Bouncing back this week will be no easy task as the Bengals (2-10-1) prepare for a Monday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers (11-2) at Paul Brown Stadium.
“You have to, first of all, make that an emphasis that we got killed in the turnover battle and we’ve got to be much better,” Taylor said. “But there are some good positives that came from the game, things that we did well. And we’re going to carry that over into this week. It’s a big game, prime-time divisional game on Monday Night Football. So, our guys are gonna be ready to go.”
Rookie wide receiver Tee Higgins said it’s been difficult to digest the losses, but the team has been humbled by the struggles this season.
“We lose, we’ve got to come back next week and work, you know, trying to get that W,” Higgins said. “For me taking it in, you just got to come in the next day, next-day mentality and get to work.”
The Bengals met virtually Monday as a team, by unit and individually with coaches and talked about what went wrong Sunday and what could be improved.
Free safety Jessie Bates said Taylor still shows optimism he shared at the beginning of the season. His message has been consistent through the challenges of a two-win season that has been impacted by injuries of top players like quarterback Joe Burrow, nose tackle D.J. Reader and cornerback Trae Waynes, a free agent pickup this offseason who was injured for the season in training camp.
Joe Mixon also has been out since Week 6, and Taylor indicated as of Monday he isn’t ready to be cleared to practice. Quarterback Brandon Allen suffered a right knee injury but is expected to be available Monday night, though Taylor indicated he is day-to-day.
“I think the main thing is he tries to find all the positives throughout every game,” Bates said. “He continues to preach about the character that we have in this locker room where there’s not a lot of guys in here that are very selfish. And, you know, unfortunately, that hasn’t equal into wins because we have good guys in the locker room, but I think that is a key component about building the right environment around here is having good guys. So yeah, he just continues to preach how close we really are. … It’s just been a lot of unfortunate situations that we’ve faced, but really good teams, they figure it out and they win ball games.”
Bates said despite the poor start to the game Sunday, the Bengals had a chance to turn it around in the second half. They were down 20-7 and had a touchdown early in the fourth quarter called back because of a holding penalty, which would have made it a one-score game, but instead they turned it over on downs.
The Cowboys ended up scoring a late touchdown after Cincinnati went for it on fourth-down at its own 16-yard line and didn’t convert. Bates also looks at an interception he missed out on in the second half that could have helped as well.
“Like I always say, it’s tough when you spend so much time preparing, putting your body through this long season and not have success,” Bates said. “As you know, as a team it’s obviously very frustrating at times. But I just think of it as an opportunity and a challenge to continue to grow as a player and try to learn from these lessons that we continue to face throughout the season.”
Higgins said “it’s a lot of mental errors,” but those can’t keep happening so the Bengals just have to correct those mistakes and “come back strong.”
MONDAY’S GAME
Steelers at Bengals, 8:15 p.m., ESPN, NFL, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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