Zac Taylor Reacts to Bengals WIN over Raiders, Explains Why Jermaine Burton Was Inactive
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00It's good to get a win.
00:01I thought the defense, after that first drive,
00:04did a great job buckling up, making them punt,
00:07creating turnovers, really did a good job
00:09allowing the offense to play aggressively
00:11and get some points on the board and play with the lead.
00:14And so, and the offense did that.
00:15We kind of hit a lull there late third, early fourth quarter.
00:19But just proud to see the way that we finished it there
00:21in the fourth.
00:21I know they had that last drive, but turnovers
00:23and capitalizing with points, this
00:26is when we needed going into a short week.
00:28And so, again, we'll capitalize on this
00:30and keep building going forward.
00:32Supposed to play the full season without a win?
00:34No, no, I mean, yeah, maybe this season.
00:36But my point being, there's a lot more we can do better.
00:40Just some little things here or there
00:42that kind of stunted some of the drives on offense
00:44where I think it could have been a bigger output day had
00:47we just been on the same page with some communication things.
00:49And so, again, there's always things to grow from.
00:52We've hit the midway point of the season now.
00:54So now we need to start playing our best moving forward.
00:56How important was it for that first drive
00:58after they come out and score for you guys
01:00to go down and answer the ball?
01:01It's always big.
01:02It's always big to match them and then
01:04allow our defense to take a deep breath
01:05and get the stops that they then got.
01:07So, again, the first drive, they've done that.
01:09I think several of the last games,
01:10they've scored right out the gate.
01:12Las Vegas has.
01:13And so, weathered the storm and really put ourself
01:16in a good position on that first third and 10 with DJ Ivy.
01:18Got a DPI call, that's just the way it goes sometimes.
01:21So then you just got to recover and try
01:22to find a way to get a stop.
01:24But I thought the rest of the first half,
01:26everybody played really well.
01:27What did you think of Joe Burrow's performance?
01:29I thought he did a great job.
01:31There was a tremendous rhythm we had there on offense
01:34going to the midway point in the third quarter.
01:36Again, some things that were frustrating
01:37that stunted our drives there on the three or four.
01:40Jack Jones made a great, I mean, he made the same play
01:42against the Chargers last year.
01:44So he's an aggressive player.
01:45And sometimes he catches you on stuff like that.
01:47And they capitalized on that.
01:48But I thought, overall, he did an outstanding job.
01:51Is that how important was it for the way
01:52he extended plays, especially when
01:54you were in the red zone before the touchdown passes came
01:56when he extended?
01:56That's the red zone, man.
01:57I mean, there's scheme.
02:00You try to give yourself the best scheme.
02:02But about 50% of the time, you're
02:03scoring on scrambled or extended opportunities.
02:05And so the great quarterbacks in this league understand that.
02:08The great offense is the league play off
02:10of that with the receivers, running backs, and tight ends.
02:13I think they all caught scrambled touchdowns today.
02:15Did a great job being in phase.
02:17And Joe found them, and the line did a great job protecting.
02:19That's a tough group.
02:21I mean, they're defense, man.
02:22They show up to play every single week.
02:24I got a lot of respect for them and proud of the way
02:26our guys handled that pressure.
02:27Zach, Trey's had a number of really good games
02:30in his career here with you.
02:31Where would you put today's performance up there?
02:33Four sacks, seven quarterback hits, that's tough to match.
02:35And so again, there were those moments
02:39where we needed that big stop on defense.
02:41And a lot of guys came up big for us.
02:43But Trey came up the biggest.
02:45And we're counting on him to make those plays.
02:47And he did that today.
02:48Proud of him.
02:48How many of the receivers step up today in the second?
02:51Yeah.
02:53Yeah, I mean, Gisecki's a guy we've been able to lean on.
02:55And I know there was a lull there in the season
02:57where he doesn't get a lot of targets.
02:59But that's just the way this offense goes sometimes,
03:01is Joe does a great job dispersing it
03:04to wherever the concept's calling for
03:05and the defense gives you.
03:06And Mike has done an excellent job capitalizing
03:09on his opportunities.
03:10Is that part of being a pro, is that whatever?
03:12You don't know when your number's going to be called.
03:14Yeah.
03:14When it's called, you have to kind of be prepared.
03:15There's no doubt.
03:16And there's always conversations we're having with the guys.
03:19Everyone's human.
03:19Everyone wants to be involved and help us win.
03:22And so especially, there's always
03:24stretches where we're not winning.
03:26And there's a lot of guys on the team,
03:27I want to make sure, hey, your opportunity's going to come.
03:29And I know you want to help us win.
03:31And we're going to find ways to do that.
03:32And I think a lot of guys did that today for us.
03:34Third time this year, I think you've
03:36double-dipped the touchdowns before and after halftime.
03:39Yeah.
03:40You did it today.
03:41How important was that?
03:42It's critical.
03:43And again, for us, there's times we
03:46take the ball to start the game to try
03:47to set the tone on offense and get seven
03:49and put them in a hole.
03:50Today was one of those days where
03:52we were ready to defer and do what we just did at half.
03:55And I think it gave us a lot of momentum.
03:56And it played out perfectly, scoring with 31 seconds
04:00off the half and defense holding them.
04:02And then offense being able to bump that up to a two-score
04:04lead was a big, big part of the game.
04:05Obviously, Jermaine was a big part of the game coming in.
04:08Yeah.
04:09Was that effective today?
04:10Yeah, Jermaine was a big part of the plan.
04:12And as the week unfolded, there was a lot of positive things
04:15people were saying about him.
04:16And it was all true.
04:17And then late in the week, we just
04:18got to handle all of our business the right way.
04:20And so I can sit here and say it was a difficult decision
04:23to make him inactive.
04:24But it was absolutely the right decision
04:26with all the information we had.
04:27And he's a guy who's going to have, I think,
04:29a really good career here.
04:30And we're going to support him.
04:31And he wants to help us win and do things the right way.
04:34And today was just a necessary step we had to make.
04:37But we're going to get him back in the fold
04:39and keep him moving along and becoming a pro.
04:42And there's a lot of things to love about Jermaine.
04:44So his best days are in front of him.
04:46And we're going to make sure he achieves that.
04:48Is there any discussion of further discipline
04:50with him involved in this?
04:51No, I think we'll handle it the way that we handle it.
04:53What was his reaction when he found out he was tired?
04:56Jermaine understands the situation.
04:58Hey, Ned.
04:59When you guys drafted him, you stood up at that podium
05:01and said that you guys, as an organization,
05:03felt really good about the pick, knowing the character
05:06concerns that came with it.
05:07Do you still feel that way?
05:08I do.
05:09I still think that his best days are ahead of him.
05:11We're going to help him get there.
05:12And he wants it for himself.
05:13We want it for him as well.
05:16Sometimes you have to do things that
05:18are like what we did to help him get to that next part.
05:21And he understands that.
05:23And we're going to help him get there.
05:25Is it a bit perplexing still that the number
05:27is going to be called and the game will be
05:29that he just doesn't make himself available?
05:31Again, we're there to support him.
05:32And we're going to make sure he gets there.
05:34What about, obviously, it was a tight end today.
05:39How critical was that?
05:42I hate to think about it.
05:43I don't know all the information yet with Eric
05:46because he was having such a tremendous rookie season.
05:50And just an all-around great football player.
05:54He's got that mindset that you got.
05:57And he means a lot to this offense.
05:59And when he went out, it certainly
06:01affected a lot of things.
06:02In the middle of the drive, it affected a lot of things.
06:05That's why we've got the best tight end coach in the country
06:07in James Casey.
06:07And we've got the smartest tight end group in the country
06:10with the guys we have.
06:11And they problem solved it in the drive.
06:12They problem solved it during multiple drives, halftime.
06:15We had a lot of 12 and 13 in this plan.
06:17And those guys did an excellent job handling that.
06:19And sometimes you would see there's
06:21a little quirkiness on the field.
06:22And that led to a delay game.
06:24There's some things that you try to iron out in the moment.
06:26That wasn't always perfect.
06:27But I have the utmost trust in that group
06:30to overcome a loss like that.
06:32And find us a way to get through the game.
06:34And then we'll move on accordingly.
06:36I think you'll probably have a better update tomorrow.
06:39But do you fear Eric's injury to be an issue?
06:41I worry about it.
06:41I worry about it.
06:42I don't have all the information yet.
06:43But I'm concerned about it.
06:45Anything further on BJ Hill?
06:47Not yet.
06:48Oh, I'll wait till tomorrow to get that one.
06:50What did you learn today about Chase Brown?
06:52Kept with it.
06:53He took a nice shot to the ribs at one point in the game.
06:56And was able to come back out there
06:59and do a great job for us.
07:00He's a tough guy.
07:01And to get over 100 yards, that's a credit to him.
07:03That's a credit to the linemen and the receivers
07:05and the tight ends.
07:07Great job with the scheme there by Frank.
07:08And so again, just proud of the effort.
07:11A lot of Selena on that.
07:13When you can play with a lead, you're
07:14able to keep hammering that and getting some runs like we got.
07:17And so we haven't given ourself enough of those opportunities
07:20lately.
07:21This is a game where when you finally
07:22get a 2-3 score lead, you can lean on that
07:24and wear them down and get some bigger runs.
07:26And we afforded ourselves those opportunities today.
07:29Going off that, how did you feel about the O-line today?
07:32Down a man and still able to handle it.
07:33I thought they did a great job.
07:34I thought guys really stepped up.
07:36Devin Cochran stepped up.
07:37We ran the Amarius slip play.
07:39So he's got to come out on the next play.
07:42Devin came in, was able to hold it down, get a touchdown.
07:44Cody Ford stepped up at left tackle.
07:46Matt Lee goes in there in some of our big groupings.
07:49And then our force inside that's always
07:51there with Amarius is really impressive.
07:53Max Crosby is one of the, I've got as much respect for him
07:56as I've got for any player in this league.
07:58And just down in, down out what he brings to that team.
08:01And so he was a huge concern of ours.
08:04And I thought our guys were all hands on deck,
08:06trying to do everything we could to make sure
08:08that we could limit the effectiveness over there
08:10on that side.
08:11Did your problem with the late hits
08:12that Crosby had on Burrow?
08:14You know, I could see that.
08:15Burrow didn't the way they were talking afterwards.
08:19And so I think it was just a unique situation
08:21with the timing and the whistle and full speed.
08:25I wanted to, but I think I might have
08:29been close to overreacting when I saw how it played out.
08:31After third and one and fourth and one last week,
08:34did you make a conscious effort this week
08:36to win those types of moments?
08:37Shotgun spread for opening?
08:39We always try to create the best plan we have.
08:41And sometimes it's not going to go your way.
08:44And those are always going to be huge decisions that are
08:47second guess as they should be.
08:49And so again, we put the same time and energy in this week
08:52that we always do.
08:53And I thought it was a good plan.
08:55Our guys did a great job executing it.