Marvin Lewis on John Ross: He let me down

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis voiced his disappointment with first-round pick John Ross on Wednesday.

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“John had a play last week that we weren’t very thrilled with,” Lewis said, referring to the second play of the second quarter when Ross stopped on a go route and Andy Dalton’s pass feel incomplete 5 yards beyond him.

“The thing that I told him, and it was great because Andy was with him in the hall on Tuesday, that for Andy, against that coverage, to throw him that football, he should understand how the quarterback feels about him and he expects him to be where he needs to be,” Lewis said. “He let his teammates down. He let me down. He let Andy down.”

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Ross, who admitted the incompletion “was all my fault” after the game, didn’t see the field much after that, finishing with just six snaps.

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“If you do it right and you run like you can run, that ball can go there and it can be a big play for us,” Lewis said. “The receiver can’t dictate where the ball goes. The quarterback has to make the read and do what he does and throw the ball based on coverage and what his progression is. And in that case, he chose John.

“And he made a nice throw, put the ball where it needed to be and it ended up from you to me away,” he continued. “Had he been running, likely he catches it. I would hope it would be a touchdown, but that’s the margin of error we’re at right now. We’re a little thin on that.”

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