Karras said he “hated” his performance and probably a lot of other guys on the team felt that way, but the Bengals “had to watch that and be honest” with themselves.
They’ll do what they can to learn from the mistakes that cost them an uncharacteristic five turnovers, an inability to run the ball or to stop the Vikings on defense and ultimately, the franchise’s worst loss at 48-10. The next challenge is a big one, going to play the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.
“There’s the old adage that it’s never as good as you thought it was, and it’s never as bad as you thought it was, but that was pretty bad,” Karras said. “So, we’ve all got to take that on the chin and be a lot better. I gotta play a lot better. I think a lot of guys feel that way. … Good thing is we are 2-1. It only counts as one, so we get a chance to go to Denver and get our momentum back.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Monday wasn’t all bad, though.
The Bengals got good news on Samaje Perine’s thumb, which he appeared to injure on his second-quarter fumble. An MRI revealed he avoided significant damage. Coach Zac Taylor said it won’t be a long-term injury, but would not declare if he could be available Monday when the Bengals play the Broncos at Mile High Stadium.
Tight end Noah Fant, who exited after losing a fumble that was returned for a 66-yard touchdown, remains in concussion protocol, and Taylor said he couldn’t make any predictions on his availability for Week 4. Right guard Dalton Risner also is one the Bengals will be evaluating this week with a high calf injury.
Meanwhile, quarterback Joe Burrow is back in the building after undergoing surgery to repair his turf toe injury. He attended meetings with the team Monday and went through the locker room during the media period with the assistance of a scooter and a soft cast on his left foot.
“It’s always good to see Joe,” Karras asid. “These last two weeks have been close as you can get to a nightmare, so the only thing you can do is get out on Wednesday, ready to work.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Taylor said the turnovers remain the biggest point of emphasis after watching the film. Cincinnati fumbled five times, losing three of them in the last two minutes of the first half, and Jake Browning threw two interceptions, including a pick-6 in the first quarter.
The Vikings took advantage of each one to account for 31 of their points.
“When every bit of momentum you get is then taken away, it’s tough,” Taylor said. “And so again, I thought sequencing in the first half, the defense gave up a touchdown the first drive, and then they got some three-and-outs, held them to a field goal in a short field, so there were some positive things. It was far from perfect. There’s a lot of things we got to clean up. Offensively, there’s a lot we got to clean up as well.
“We got to find some momentum in the run game. They pressure you from a lot of different looks. They don’t make life easy on you, the Vikings, but there was more opportunity there than we gave ourselves a chance to take advantage of and part of that is just sustaining the drives without turning the ball over.”
Taylor said it was an anomaly to put five balls on the ground in one game after fumbling just three times in the last seven games. He credited Minnesota for being aggressive in trying to punch the ball out, but Cincinnati’s ball carriers “didn’t do anything to counter that.”
Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said his math showed it took his offense 800 snaps for this team to put the last five balls on the ground, excluding sack-fumbles, and over 900 snaps to lose three, but it happened in a span of 35 plays Sunday.
Cincinnati won’t just chalk it up to a fluky performance.
“On none of them did it feel like guys were being reckless or egregious, but if your primary focus was making sure that you ended the play with the football, there are things that each ball carrier could have done a little bit differently at the end of all those runs that would have assured that that happened,” Pitcher said. “And so it’s our job to make sure that we’re doing those things in practice, that we’re making sure the scout team is punching at the football because I promise you, there’s a coach in Denver right now that’s putting that cut-up together, and they’re going to show their guys. You are what you put on tape. So, I don’t think that’s who we’ll be moving forward, but we can’t just sweep it under the rug. We’ve gotta do the work.”
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