Bengals Beat: Zac Taylor Insists ‘We’re All Accountable’ For Offensive No-Show In Opener

CINCINNATI — The Bengals know their offensive display Sunday is a big, big problem. They just hope it’s a fluke and that it won’t become the norm in the 2024 season.

What the Patriots did was take away everything deep and force Joe Burrow and the Bengals to take everything underneath. That wouldn’t have been a problem if the Bengals had executed in their short passing game.

But whether it’s the 4th-and-2 failure on the swing to Andrei Iosivas or Joe Burrow failing to see an open Ja’Marr Chase on the final drive that ended on a three-and-out, the Bengals had no answers all day with the exception of a 90-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard Zach Moss touchdown run.

The Bengals were not able to threaten the Patriots deep and really didn’t even try to all game long.

“I go back (to) we didn’t do a good enough job early in the game to get control to where we get to dictate exactly how that game is played,” coach Zac Taylor told me. “This game, to me, was very similar to the Dallas game a couple years ago, Week 2, where we got in a 14-0 whole, and so now they get to dictate the terms of here’s the coverage we’re going to play. Here’s what you’re gonna be able to take.

“There are certainly tons of plays down the field that you can attempt and sometimes we get to them and they play different coverage and so it doesn’t work out that way. But I feel confident about the plan that was taking fold and became a limited possession game where every play mattered and unfortunately, the very last drive we didn’t give ourselves the best chance there to go down and score. We put our defense in tough spot and couldn’t dig out of it.”

As for the three three-and-outs? What did the film review Monday show?

“Well, I think the start, we’re all accountable for that,” Taylor said. “I go to bed feeling awful, Joe goes to bed feeling awful. There’s plenty of other players that feel (bad) about that little things that they could have controlled that` would have been better only in the game. So it’s not something we predicted would happen. We thought we’d be off to a tremendous start, 21-0. I mean, it’s how confident you feel going into the game.

“And when it doesn’t go that way there’s no one that feels worse about it than the men walking off that field. And so again, you’re sick to your stomach, you don’t sleep your me. We’re all night and now is this day goes and you start getting ramped up for Kansas City, the excitement starts to build to get a new opportunity and put our best foot forward and put that one behind us. And so again, that’s that’s just how we felt coming out of there. And that’s what we’re going to be going forward.”

When Burrow has a bad game, what’s he like the next week? Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher offered perspective.

“I mean, listen, we just broke a meeting, and I won’t just attribute this to Joe, but we put a lot into this, Joe, as much or more than anyone, and when you don’t perform to your standard, there’s a heaviness that comes with that,” Pitcher said. “It’s not fun, and it shouldn’t be fun, but Joe is like this, and I think we all are. We don’t have, I don’t want to say, luxury. It’s kind of a blessing. We don’t get to sit here and kind of wallow in our self pity and say, ‘I wish we could…”

“The urgency of this league is that, you know, we just put this game to bed with these guys an hour ago, and it’s over. It doesn’t mean we don’t take lessons from it, but it’s over, and Joe gets that too, so he’s gonna show up for Wednesday, like the rest of these guys ready to go, and we’re gonna have a great plan, we’re going to have an energetic, enthusiastic week of practice because we have a big challenge ahead.

“Again, like I’m saying, they were able to dictate the game after halftime with a 13-nothing lead. We only had, what, six normal-down plays before the last drive of the half? We started to move the ball before the half. We fumbled on the 2-yard line. We were able to move the ball. It’s just too little, too late. And we didn’t have the points to show for some of that movement. Fumbled into the end zone, got stopped on a fourth-and-2. We didn’t give ourselves the opportunities to win the game.”

Then there’s the Chase and Chase issue. Ja’Marr Chase got six targets Sunday and caught the ball every time for 61 yards. Chase Brown ran the ball just three times for 11 yards and caught three passes for 12 yards.

Those two players need to be a bigger part of what the Bengals do every single week, regardless of gameplan or scheme. They’re the two most explosive offensive players you have and they simply need to touch the ball more than 12 times in 48 snaps, combined, especially when Tee Higgins is not available.

“Listen, Ja’Marr is a critical, critical part of our ability to move the football, to be consistent, to be explosive,” Pitcher added. “And so, we need everything Ja’Marr has got, and we’ve got to continue to give him opportunity, and he took advantage of the times that he got the opportunity yesterday.”

Pitcher knows it’s up to him to figure a way to help Burrow feed him the ball.

“You’ve got to figure out what areas of the field and in which situations of the game that’s a realistic chance to do that, because there’s situational things that factor into play,” Pitcher said. “Where you are on the field, what down it is, where you may not be able to get a one-on-one matchup with him because they’re obviously doing their homework too, and it’s their job to take away our best player. So, you know, we strive to do our best at that every week. It’s a focal point of the game plan every week, and it’ll continue to be that way.”

INJURY UPDATES:
Taylor said the team won’t know until later in the week whether Amarius Mims, Tee Higgins or Kris Jenkins would be available against the Chiefs. Mims (pectoral) was limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday and didn’t practice Friday as the team was going to hold him out of the opener. Jenkins had surgery last Friday on his right thumb after sustaining an injury in practice last week. He is day-to-day, with Taylor indicating last week that playing against the Chiefs “isn’t off the table.”

“We’ll get into the week to evaluate both of them,” Taylor said Monday. “I really think it’s too early to say on either one of them. The surgery went well for Kris on Friday. We’ll get to Wednesday and see where he’s at. Same with Tee. Same with Amarius. He has been practicing and continue to progress and get better. Where he is for this weekend’s game remains to be seen.”

The Bengals don’t want to put Mims in a full practice situation until they’re confident that it has fully healed.

“We’ll continue to see where it goes and how he’s feeling,” Taylor said of Mims. “You don’t want to rush into it too quickly. It’s a rookie you want to make sure is healthy. It’s a pec injury. That’s a big part of what he does. You got to be mindful. He has started to feel better and get into a groove in individual. We’ll be very mindful before we do full contact practicing.”

As for Higgins and his hamstring, the Bengals are certainly playing it cautiously after Higgins’ history with the issue, explaining why he wasn’t available Sunday.

“It happened Thursday,” Taylor said. “We wanted to see how he felt Friday and Saturday. We wouldn’t put him out there like that.”