Brown scored three third-quarter touchdowns and finished with more than 100 yards from scrimmage, while Joe Burrow utilized all his biggest weapons as Cincinnati scored its most points since 2013.
“When everything is firing on all cylinders, we’re going to score a lot of points,” Brown said. “It felt good to score, but at the end of the day, it’s just building momentum. Even though our season is going to end not the way that we wanted it to, we can still finish it off on a positive note.”
Cincinnati finishes the season at home with a pair of games against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and the Cleveland Browns in the final week, and Bengals coach Zac Taylor said ending on a high note is important.
Taylor awarded gameballs to the entire team after Sunday’s win because of the way guys responded following the 24-0 loss at home against Baltimore the previous week. The Bengals already were eliminated from playoff contention and the best they can finish is 7-10, but that didn’t impact their approach.
“As a coach, you can always worry this time of year when you’re out of contention how guys handle it,” Taylor said. “I’m not surprised with how our guys handled it. There’s no indication from guys through meetings, through practice that they weren’t just going out there and giving their all to win and not just for themselves, for their teammates, for everybody who’s invested in this thing. And so, I was just proud of everybody for keeping their focus on winning and doing everything we can to put together a complete game. And so just really proud of everybody that was a part of it.”
The Bengals were fortunate to have all their starters available on offense, thanks to Tee Higgins’ return from a second concussion scare in three weeks.
Higgins progressed through concussion protocols last week but went to see an independent specialist in Pittsburgh on Thursday morning to receive a second opinion and was cleared. He had two big catches early in the game Sunday, including an impressive touchdown reception to open the scoring in the first quarter.
“I think Tee, in conjunction with our doctors (made the decision to see a specialist), just making sure you got that final checkpoint there to make sure we were seeing everything and the clearance was appropriate,” Taylor said Monday. “I think with the two issues he’s had, that was the appropriate way to do it. It was a bang-bang (deal) on Thursday morning. Got out there, got back before practice. I wasn’t even expecting him at practice and there he is, walks in the door right after stretch. … But we just want to make sure we were doing right by him, if he’s going to go out there and play, that everybody feels good about it, he feels good about it, family feels good about it and he went out there, to my eye, felt really good.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Higgins “set the tone” for the game, according to Burrow in his postgame press conference. Burrow reached two major milestones in his career, crossing 20,000 yards passing and 150 passing touchdowns, as he threw for 309 yards and four scores with Mike Gesicki also factoring into the scoresheet and Ja’Marr Chase topping 100 yards receiving for the seventh time this season.
That’s what the Bengals offense has always been capable of looking like and it just took too long this season to get there, in Burrow’s fourth start since returning from a nine-week absence due to turf toe surgery.
“I feel like we’ve shown this a million times over the years,” Taylor said. “Unfortunately, this year we just haven’t been able to do it. But this is no surprise. I was walking off the field with Drew Sample and he said ‘this is how I’m used to these games going, when we’ve got everybody on offense ready to roll.’ So, again, we’ve got another opportunity this week against Arizona to come back home and do it in front of our fans, and I expect our guys to respond the right way.”
Taylor said Higgins came through the game OK, but tight end Cam Grandy is week-to-week with a sternum injury. Others who missed Sunday’s game, such as defensive end Joseph Ossai, tight end Noah Fant and wide receiver Charlie Jones, will be monitored this week.
The schedule is a little lighter this week with the Christmas holiday giving a post-Monday Night Football feel to the routine, Taylor said, but Cincinnati is looking to keep building momentum going into the offseason.
“I feel really good about the direction of this team,” Taylor said. “All we can control is this week. We’ve got Arizona this week, we’ve got to put our best foot forward and forget about what’s going on around us and just focus on a great game plan and having a great week of practice, winning the game, winning two games in a row. The feeling we had in the locker room. Responding with another way to win back-to-back games is all we can control right now.”
NEXT GAME
Who: Cardinals at Bengals
When: 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 28
TV: FOX
Radio: 104.7-FM, 700-AM
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