotta respect him, bro.
“Any quarterback that gets his team to the Super Bowl, I feel like you don’t get to the Super Bowl without a quarterback. That’s just in this league. That’s just how they how this stuff goes. If you just go, look at the history of teams they went to the Super Bowl. I mean, some of them probably had little most of most of the time they had they got back there.”
Newton was credited with a pair of pass breakups and three tackles against the Chargers.
“I don’t play ping pong, I just play DB,” Newton said of the ping pong tables in the locker room.
After visiting with family and friends in his home of Fort Payne, Alabama, playing golf and “unplugging”, Evan McPherson, who signed a three-year, $14.5 million extension before the season, says he’s mentally ready to shake off the two fourth-quarter misses in LA and help the Bengals win some close games with some clutch kicks in the final six contests.
“Mentally has been just fine for me. I haven’t feel like I haven’t felt negatively about this season,” McPherson told me. “I feel like I’m hitting the ball well. I’m just not put the ball where it needs to go. And so mentally, I feel like I should just continue doing what I’m doing, but, just find those little things here and there that are going to help me put the ball through the upright. And I feel like it’s walking out there with a little more confidence in myself, and knowing that day in day out, practice, pregame, I do the same thing as I do during the game. So just really understanding and not overthinking kind of what I’m doing.
“I think I’m in a fantastic mental place. I think my wife, my daughter definitely help with that. Just going home to (the baby daughter) every day and she doesn’t care if I go 0-for-5 in a game or 5-for-5 and hit the game-winner. She’s still going to treat me the same and just know me as dad. So I feel like having her this year has been wonderful, just because if I do have a bad day at practice or a game, I get to go home and just enjoying that time.”
McPherson says he “shut everything off” last week and is ready to focus on the task at hand.
“You don’t even think football,” McPherson said. “Like I’ve said, I’ve played a lot of golf over the bye week and just enjoyed that time with my family, just getting to walk the golf course and meet new people out at the golf course and just kind of hang out and chill. But, I feel like you think about it and reflect on it early on and then you just kind of let it go and just relax because I mean you’ve got six seven more weeks of regular season. And so that’s all we’re going to think about for seven weeks. I feel like for the most part during the bye, you’re just trying to unplug from football.
McPherson is 15-of-21 this season, with the six misses totaling one more than he’s had in each of his previous three NFL seasons.
“I think you learn a lot from the misses,” McPherson said. “I think I’ve expressed before is like whenever you are struggling, I feel like you learn a lot more about yourself and your fight and kind of your will to win. You’ve either got to figure it out or you’re probably not going to be playing anymore. So I think that’s kind of to the point where I’m at is like, I got to figure it out. I got to figure out and I get to put the ball through the uprights and helped his team win these next seven games.”
