Zac Taylor Press Conference – September 14

Zac Taylor Press Conference – September 14

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Well, a resilient group found a way. Um, feels like that’s what this year is turning into already. You know, just a group that believes in each other, never flinches even when things are difficult. um early part in the season it’s always been about finding your footing and and it’s never going to be easy. You want to put yourself in a position in games five and 12 and 16 to be in a good spot. And so it wasn’t wasn’t as clean as we wanted it to be all around. When we watched the tape, there’s going to be corrections, but I couldn’t be proud of our group. They just looked each other in the eye in the second half and said, “We’re going to figure out a way to win this game.” And that’s exactly what they did. And I’m I’m really proud of them. What can you tell us about Joe Barrosa? Nothing right now to be truthful with you. Um we got in such a tight game. I didn’t get all the information yet. So again, I I know where to start for me right now. You know what happened? Uh like No. What did you say to JJ after maybe the third interception to keep him in the game? Well, I I think the first one is not not on him, just to be crystal clear. Okay. Um and again, he just despite those two other interceptions, he had a lot of you got a lot of confidence in him and the players do and they play for him and we had trust that he’s going to figure out a way. I mean, those those fourth down decisions are tough. I mean, he’s he checked the ball down on a fourth down on the last drive to Chase to get the first down. He changed a route on fourth down to Dre to give him a shot. We got the DPI. Um, so again, he just went out there cool, calm, and collected, ready to do his job. He’s in here. I mean, 8:30 this morning, I feel like I saw him in there. I don’t know if it was that early, but he’s in. He’s just ready, you know, and so when you got a guy that’s ready that the team trusts because they’ve seen him do it all, then we put the ball in his hands at the end of the game and he went down there and delivered for us. How much were you kind of playing for the win? as you kept throwing what you got. Yeah, once you get tighter, it’s let’s go win this game. Let’s not try to kick the field goal and go to overtime. It’s been such a crazy game. Uh leave nothing to chance. And so when we got down in there, you know, it turned into four down territory for us to go get the win. You always fire off turnovers, Zack. Yes. J, but in terms of what you guys were able to create and interception by Dax in the end zone. Yep. Turning point there. Our defense has created a feeling that a turnover can come at any moment. you know, that’s just kind of what they’ve established at this point. And so Dax has taken seven points, four points off the board right there. Uh JB just has a knack for finding the ball that some guys just have that and it looks like JB’s got that and that’s awesome. And then the four fourth down stop at the end of the game when they went for it. Um that’s huge. That’s a defensive stop. And so again, there’s there’s a a real feeling that these turnovers are going to start coming in bunches for us because our guys train it and they found a way to to find the ball and we just got to keep it up. the play that seemed to pump the airbag into the places. Yeah. Company. Yeah. First catch. Yeah. I mean, I just I just told the team he exemplifies everything that we stand for as a team and as a Bengal when we define a physical, hungry, accountable teammate who’s willing to do their all to get the job done. And Mitch, I told Mitch, I I told the team just now, he probably had the hardest battle to be in this position because we signed him at a a strange time right after the season in January. It’s kind of when the scouts liked him, they knew him. I didn’t know much about him. So, it’s not like we put him in a position in April, May, and June to like, let’s really see what this guy’s made of. We go through the drafts and collected guys in the draft that you want to really evaluate. So, every rep that Mitch got, he earned. And he just put himself in a position throughout training camp, which everyone witnessed to where the quarterbacks earned a lot of trust in him, and then the team had a lot of trust in him. And then he made all the plays he made in the preseason game. And so, we’re not afraid to put him out there um in any moment. and he went up there and made a one-handed catch for his first career reception, first career touchdown, one-handed. Didn’t surprise anybody. Uh you saw a lot of excitement from the team just because they’re excited. He finally got an opportunity, but there was nobody that was surprised. He went out there and did that. So, uh just really proud of Mitch. I mean, that was a run play. That was a run play that Jake just threw the ball to him on a conversion. Um which is extremely, you know, we we don’t always do that, but that just shows Jake looks out there, he sees Mitch. And he says, “I like my matchup and I’m going to go to him.” And that’s what happened. What was your transition that that I I couldn’t be happier that we were in this position in week two. So, we’ll find out what our team’s made of. So, early in the season, we can go ahead and figure out how this team’s going to handle some adversity. Um, and and I I saw that space today. I mean, it was a resilient. There was not a second anybody flinched. Um, and there was, you know, I I looked up as as we had the final turnover, they returned the 10 and our crowd started the crowd was outstanding today. They gave us a huge advantage. I did see people leaving thinking it was over. I don’t blame them. We just threw a pick on the 10 yard line and all our defense did was rise up, get four stops, and we go 90 something yards and win the game. And trust me, I I don’t blame anybody. The the the overall performance today wasn’t what our standard is and what we want. And and um I mean, and I ask our fans to start off this game hot and they started off hot. I mean, that was the standard you set in a home opener from a fan base in terms of being in their seats when I asked. I appreciated that. Uh making life really difficult difficult. They had to burn an early timeout just like we had last week uh because of the crowd noise and and you could hear them throughout and we just got to do a better job not having to come back in the last two minutes of the game putting ourselves in a better position. Um but but again proud and and everybody will learn from this and know that the Bengals are never out of it and we’re going to we’re going to continue to find a way to win. J Brown has been here for a while now. What have you seen from him over the years that shows you that he’s ready to capitalize on moments like this? Well, he’s always he’s it’s never been too big for him. He’s always known that he’s ready. He just wanted an opportunity. That’s all he wants. And I think he comes in building every day knowing something like this can happen today. And his career um I don’t think it’s this extreme, but could end if you’re not prepared. And you walk out there and you have a really bad performance. And and you know, everybody sees that tape and they say, “Okay, that’s that’s that’s enough of that.” And so I think as a backup quarterback, he lives that life. He knows I got to be prepared. Could be at any moment, could be down a touchdown, and I got to lead this team back to win. And we’ve had that confidence every step of the way with Jay. He’s proven that for us time and time again and again, just like Minnesota last year, threw a pick against Minnesota, okay? That he knew that was a bad decision. And what’d he do? He came back and and found a way to win. And today, threw a pick that he he knows he’d like to have back and he comes back and finds a way to lead us to victory. So, couldn’t be prouder. Jake Browning. Point with so many returning players on this offense that have been with Jake when he’s had to step in and play for how much do you feel like that was they had confidence in him being capable to to win this game? Yeah, they they see Jake work and so they know they know he he knows the playbook inside and out. He’s going to be able to make the protection adjustments. He’s going to be able to make the route adjustments like he did to Dre. Um he’s fully capable to go out there and lead it. And we’re fortunate we got the best quarterback in the world leading the charge and uh we’re also very happy we got Jake as the backup. How impactful Go ahead, Jeff. And then I’ll come back. Uh see at the time did you kind of rip it up and say this is what to do? This is what No, no, we didn’t rip it up. I I’d say really we stuck with overall the very similar plan that we went into the game with early in the game. We just they kept us off balance a little bit with some stuff and I’d say all all 12 guys meaning play caller and the 11 on the field. We didn’t do a great job getting everybody on the same page and finding our rhythm early on. Um once the game kind of goes that sometimes that happens in the second half you figure out your rhythm a little bit better and can start to calm down and and get everybody on the same page. And it’s kind of one of those early season things that’s happened. We kind of fought it two weeks in a Now we’re just we’ll find our footing and right now it’s about finding a way to win and then we’ll continue to establish the type of team we’re going to be going forward. But u just proud of the way that everybody responded today. So how impactful was it to get Jamar involved and you know was it the plan to get him involved? There’s Yeah, the plan. Yes, there’s so many times where it’s how do we get Jamar the ball and you got to move them around to do it because they do a good job focusing their coverage on it. Um the great thing is if they take them away then the ball’s going to T or Mike or Dre or um Noah or Chase and and so we got a lot of great options but uh there’s a lot of times the ball the the words that come out of our mouth is how do we get the ball to Jamar in a game like today so much chaos going on Zack? How important is it not only for you the coaching staff but the players be cool as much as possible? I just think we we kind of stared at adversity right in the eye and didn’t flinch. And um I have a lot of respect for Jacksonville. This is kind of that feeling I had going into this game. This team is really well coached. Um they got a good roster. They’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of speed, and they make life really difficult for you. And it’s a team at the end of the season that’s going to be standing there at the end of the season with a shot. So um I think this is a a really good win for us. I’m happy to be 2 and 0. We know what we got staring us in the face this week in Minnesota will be a really tough test for us. We got to get ourselves ready. Uh but again, just proud of the way the guys responded to another big play. Another big play the game was against the Blitz B. What you like about kind of that decision in that play? Um talk me through that play. Where was that? There was a lot of blitzes and a lot of plays. Uh it was key down the sideline. He kind of elbowed the guy then after he made the catch down the field. I’ll be honest with you, I’m I’m not that I can’t go back that far in my mind right now. Um I’ll give you a great answer tomorrow, Charlie. Uh I’ll get you and then when you said you guys didn’t flinch when Joe goes down, why is it you think that your team didn’t flinch know your all world quarterback was down? We got a lot of talent. We got coaches that are going to put him in the right position. Um and so then it’s just on other people to step up and and so again, nobody flinched. Um, it’s unfortunate when you lose him because he’s he’s who he is, but I just proud that the team found a way to win and then we’ll see what his status is and and we’ll go from there. Charlie, how much more time on the clock where you think, “All right, I’m going to kick this away. It’s like 3 minutes left. We can go for it on your own 15. Is there a stopwatch up there or is that just That’s a hard decision. I can tell you that much.” It’s it’s hard because you got to you’re just afraid, god forbid, a penalty or something, you don’t get the ball back and then it’s over. And so, um it’s not one you get to think about very long. I can promise you that you’re trying to solve a third down problem for some tough looks and then you’ve got uh 7 seconds to decide uh really what you’re going to do there. Now, you’re getting information, but it’s, you know, I’ve got to decide, am I going for this or not? And you’re getting great feedback and everybody supported that. Um and Jake handled it well. Jake Jake found a way to get the ball to chase and we convert it and we move on from there. Over the years, we’ve asked you a lot about slow starts, so I think it’s only fair to an over the first time. How does that feel to have two wins? I just, you know, seeing teams that have have found ways to do this over the years. They didn’t always play exactly how they wanted to play. It’s not the same look they’re going to have in November and December. You just have to find a way to win and create your own chances. And so, I think this team just created its own opportunities. Jacksonville didn’t gift anything to us. You know, our guys earned every single thing they got. It’s not like u a little bit of last week were some missed kicks. Okay, so you’re going to win some games that way. I’ll take it. Okay, but today was really about the Cincinnati Bengals making the most of these opportunities and finding a way to win. And I’ll take both circumstances. However you want to give it to us, I’ll take the win. Um because you’re right, we’ve set up here so much early in the season saying, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Well, um today we just found a way to do it. We’re two and0 and and we’ll work like heck to be 3 and 0. Going on after you got the ball, you know, after you got the ball back on the fourth down, you know, even after Jake’s third interception, how much confidence was there on the sideline? Then, you know, Jake was still still a lot of confidence. I mean, for a defense to get the four stops down there inside the 10 was huge, you know, and and again, that gives you all right, here we go. We got a chance not only to go tie it, but to go win it. So, that to me is a whole mentality is it’s it’s we’re down three, but we’re going to go win the game, not go tie the game. And so I never even gave Jake a a field goal landmark because that really was not our mentality. Our mentality was we’re going to go score and win the game and not just kick a field goal. And um obviously if the circumstances had come to that I would have done that. But um that was not the conversation. The conversation was let’s get on the field and try to go score. Going off of the first two and 0 start for you winning these two games in the way. That’s the first one. Huh. That’s took seven years but we did it. We’re here. Um yeah. Go ahead. But, uh, I mean, listening to you right now, this seems like the most fired up I’ve seen you in a postgame press conference since I’ve been here. Just what kind of a, you know, winning these two games the way you’ve had, what kind of momentum and messages send to the team throughout the year just finding ways to win these games? Well, I think great teams have to find a way and and so right now I think about guys that made plays in this game and there’s a ton of them. It’s not, yeah, Jamar had 14 c whatever he had. There was a lot of guys that stepped up in some critical moments and made plays for us. Mikey had the big touchdown the 10 yard line at the end of the game. Bunch of guys on defense stood up. Um I saw Dax Hill make a TFL, you know, at the end of the game when they had the ball. So so many so many thoughts are coming to me right now of guys that I just saw rise up and make the most of the opportunity and that’s the sign of of a team that can potentially be a great team. We’re not there yet. We’re just finding ways to win. Um we’re a good team and we’re going to build to being a great team and uh we got a lot of guys that going to help us in the journey to do it. Another guy that went to the locker room, Stewart, do you have an update on I don’t. Yeah. Yeah. Um I don’t How much is Joe’s health back to your mind as you are fired up right now about that? It is. I mean that that’s something we’ll have to figure out and resolve. Um but again I can only speak to what I know right now. Seems like you guys went after Travis Hunter a couple times including that fourth down big one at the end. Was that kind of part of the game plan to attack a rookie corner? Just I mean he played six plays last week so the plan wasn’t you know you didn’t know if he was going to be out there. I know 22 got hurt. Um, so he was out there more, but no, I would not say that was the plan. [Music]

Zac Taylor speaks to the media following Week 2 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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