CINCINNATI — After what happened last weekend in Pittsburgh, the Bengals sure could Cam Taylor-Britt back in their secondary.
The Bengals surrendered explosive plays of 86, 66 and 44 yards, including two touchdowns to George Pickens in a disastrous display of pass defense. Taylor-Britt was ready to come back from a quad injury when he turned his left ankle in practice before the Jacksonville game on Friday, Dec. 1.
After surviving for three wins without him, the Bengals sorely missed their top defensive back last Saturday.
After joking around with faux reporters Nick Scott and Allan George near his locker with some of the scribes paid to actually be there, Taylor-Britt fielded some of the tougher questions like will he be ready to help his teammates who could use some.
“I love that I ran around (Wednesday) and got a good feeling,” Taylor-Britt said after his first practice with the team. “I was definitely getting all the treatment, sometimes twice a day, everything helped out. I’m good.”
What was not good was the defense last Saturday at Acrisure Stadium. The Bengals allowed Mason Rudolph and the Steelers to gain 397 yards and put up 34 points.
“If I could have come back last week, I would have,” said Taylor-Britt, who wasn’t eligible to come back until this week due to being placed on the IR with a left ankle injury. “I wanted to try my best to go ahead and get back out there. But I feel like everything is perfect timing man, The guys, they handle business while I was (out). But now I have the opportunity to add my juice to what they already got going on. Not doing anything differently. Just add on.”
Cam Taylor-Britt ready to return this week, fielding questions from everyone including Nick Scott pic.twitter.com/jVumH7VV9q
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 27, 2023
What Taylor-Britt will be asked to do is give the Bengals secondary a boost against a Kansas City offense – with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce – that is coming off a 20-14 loss to the Raiders at home on Christmas Day and will be desperate to get back on track.
“We just basically don’t want to let them get (deep) shots on man (coverage),” Taylor-Britt added. “You know who were playing. Their offense, the quarterback one of the best in the league and wants to take shots downfield. That’s one thing we cannot (allow), and we gotta just prevent that. I plan to come in and not do too much. Just add my juice, bringing the defensive energy, let us all come together as one and play our defense.”
What role will Taylor-Britt play on Sunday?
“We’ll let him run around a bit (in practice) and we’ll see,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said.
Anarumo doesn’t want to make the defense think they need Taylor-Britt back to have a chance. But there were so many explosive plays – reminiscent of the loss to the Texans on Nov. 12 – and the Bengals just left receivers uncovered, a total failure to plaster their man that’s happened too much this season.
“I mean at this point in the season, I don’t want to make excuses for anything, but we can’t win a football game if we give up 200 yards on three plays. We can’t,” lamented Anarumo on Wednesday. “So I told them (Sunday), I said, ‘We are what we are right now.’ These things have to stop in order for us to be a consistent defense. These are things that have not shown up in a long, long time, but they’ve shown up this year. So whatever the reasons are, we will keep working at it like we’re doing, but they can’t continue.”
Anarumo also offered insight on the 86-yard slant-and-go to Pickens that was the result of two breakdowns, one from DJ Turner II and another from second-year safety Dax Hill.
“So you look at that play and let’s just start with DJ,” Anarumo said. “DJ’s got to do a better job of getting his hands on the receiver and then if the guy catches it, tackle him before it ever gets to Dax. But as the post safety or the single high safety in that defense or any single high defense in the world, the number one thing that those guys are being taught is that they take the proper inside out angle to the ball and don’t overrun it. And that’s what happened. He overran it, knocked off DJ and there you go. So it’s a critical error at a critical time, but yeah, it’s a learning lesson, but it’s a tough one to take. You don’t want and they practice that stuff. It’s not like he doesn’t practice it. It’s part of their individual coming out of the post, but it’s just a little bit different.”
Anarumo is an emotional coach on the sidelines, as exhibited by his reaction to a defensive stop on third and fourth downs in overtime against Minnesota. But Anarumo doesn’t often bring his unit togther for a pep talk. But after the Steelers jumped ahead 14-0 against the Steelers he had a distinct message for his players.
“No, never do, but I did,” Anarumo admitted. “I just felt like we were out of sorts. Just didn’t like the way things were going obviously. So I just called them up and I said, ‘We just got to settle down and get back to doing what we do.’ But that was (14-0), so maybe, probably a little too late. But I wanted to make sure that they heard from me before we got to the locker room at halftime that, ‘Hey, let’s settle down here and go back to playing football the way we know how to.'” I don’t remember when I pulled ’em together. I know it was not going well, so I felt the need to do it.”
Lou Anarumo appreciated Chido Awuzie falling on the sword for blaming himself for the loss Saturday after the game. But Anarumo let him know that he didn’t need to. Yes, he got beat on the 66-yard touchdown by Pickens after the Bengals cut the lead to 24-8. But Anarumo expects him to bounce back in KC.
“Well these were five-yard slant and two fade balls and then you had one where Chido, he could have played that. He knows he could have played that better on the one third and long. So the other ones, it’s just a matter of angles at a center field and getting a guy on the ground by the corner.
“So we had a 13-yard run and a nine yard run on a trap where we got to be more aware as a three technique and the linebackers got to fit a little bit better, but that was the longest run of the game. The run game (defense) settled down. I think they had like 38 yards in the second half rushing. So that was a little bit better. But again, we got punched right in the lip and we’ll come back. That’s what we do. We’ll bounce back, but we have to stop these big plays. Let’s call it what it is.”
While Taylor-Britt was a full participant in practice Wednesday (a good sign for Sunday), Ja’Marr Chase continues to rehab and test his right shoulder injury. Chase was at practice, went through stretching before heading over to the rehab field. Chase did not participate in practice. This late in the season, it’s likely that Chase could try and play even if he doesn’t take a rep in practice during the week.
Jake Browning was not all that interested in Joe Burrow viral tweet from Wednesday when he tweeted “Show me the aliens!!” Browning during his Wednesday presser didn’t miss a beat.
“I think he knows I’m not really his audience for that,” Browning said. “But I’m always here for a good conspiracy theory, so it’s kind of a nice little change of pace. But I have not heard the aliens one. I’m sure I will at some point.”
Does he believe in aliens?
“I don’t even care,” Browning added. “I’m just trying to figure out Earth.”
“I don’t even care. I’m still trying to figure out Earth.” Jake Browning on Joe Burrow’s tweet about show me the aliens and whether he believes in them. pic.twitter.com/kyjMD1Amb9
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 27, 2023
