CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Here are five storylines of note in Sunday’s Bengals game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, which will kick off at 1 p.m. at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati:
5. Connection between Zac Taylor and Jaguars head coach Liam Coen
The Skinny: Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen were together as assistants with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018 (Taylor as quarterbacks coach and Coen as assistant wide receivers coach), but Coen was on Taylor’s radar before that.
“I was aware of him before I met him,” said Taylor. “I was at the University of Cincinnati (in 2016 as offensive coordinator). We were getting ready to play somebody and they were playing Maine. The tape was Maine’s offense vs. whoever we were playing – UConn or Temple or whoever it was. It was a really well coordinated offense, so I looked up who the coaches were, and their coordinator was a guy named Liam Coen. Played for a national championship at UMass (as) quarterback. I could see all the traits there. Fast forward a couple years later, I was in L.A. and I was moving from assistant receivers (coach) to quarterbacks, so we needed someone to fill my job. Shane Waldron recommended a guy that he worked with at UMass named Liam Coen. So I jumped on that when I heard the name. I said ‘I don’t know him, but if your tape’s your resume, he’s pretty dang good.’ So we interviewed him, hired him, worked with him for a year and then we’ve just stayed in touch ever since.”
Taylor was asked how he can tell an offense if an offense is “well coordinated.”
“They know what they’re doing,” said Taylor. “The way they attack the defense. The way all 11 operate. I remember Maine at the time, they were under center running west coast elements that I’d been taught with a quarterback that was performing really well. It was enough for me to look up and say who is this? That was the first time his name was on my radar.”
Coen earned his first win as head coach in his first game last week over Carolina, which Taylor jokingly sounded envious about.
“Sometimes they make you wait until December to get that,” Taylor said in reference to him earning his first win as Bengals head coach in 2019 on Dec. 1 after 11 straight losses to start the season. “For Liam to clear it out was good for their well being, but now it’s our opponent, so I’m focused on making them unhappy this week.”
4. Jaguars quarterback Lawrence a talent who has been inconsistent
The Skinny: Much was expected of Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence when he was taken No. 1 overall in the 2021 draft (one year after the Bengals took Joe Burrow No. 1 overall), but his performance to this point has been inconsistent.
Lawrence has led the Jaguars to the playoffs only once (2023) and Jacksonville’s record in games he has started is 23-39. His career passer rating is only 84.9 and he has thrown 70 touchdown passes to 47 interceptions.
“I think he’s got a tremendous arm,” said Taylor. “He can be very accurate. He can process. He can make plays with his feet. Jacksonville historically has always been an explosive team. I’ve watched Jacksonville a lot over the years, seeing Trevor when he’s at his best. I thought he played well in the first game. He’s a very difficult quarterback to play against in this league.”
Taylor said he has seen Lawrence continue to progress during his career.
“I just think he’s always shown capabilities to play at a really high level, so he’s a really difficult task for a quarterback,” said Taylor. “From watching his days in college, playing with (Bengals wide receiver) Tee (Higgins) and all those guys, we got our work cut out for us with this team. They got a lot of weapons. They got a really good defense. I think those guys play well. They’ve drafted [well] over there these past couple years. The coordinators have done a great job with them.”
In addition to a new head coach in Coen, Lawrence has a new offensive coordinator in Grant Udinski. In last week’s 26-10 win over Carolina, Lawrence completed 19 of 31 pass attempts for 178 yards, one touchdown and one interception and rushed four times for 12 yards.
“Impressed with what I saw against Carolina and the way they are using Trevor,” said Bengals first-year defensive coordinator Al Golden. “The run game was obviously significant for them in the game and the play-action that developed off of it. We’ll see where it goes. I have watched all of Tampa from last year in the offseason. Really impressed with Liam’s offense. It challenges you pre-snap a lot. So we’re going to have to be really good communicators pre-snap.”
3. The unicorn that is Travis Hunter
The Skinny: The Jaguars selected Travis Hunter No. 1 overall in this year’s draft with the plan to play him at both wide receiver and cornerback as he did in college at Colorado, but he played only six defensive snaps compared to 42 offensive snaps in Jacksonville’s opener. Hunter finished with a team-high six receptions for 33 yards and had one tackle on defense.
“He’s a really good talent,” said Taylor. “He’s got great quickness. I think he’s got really top-notch hands in terms of the balls he’s able to catch. Not easy to bring down. You can see the breakaway element to him. He almost got away with one in the last game where you can see he’s got that element to break it away and make it a big play, and you saw that on his tape from Colorado. A guy with a lot of confidence. You always felt the confidence to be able to play two positions. They’ll keep integrating him however they want to.”
Coen said earlier this week that Hunter will see a “likely uptick” in defensive snaps against the Bengals.
“Going into Week 1, it was, ‘OK, we know that it’s not going to be a ton on defense,'” Coen said. “The goal is to increase and continue to increase (his defensive snaps). It just so happens that we’re playing Cincinnati with two good wideouts (Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase) this week.”
Burrow said he was impressed with Hunter in college.
“I watched a lot of Colorado games last year,” said Burrow. “I feel like the timing somehow always lined up for when we were off on Saturdays, but I got a lot of respect for number one, what he was able to do in college, how many snaps he played, the elite level that he would play at on both sides of the ball. When he was out there last week, he didn’t play much on defense, so there’s very limited tape on that end for me, so I don’t have a ton to say on that front, but I know what I watched in college on the defensive side of the ball. His ball skills are obviously great. That’s why he’s playing offense too, and he just continuously made plays it seemed like in big spots, so I got a lot of respect for what he did and how he did it and I’m excited to watch him in the league.”
2. Bengals run defense will be tested
The Skinny: Jacksonville rushed for 200 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry, which was bolstered by a 71-yard run by Travis Etienne, but take that run out and the Jaguars still had 129 yards and averaged 4.2 yards per carry on the other 31 rushing attempts.
Etienne finished with 143 yards on 16 carries and has shown explosiveness since coming into the NFL in 2022.
The Bengals are coming off a standout performance against the run in the 17-16 win at Cleveland. The Browns finished with 49 yards rushing on 24 attempts.
“I think, for our style of football we want to play as a team, when you can eliminate the run game, knock down the explosives, and allow our offense to put pressure on teams, then that’s going to be a good recipe for winning,” said Taylor. “I know we as an offense didn’t support that in the second half, and we as defense did that part.”
Defensive tackle TJ Slaton was a vital cog in the run defense even though he finished with only three tackles, all of which were assists.
“You can’t play those boxes that we were playing in the run game without his power and strength,” said Golden. “He had a couple of hurries there and either pushing the pocket or obviously had a big hit on the one that was grounded and Oren (Burks) picked up. I’m really impressed with him. He has a great attitude. He loved the competition (Sunday), the battle of it. He just helps us feel comfortable in there and I’m glad we have him.”
Defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery rotated four ends and four tackles against Cleveland, and while it wasn’t an even split in terms of snaps among the eight, it allowed the starters to be fresh at the end of the game.
“I think Jerry did a great job rotating those guys,” said Golden. “We call them effort and attitude plays, but there was several of those in the game. Kris Jenkins running 30 yards downfield on a play. I thought Myles Murphy brought great energy when he came in, and certainly warrants more opportunity this week. So we’ll see where that you know where that goes. There’s great competition, and there’s continuity, and there’s a rotation, and I think that rotation is going to bring out the best of us and keep (defensive end) Trey Hendrickson fresh for when the game’s on the line, and additional guys like that. TJ (Slaton) and BJ (Hill) made a huge difference inside against the run game, and obviously going against Jacksonville, we’re going to need that.”
1. The chance for the Taylor/Burrow combination to go 2-0 for first time
The Skinny: A Bengals win would mean the first 2-0 start since the 2018 season, which was Marvin Lewis’ final season as head coach, and would mark a milestone of sorts for both Taylor and Burrow.
Taylor is 0-6 in Week 2 games since becoming Bengals head coach in 2019, while Burrow is 0-5 in Week 2 games in his career.
“Like I said last week. you have to go and prove it on every single Sunday you’re out there,” said Burrow. “This is a league about what have you done for me this week? Every week narrative around you shifts depending on how you play on Sunday. So like I said, we didn’t make those plays on Sunday (in the 17-16 win at Cleveland) in those spots where typically we do and we didn’t on Sunday. I think we’d be having some different discussions in here if we had lost that game. I’m sure I’d be getting some different questions too, but regardless of win or loss, there were things that we had to get better at from Sunday and so we’ve addressed those and we’re going to continue to address those until they get fixed.”
Taylor was asked what it would mean to get his first Week 2 win.
“I just want to be 2-0,” said Taylor. “I know I haven’t been 2-0 since I’ve been here. That I can tell you. That part doesn’t matter. Our team each week has focused on really central things, starting with Week 1. Same type of focus for Week 2. So big picture-wise, that doesn’t concern us. What concerns us is starting out 1-0 at home and that puts our best foot forward for all the things we want to do in our division. Just keep it a lot simpler than the things that are probably more fun to talk about. In our rooms, it’s as simple as that.”
PREDICTION: Bengals 27, Jaguars 20
The Skinny: Make no mistake this is a good Jacksonville team and not the one that went 4-13 last season, but expect the Bengals offense to play much better than it did last week and get to 2-0.