Zac Taylor on Bengals' Win Over Broncos
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00:00Being pieced together, just how long the game was, overtime.
00:04I mean, that took every second of that overtime.
00:06I mean, offensively, we had three possessions.
00:08Defense got two stops.
00:09Challenge these guys, man, leave it all on the field.
00:12We'll take care of you next week in this final game.
00:14And they did just that.
00:17I want to start with the defense.
00:18I mean, two stops in overtime is unbelievable,
00:23kind of given the momentum change that maybe got us there
00:27in overtime, for them to rise up and get those two stops
00:31and allow the offense the shot to go win it, big time stuff.
00:35And then just offensively, these guys just keep moving.
00:38And I know how many punts we have, the one in overtime,
00:41maybe.
00:43And so again, we had some fourth downs that fell short,
00:46that hurt us, where there's no points there.
00:48But I thought overall, we were pretty efficient.
00:50I know the sack number is going to be high for us
00:53because we dropped back and threw the ball quite a bit,
00:55because we were having so much success.
00:57And there's a myriad of things there that were the reason why.
01:00And they're a good rush front.
01:01But we felt like we needed to keep putting the ball
01:04in the air to keep attacking them.
01:06Did you talk through the math at the end of regulation
01:09and how that kept changing?
01:10Yeah.
01:11Well, the injury changed everything,
01:12because we were going to be able to, I believe,
01:15kick the walk-off field goal with about 10 seconds left.
01:18And no one's fault. I mean, it's so we were telling Chase
01:22to slide at the 1, because we figured they were going
01:24to let us score there, which he did.
01:26He did a great job.
01:27Unfortunately, got his ankle.
01:28And so then they charged us with the timeout.
01:30So then that changes everything.
01:32And so now you're in a second goal on the 1.
01:34And yeah, you can down it and make sure they
01:37use their timeout, and then try to score a touchdown
01:40from there on third down, and maybe kick it on fourth.
01:43But it's just, you saw our low red zone against them.
01:45It's tough all day.
01:46They're going to play goal one against every personnel you got.
01:49Nothing was easy for us, especially the runs down there,
01:53because they got you so overmatched
01:54with their personnel.
01:55And so we just ran the quarterback sneak
01:58and told Joe to score.
01:59And if you score, great.
02:00If you don't, then they'll have to use their timeout.
02:02We'll try something else.
02:03But and then just put it on the defense there to get the stop.
02:07And unfortunately, they scored on the fourth and 1.
02:09But then the defense rose up in overtime and got it back for us.
02:12After that, you missed the game, missed the game
02:14one more time.
02:15Did that change your plan if you got the ball back?
02:16It doesn't matter.
02:17We scored.
02:17So I don't have to answer that.
02:19Is that every record you missed, I mean,
02:21Denver could clinch with a tie and probably
02:22explain your run the clock.
02:24How important was it to get the 3 and out and get it back?
02:26That was really hard for me to process,
02:28because people were asking me that question,
02:29what Denver needed to do.
02:30And we're just trying to win the game.
02:32And so they ran it a couple of times there
02:35and then threw it on third down.
02:37And so saved us some, not that the time
02:39was going to be critical.
02:40I thought we were going to have plenty of time
02:41to go down there and do what we needed to do.
02:45So it's an interesting situation that there's
02:49a lot going through your mind.
02:50You're having to process it.
02:51You're having to make really quick decisions.
02:53It was a tough game.
02:54There's going to be a lot we're going
02:55to review over the next several years,
02:57I'm sure, from this game that'll teach us
02:59a lot about how to handle some of these situations.
03:01But I thought our communication was really good.
03:03Just some really challenging situations we were in.
03:06How do you characterize the big team?
03:10He's a warrior.
03:11He's fighting through a lot there
03:12and just keeps rolling out there and keeps
03:15winning these one-on-ones.
03:16And that game winner was a play we talked about.
03:21After one of the first couple red zone drives
03:24where it was tough, we were low red zone.
03:25And so let's just give T a one-on-one on the same route
03:29Jamar scored on against Pittsburgh
03:30in the opener a couple years ago down here at the buzzer.
03:34And so it's just so hard.
03:36They want to take away one of our guys.
03:38The other one's going to go win.
03:40And then you look at Dre and Mike.
03:42I mean, Dre had, what, 100 and something.
03:45And Gusecki had 10 catches, I think.
03:47And so we had a lot of matchup problems.
03:49And our guy stepped up today in a big way.
03:52Coming into the game, was there any jeopardy
03:54that T might not play given the knee threat?
03:56I know we didn't ask about it on Thursday.
03:57No.
03:58He maintained, what is today, Saturday?
04:01Tuesday, the first meeting we had,
04:04he brought his phone to the meeting.
04:06And he texted me.
04:06I was in the back of the room.
04:08I'm playing.
04:08So it's early in the week.
04:11So I just kind of let those guys get their space early
04:13in the week to get right.
04:14But he was sending me a pretty clear message
04:16that he saw personnel up on the screen
04:18and said, no, no, no.
04:20I'm playing this game.
04:21But he usually wasn't in personnel.
04:23Well, we always have to plan.
04:24You never know.
04:24I mean, when a guy doesn't finish the game,
04:26it's early in the week.
04:27Trust me when I say, we do this all the time.
04:30So that's nothing big.
04:31But that was his way of telling me early on,
04:34you're going to have me.
04:35For a guy like him, you have a night late tonight.
04:37You had the injuries throughout the year.
04:38You had the fumble.
04:39What does that say about his resiliency?
04:41He's had him all year.
04:42He's been resilient every step of the way,
04:44fighting through stuff.
04:45When he's on the field, he is a warrior.
04:49And I mean, he looks so good in warm-ups, man.
04:54Just when you've watched our guys run routes,
04:56I know everybody sees it.
04:57And it gives you a lot of confidence
04:59when you walk on the field to start calling plays for some
05:02of the guys we got.
05:03Can you take us through the second to last play
05:04that they're going to honor?
05:06That set up the game on the first down?
05:07The one to T on the sidelines?
05:09The one to T on the sidelines, yeah.
05:11I mean, there's just so many situations
05:12you learn from over the course of the season.
05:14We've been in this situation a lot.
05:15Baltimore a couple of times.
05:18And so those are moments there's been.
05:22OK, so we're beating them on slants.
05:24OK, same thing against Baltimore.
05:25You go to the well one too many times.
05:27Marlin gets us on one of those last ones.
05:28So you learn a lesson there.
05:30And all right, we hit him on slants.
05:31Now we've got to run by him, take a shot on a go route.
05:34And that's what T won on.
05:36I'm pretty sure that was the guy.
05:37We called that play a million times in this game.
05:39So I think that's what we did there.
05:41It might have been a conversion.
05:43I can't quite remember.
05:44But Joe trusted him to go make a play, and he did.
05:47It seems like you guys have been able to get
05:49a lot of production from Joseph.
05:50Josiah recently said Johnson getting a sack today.
05:53How much did you feel like those guys were getting attacked?
05:56Yeah, and it starts with practice.
05:58They practice really hard.
05:59I mean, they practice like it's the game.
06:01And so you feel confident that that's
06:05going to translate for them.
06:06And you just, I mean, I've said this,
06:08but I stand right behind the quarterback, the scout team
06:09quarterback.
06:10And I almost get hit on every single pass play
06:12because those guys are on a mission,
06:14I think, to make sure that they can affect the passer.
06:18And they've done a great job of that, especially recently.
06:21You talked about the short yardage
06:22and how tough that was.
06:23And what was it that was so tough going down there?
06:26And were you coming into this game with an idea
06:28of going for a lot of fourth downs,
06:29or was that just the way it was?
06:31A lot of those just fell in areas
06:32where you got to go for it.
06:33And the one we got stopped on the first drive
06:37was a fourth and pretty short inches.
06:39And so we're going for it.
06:40Unfortunately, we didn't get it.
06:42The little red zone inside the three, in this situation,
06:45I was going for it.
06:46And so we went for it.
06:48It didn't work out for us.
06:49They do a good job.
06:50I mean, they've got great coaches.
06:51They've got good plans on there.
06:52They make things really hard.
06:53We had a really good red zone plan
06:55that I really believed in that Riscotti and Pitch had done.
06:58It's a great plan.
06:59And it came up for, I mean, we had,
07:01I don't know how many little red zone
07:03plays we had in this game.
07:04It felt like 25 of them.
07:05And so we were just making it up.
07:06I mean, the last play, we just made it up, drew it up.
07:08And it's not hard for the guys to handle.
07:10But we're kind of off the menu at that point.
07:13And our guys are smart players, and they can handle it.
07:16Zach, so many games this year came down to those moments.
07:19Yeah.
07:19And it always seemed to go not your way.
07:21You're right.
07:22You're right.
07:23And this just felt different.
07:24Our team has some momentum right now.
07:29We're certainly, we've learned from other games this season.
07:34And guys just stepped up and made these plays tonight.
07:36And you're right.
07:37There was moments where you probably
07:39could have said to yourself, here we go again.
07:41It's a similar issue that just happened.
07:44But our guys, the other unit picked up
07:47whatever unit had maybe fallen a little bit.
07:50And we were able to go win the game.
07:52And special teams played a big part.
07:53I know we missed a kick.
07:54But special teams played a really big part in this game.
07:57Credit to Darren and that whole unit.
07:59That was a big matchup for us going into this game.
08:02Denver's got a great unit, great returners.
08:04I thought our guys performed really well
08:07and gave us a great chance to have good field position
08:09and limit their field position as well.
08:12Any indication of the severity of Chase's ankle?
08:14I don't know.
08:14I just know it's ankle sprain.
08:15We'll see from there.
08:16Was there any consideration there
08:18to just take him three knees as opposed
08:20to have him slide at the one?
08:23No.
08:25We were just going to keep running the ball
08:27and try to get what we could and try to get down there.
08:29And again, there's going to be a lot we can talk about that.
08:36We felt good about our decision there
08:38just to get down to the one.
08:39You're never assuming it's going to be an injury.
08:41Of course, that's not what you're factoring in.
08:42Trying to get as close as possible
08:44to keep all options on the table.
08:46Our math said there was going to be around 10 seconds
08:49to kick that walk off.
08:50And then, of course, the injury immediately
08:52changes everything.
08:52And so then you've got to pivot and have
08:55a whole different conversation.
08:56Just two injury questions for you.
08:58Is Mim's injury one that you want to consider?
09:01We'll see.
09:02I don't know.
09:03I don't know.
09:04It's the same hand he went into the game with.
09:06So we'll have to see as the week goes.
09:09Is there a possibility that Evan McPherson
09:11would be able to come back?
09:13We'll see.
09:13We'll just keep taking it week to week
09:15and see where that ends up.
09:15Was it one of those things where Mims, he just
09:16tried to see if he could get it going?
09:18Yeah.
09:18Yeah.
09:19It's hard to know because you don't have a lot of contact
09:21during the week.
09:22And so we do our best.
09:23At this point in the year, we're pretty limited
09:25with what we're doing in practice.
09:27It was a six-day week.
09:28So we lost a day of practice, really.
09:30And so there's not a lot of opportunity
09:33to really test it like you're going to test it in a game.
09:37We're going against their guys.
09:38And so again, he just got to the point where he couldn't go.
09:41A few weeks ago, y'all were four and eight.
09:43Y'all were pretty realistic about the odds.
09:45Why haven't y'all been able to come stay alive?
09:47We've known we've had a good football team all along.
09:50And those games are disappointing
09:52that we came up short.
09:54But that didn't change our process.
09:56It didn't change what our guys believed in.
09:58We didn't have to change everything we did.
10:00We still believed in what we were doing.
10:02And now we've won four in a row, and we've
10:04got to make it five in a row.