The first-year head coach didn’t get a chance to address that Monday with the players, since he gave them the day off but he said he communicated his thoughts to the receivers and will review Wednesday.
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“I wish I wouldn’t have phrased it like that, to be quite honest with you because you’re emotional after a game like that, and then you watch the tape, and you’ve just got to correct the technique, and that’s what the conversation needs to be,” Taylor said. “It’s a room of good character guys. It’s important to them. They want to do it the way you want it done, so I have regret in how I phrased that yesterday. It will be a very candid conversation in that sense, accountable for everything we can do better.”
The first two interceptions were both on passes intended for Tyler Boyd, and Stephon Gilmore picked them off – the second one of which he returned 64 yards for a touchdown. Those were the plays that changed the game, and the final two interceptions prevented any hope of a comeback.
After reviewing the film, Taylor said he still thinks Dalton should have made those throws, but there were things the Bengals could have done better to make a play or at least prevent the turnover.
“Those were shots we needed to take at those points in the game,” Taylor said. “They were one-on-one opportunities, and whether the location could be better by an inch, whether a guy could be more detailed with how he attacks the route or attacks the ball, those are all conversations we have with our players. Those one-on-ones come down to guys being in position to make a play, and the worst-case scenario that (should) happen is it’s incomplete. When you play man coverage, you put the ball in the air and you’ve just got to trust that the worst thing that can happen is it’s going to be incomplete. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Boyd apparently saw things a little differently. He told some reporters after the game he didn’t think he should have been targeted on the pick-six.
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“We were running an out route to the field with man coverage (and he had) outside leverage,” Boyd said. “Think it’s going to be a pick? … He was already in perfect leverage. We should have called a slant.”
The fourth-year receiver finished with three catches on seven targets and 26 yards after entering the game ranked 12th in the NFL in receptions while averaging 5.6 catches and 64.1 yards per game. Gilmore allowed two of those catches on six targets for 24 yards and finished with two interceptions and two pass breakups. He was covering a different receiver on Boyd's other reception.
When asked what he thought of Boyd’s comments, Taylor didn’t seem bothered.
“It was a game we all felt like we came out the gates and were playing well and we’re doing things we need to do, and when you don’t win and it gets away from you the way it got away from us, it’s frustrating for everybody,” Taylor said. “T.B. is a guy I respect the hell out of. Those conversations are always amongst us.”
The Bengals will look to bounce back next week at Miami, but a loss assures them the first overall pick in the 2020 draft. CBS analyst and former Cincinnati quarterback Boomer Esiason already jokingly tabbed Heisman winner Joe Burrow as their pick when he gave Burrow a Bengals helmet on his “The NFL Today” show Sunday, saying it was from “one Bengal to the next.”
Taylor said he’s just focused on beating Miami and didn’t want to comment on the buzz Burrow has been getting in Cincinnati. The banner that a group of fans hang in the upper deck of the stands at Paul Brown Stadium has referenced the LSU quarterback from Athens, Ohio, each of the last three games, including Sunday’s sign reading: “Eye of the Tiger; Geaux Bengals!”
“That’s not stuff we concern ourselves with right now,” Taylor said. “We’re focused on the team we have and winning the game this weekend.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Benglas at Dolphins, 1 p.m., WHIO-TV Ch. 7, Ch. 12; 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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