GH: It looks like head coach Zac Taylor has tried to do it differently this past preseason to prevent that. No joint practices. Morning practices. Playing the Ones more in preseason games.<\/p>\n
LW: We don’t have to do anything different anymore than we’ve already done. At the end of the day, we still have to go out and execute. Just do what we’re supposed to do. Just find a way to get a win. Regardless of how it looks. As long as we get a win, it doesn’t matter. Wins in this league are hard to come by. We understand that. I understand that having been in this league as long as I have been. Any way you can get a win is important.<\/p>\n
GH: You got the captain’s call the other day, but like we said. You were a captain for three years at Wyoming, and you were basically calling defenses since your second year here. Probably not that big of a change for you.<\/p>\n
LW: No. it doesn’t really change anything. You get the pride of wearing a C on your chest on game days on your jersey. I take a lot of pride in that. I’m happy I’m part of the captain crew. I’ll do my best to lead the guys the right way.<\/p>\n
GH: The two other defensive captains are guys like you in the same boat. B.J. Hill and Trey Hendrickson.<\/p>\n
LW: Also first-time captains. And Ja’Marr (Chase).<\/p>\n
GH: Guys who have been considered leaders anyway. You have to be happy for them.<\/p>\n
LW: Oh yeah. We all congratulated each other after we got named, so it was pretty cool.<\/p>\n
GH: How much of a lift does Trey give you guys as a defense with his emotion and playmaking?<\/p>\n
LW: It’s huge to have him back. We know the caliber of player he is. He creates havoc for offenses, and so when you have a guy like that on the D-Line that creates havoc for offenses, it helps us in the back end. Pressuring the quarterback’s face is when they tend to end up making mistakes. You get a batted ball or you hit him as they’re throwing, and they can’t get everything on the throw, and that allows us to make plays in the back end.<\/p>\n
GH: People talk about his intensity \u2026<\/p>\n
LW: He’s very intense on the field. He sees red for a little bit. Just goes AWOL. Those elite players, a lot of times have something off about them. They have something that triggers them and gets them going and that’s why they’re elite at what they do. Sometimes, you don’t recognize the Trey that you recognize now. That’s just part of playing this game.<\/p>\n
GH: I guess you like seeing that guy show up.<\/p>\n
LW: Always. Every Sunday.<\/p>\n
GH: No one knows the defensive huddle like you. Do you know when it’s coming?<\/p>\n
LW: I can based on how much he’s chipping at the offense. If someone is getting after him, he’s not going to let that happen again. It’s just the motor he has.<\/p>\n
GH: Never is there more adversity than in an opener. So many unknowns. What’s it like?<\/p>\n
LW: It’s like the first week of guys playing a full game. There are a lot of different things. But you just have to adapt. That’s how it is.<\/p>\n
GH: What do you think about facing Browns quarterback Joe Flacco again?<\/p>\n
LW: There’s nothing he hasn’t seen. He’s still a good quarterback. He’s started in this league for a very, very long time. He’ll put the ball where it needs to go and it’s just on us to go affect him and see if we can get some turnovers.<\/p>\n
GH: If the game goes well for the Bengals defense Sunday, what is the one thing that has to happen?<\/p>\n
LW: We need to go plus-two in the turnover margin.<\/p>\n
GH: Sorry about the fine. It sounds like they make it up as they go. How can I help?<\/p>\n
LW: Just bring in some coffee or something. Anything to offset the fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GH: It looks like head coach Zac Taylor has tried to do it differently this past preseason to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,443,227,256,59515,2296,7,1843,81,898,4444,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-340946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-centerpiece","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-at-cleveland-browns-2025-reg-1","13":"tag-cincinnatibengals","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-hobson","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latest-stories","18":"tag-logan-wilson","19":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115145968620703402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}