Bengals Triumph Over Tom Brady, Bucs Just Proves ‘There Are A Lot Of Guys That Want To Be Great’

TAMPA – There aren’t too many teams that fall behind Tom Brady 17-0 in his house and live to tell about it. As a matter of fact, before Sunday, they didn’t exist.

What the Bengals accomplished in their 34-23 comeback win Sunday over the Buccaneers defied all logic and wisdom. And that is what makes this team so fun to watch.

The Bengals were totally out of sorts in the first half. Joe Burrow had no rhythm. The Bengals were already down Trey Hendrickson and Mike Hilton on defense. They lost their other bookend defensive edge in the first quarter when Sam Hubbard went out with a strained left calf.

Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes in the first half and the Bengals trailed 17-3 at the half.

With Brady getting the ball to start the second half, this is when he usually puts the foot to the gas and it’s good night. But these Bengals were about to pull the plug, with some self-destructive help from the Bucs.

The Bengals defense stopped the Bucs one yard shy on third down. A three-and-out. But with a twist. The Bucs decided to get cute and fool the Bengals with a fake to Gio Bernard on the punt. It failed and the Bengals took over on downs at the Tampa Bay 16.

The Bengals would settle for a field goal, but the momentum was beginning to shift.

The next four times Tampa had the ball, they would incredibly turn the ball over to the Bengals in Bucs territory. The Bengals would convert those four turnovers into 21 points and a 17-0 deficit had magically turned into a 27-17 lead.

No, the Bengals didn’t have Hendrickson, Hubbard or Hilton Sunday. They lost another corner when Cam Taylor-Britt went out with a left shoulder injury in the third quarter.

But they did have Germaine Pratt, DJ Reader, B.J. Hill, Joseph Ossai and Tre Flowers.

All of them made huge plays in the second half and with the help of Josh Tupou, Jay Tufele and even Allan George holding the fort, the Bengals pulled out their most improbable win over a Super Bowl champion quarterback since taking down Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship 11 months ago at Arrowhead.

“There are a lot of smart guys in this locker room, a lot of guys who care about football, who are gritty,” Reader told me. “They love the game, they love what goes into the game, and they want to be great. That’s the biggest thing I can say about this team. There are a lot of guys who want to be great. They want to search for knowledge, and search for everything. So, it is a blessing to be around a bunch of guys like that.”

“I just thought they did a great job stepping up in the second half – all the guys. I saw Jay Tufele in the backfield, Tre Flowers picking off passes, I saw AG (Akeem Davis-Gaither) making plays, Eli Apple – so really, guys just stepped up at every position and this is the type of year where you’re going to lose some guys,” Zac Taylor said. “So, guys need to step up and keep the team going, and I saw a lot of that across the board from a lot of our players through all three phases.”

These Bengals have a habit of doing things that haven’t been seen. No team had ever beaten Patrick Mahomes when trailing 21-3 in his building. No team had ever beaten Tom Brady when down 17 in Tom’s house. But that’s what makes the current Bengal version so intriguing and interesting to watch.

“Something you don’t really see in this league, especially from one of the best quarterbacks you’ve ever seen.” said Jessie Bates.

“Well, I think when we were down 17-0 we had no rhythm on either side of the ball and our guys really just at halftime took a deep breath and said that we can takeover this game. And the first half wasn’t what we were about – they had some third and fourth down conversions on defense, offensively we got no rhythm – four straight three-and-outs before halftime and you could just tell we were going to have plenty of possessions in the second half to get things going the right way.

“I thought our special teams really, really kicked it up a notch – with the kickoff that they tackled inside the 10 [yard line], the punt downed at the two [yard line], the defense forcing four turnovers — just making plays left and right, everyone stepping up and doing it, and then the offense finishing off those drives. Just an awesome team effort. It was probably one of those games we needed to be quite honest with you – you know, kind of smacked [us] in the mouth a little bit in the first half and then responded the right way. That’s a good December win on the road versus a team leading their division. So [I am] really proud of our guys there.”

The Bengals play with a chip on the shoulder of a team that has the ultimate point to prove – that they’re Super Bowl champion worthy. They’ve been on a mission all season.

“Every week you have to prove yourself,” Eli Apple said. “Everybody is going to think we’re sweet because we basically put up numbers on offense like crazy. But nobody wants to acknowledge what we are doing on defense during this six-game stretch. We know what the difference has been, so we just have to keep it going.”

Yes, Tom Brady did make a literal statement about the Bengals having a “fairly tough defense” on his podcast last week, entering this week’s game against the Bengals. There’s zero chance Brady was trying to diss a unit that clearly impressed him on film. It’s just that the Bengals offense is so hyped – and for good reason – with Joe Burrow throwing to Ja’Marr Chase, Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins (all of whom caught TDs Sunday).

After the game, Brady was more reflective of his mistakes than the Bengals defense.

“The two fumbles were my fault – it was uncharacteristic,” Brady said. “One of the interceptions was just a terrible throw, and the other one, I got hit, the guy was laying on the ground and the ball landed in his arms.”

Brady said he didn’t necessarily feel more pressure from the Bengals defense in the second half.

“Not much. I don’t think so. Yeah, it wasn’t a lot of blitzes per se, but yeah, it was just our execution,” Brady added. “Again, turnovers kill you and they killed us today – it’s not the way we need to [perform] in order to win and that’s certainly not how I need to play in order to win.”

But it has been the defense that has made winning ugly fun for Burrow in games like Sunday or last week against the Browns. Give the offense time to find a rhythm, and these Bengals believe wholeheartedly in their abilities against anyone.

“Not one of my favorites,” Burrow said with a grin. “I mean it was an exciting game but an ugly one that we were able to pull out and that just goes to show you that teams, like we have, they just find ways to win games. We keep just talking about it and guys just keep stepping up and making big time plays for us.

“We’re never out of it. I mean we’ve been in these situations before, and we always come back and make it a game. Today, we were able to come back and really put them away there in the second half.”

And this team keeps doing things never seen before.