A historically bad defense that had given up more than 500 yards in the two games before the bye is suddenly looking decent.
“They’re learning, they’re growing,” Golden said. “Obviously, after the bye week, the two (rookie) linebackers settled in, we’ve been giving them more over the last three games, more to handle at the line of scrimmage, and they’ve responded. And so we’ve performed better versus the run game, the games are easier to call right now. They’re obviously making more plays, giving us more get-back on track downs, more pass-rush downs. We’re tackling better. We’re disrupting the football better. So, we just got to keep going.”
Cincinnati officially handed the keys at linebacker to rookies Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter during the bye week when the organization traded captain Logan Wilson to the Dallas Cowboys. Knight has been a Day 1 starter, but Carter had slowly been taking snaps away from Wilson before earning his first start in Week 6 and a month later, Wilson was gone.
Carter’s play seems to have elevated since he no longer had Wilson in the room to lean on, though the mentorship was always valued. Perhaps he just needed let off the leash. Carter credited his improvement to the defense playing with more intent and focusing on attention to details, but that also has led to more confidence overall.
“I think we’re playing more confident,” Carter said. “Just knowing we have the ability to put good stuff on tape and try to eliminate players from games. We work our butts off every single day, and I think when you play more confident, you do play faster. I think we’ve attacked with a different type of confidence lately and we just need to keep building on that.”
The defense has given up 20.0 points per game the last three weeks – removing the 14 points the Pittsburgh Steelers scored straight off turnovers in a 34-12 win Nov. 16 in the first game after the bye.
However, the tide turned Thursday with takeaways. Cincinnati had one forced turnover in a Week 12 loss to New England after going three straight games without a takeaway. Then the dam broke, so to speak, last week at Baltimore.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
That’s what Bengals coach Zac Taylor appreciated most. The game essentially ended when new starting nickel corner Jalen Davis forced a fumble that D.J. Turner recovered.
“It’s something we’ve been preaching. We’ve been working like crazy,” Taylor said. “We’ve said it’s going to come. You just never know when the dam is going to break. And so to finish the turnover day like that, with the guy punching the ball out, ripping the ball out, DJ picking it up, I thought that that was a big moment for us that we got to capitalize on. The guys have now seen, okay, this stuff’s paying off for us, and it’s fun when it happens, and it can change the games. And they’ve been buying in, but now to see the payoff, I think, gives a lot of confidence to them and our team moving forward.”
The pass rush also is seeing some improvement, despite the continued absence of Trey Hendrickson, who will now likely miss a fourth straight game Sunday at Buffalo. Taylor said he remains “doubtful” and the team is just taking it “week-to-week” with his hip/pelvis injury.
Joseph Ossai and Myles Murphy notably have made strides, and Taylor said Golden has been able to dial up different calls on third downs now that the young players have more snaps under their belt and a better understanding of their responsibilities.
Cincinnati sacked Lamar Jackson three times, hit him two other times and recorded a total of 26 pressures. The Bengals had 16 pressures and one sack the week before against New England, and 15 pressures and one sack in Week 13 against Pittsburgh. They averaged 14.3 pressures before the bye, and that included two above-average outings in Week 1 and 9 when they had 25 and 28 pressures, respectively.
“I thought Al did a great job mixing it up with bringing it and bluffing it and trying to keep them off guard as best as possible, but, you’re right, now that this group of guys has now played more and more snaps together, you’re able to start to blend some of that stuff in and put more on their plate, and they’ve handled it really well,” Taylor said.
The Bengals just need to keep building on the things they are doing well and improving in all areas. They can’t afford mistakes now, as they seek to run the table over the last five games to have any chance at the AFC North title in a struggling division.
“We’re feeling a feeling we know we should have been feeling more this season,” Carter said. “It was a really good win on Thursday and we’re not unaware of that, but everyone in this locker room knows we should have been having that feeling weeks ago. It’s a good feeling. We definitely want to just keep building on it, but we’re nowhere near satisfied. We know as good as we did play, there’s still a lot of meat left on the bone.”
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