Postgame Press Conference: Zac Taylor Reacts to Bengals Win Over Jaguars Despite Joe Burrow injury

Zac Taylor (0:00)

Well, a resilient group found a way. Feels like that's what this year is turning into already. You know, just a group that believes in each other, never flinches, even when things are difficult. Early part in the season, it's always been about finding your footing, and it's never gonna be easy. You wanna put yourself in a position in games five and 12 and 16 to be in a good spot. And so it wasn't as clean as we wanted it to be all around. When we watch the tape, there's gonna be corrections, but I couldn't be proud of our group. They just looked each other in the eye in the second half and said, we're gonna figure out a way to win this game. And that's exactly what they did. And I'm really proud of them.

SPEAKER_2 (0:33)

What can you tell us about Joe Burrows?

Zac Taylor (0:35)

Nothing right now to be truthful with you. We got such a tight game. I didn't get all the information yet. So again, I know where to start for me right now.

SPEAKER_2 (0:43)

You know what happened like last month?

Zac Taylor (0:45)

No.

SPEAKER_3 (0:47)

What did you say to Jake after maybe the third interception to keep him in the game?

Zac Taylor (0:50)

Well, I think the first one is not on him, just to be crystal clear, okay?

And again, he just, despite those two other interceptions, he got a lot of confidence in him, and the players do, and they play for him, and we have trust that he's going to figure out a way. I mean, those fourth down decisions are tough. I mean, he checked the ball down on the fourth down on the last drive to chase to get the first down. He changed the route on fourth down to Dre to give him a shot. We got the DPI. So again, he just went out there, cool, calm, and collected, ready to do his job. He's in here, I mean, 8.3 this morning. I feel like I saw him in there. I don't know if it was that early, but he's in, he's just ready, you know, and so when you got a guy that's ready, that the team trusts, because they've seen him do it all, then he put the ball in his hands at the end of the game, and he went down there and delivered for us.

SPEAKER_4 (1:35)

How much are you kind of playing for the win, as you kept throwing, what's your gut feeling?

Zac Taylor (1:38)

Yeah, once you get tighter, it's let's go win this game. Let's not try to kick the field goal and go to overtime. It's been such a crazy game, leave nothing to chance. And so when we got done in there, you know, it turned into four down territory for us to go get the win.

SPEAKER_5 (1:49)

You always fire up on turnovers, Zac. Yes, J. Brown's three, but in terms of what you guys were able to create and the interception by Dax in the end zone, turning points there?

Zac Taylor (2:01)

Our defense has created a feeling that a turnover could come at any moment. You know, that's just kind of what they've established at this point. And so Dax is taking seven points, four points off the board right there. JB just has a mat for finding the ball. Some guys just have that. And it looks like JB's got that. And that's awesome. And then the fourth down stop at the end of the game when they went for it, that's huge. That's a defensive stop. And so again, there's a real feeling that these turnovers are going to start coming to bunches for us because our guys train it. And they found a way to find the ball and we just got to keep it up.

SPEAKER_4 (2:34)

The play that seemed to pump air back in the place was Tippedon. Yeah. I mean, first catch.

Zac Taylor (2:41)

Yeah, I mean, I just told the team, he exemplifies everything that we stand for as a team and as a backboard. When we define it, physical, hungry, accountable teammate who's willing to do their all to get the job done. And Mitch, I told Mitch, I told the team just now, he probably had the hardest battle to be in this position because we signed him at a strange time right after the season in January. It's kind of one of the scouts liked him. They knew him. I didn't know much about him. So it's not like we put him in a position in April, May and June to like, let's really see what this guy's made of. We go through the draft and collect the guys in the draft that you want to really evaluate. So every rep that Mitch got, he earned. And he just put himself in a position throughout training camp, which everyone witnessed to where the quarterbacks earned a lot of trust in him. And then the team had a lot of trust in him. And then he made all the plays made in the preseason game. And so we're not afraid to put him out there in any moment. And he went up there and made a one handed catch for his first career reception, first career touchdown, one handed. Didn't surprise anybody. You saw a lot of excitement from the team just because they're excited. He finally got an opportunity, but there was nobody that was surprised. He went out there and did that. So just really proud of Mitch. I mean, that was a run play. That was a run play that Jake just threw the ball to him on a conversion, which is extremely, you know, we don't always do that. But that just shows Jake looks out there and he says, Mitch, and he says, I like my matchup and I'm going to go to him. And that's what happened. What was your happy position? I couldn't be happier that we were in this position in week two. So we'll find out what our team's made of. So early in the season, we can go ahead and figure out how this team's going to handle some adversity. And I saw that space today. I mean, it was a resilient. There was not a second anybody flinched. And there was, you know, I looked up as we had the final turnover, they returned the 10 and our crowd started. The crowd was outstanding today. They gave us a huge advantage. I did see people leaving thinking it was over. I don't blame them. We just threw a pick on the 10 yard line and all our defense it was rise up, get four stops and we go 90 something yards to win the game. And trust me, I don't blame anybody.