Postgame Press Conference: Zac Taylor Reacts to Bengals' Blowout Loss in Denver

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Zac Taylor (0:30)

Never created any momentum for ourselves, had some procedural penalties. I felt like when we did get some momentum, that put us into a first and 15 And against a good defense, you just can't put yourself in a hole like that. And I thought our defense really, second half, held them scoreless until really the last drive of the game. And they did what they could and held them 21 points, a good team on the road. And offensively, we're just not creating enough momentum to put points on the board, put pressure on the other team, get our defense to rest. And there's things I know that we'll be better at. We'll be better as coaches, we'll be better as players. We're four games into the season, and we'll create our identity that we can rely on, that can put points on the board and stress defenses and help our team out.

SPEAKER_3 (1:09)

The second half, you drew stuff. Is there anything, would you figure out why momentum never came?

Zac Taylor (1:14)

It's a very difficult defense on the road. So they're teeing off on the snap count. We're trying to do our best to limit that. It's a great advantage they have here. Their fans are great. Their rush is outstanding. They've been a challenging defense all season long. They were challenging defense last week, so we knew that. So you can't give them any opportunity to get some momentum that they didn't earn necessarily on some pre-snap stuff that we gave them. So great defense and you got to play well and you got to make some big plays. And we didn't do enough of that today. Go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_4 (1:44)

You're a left-hand penalties call by any guys. The first half, neat, we're accepted. After a game last week in Minnesota, how can you explain the lack of discipline?

Zac Taylor (1:54)

Guys, it is a lack of discipline. Pre-snap penalties, so again, it's just as a whole, it's not nearly good enough. We're a team that should not be having that problem. We have to get it corrected.

We can't just hand the other team five yards and put us behind the eight ball, especially dealing with some of the stuff we got to deal with on the road. And so we got to get it cleaned up.

SPEAKER_5 (2:18)

Is there something that gives you hope now that you see to find your way out of it?

Zac Taylor (2:24)

Absolutely. We've faced two of the tougher environments on the road against two really good teams. We didn't hold our own. We didn't do well enough. I think there's been pieces that we can continue to build on. Like I said, I thought our defense came out the second half, they got the ball first, and they did enough to give us an opportunity to get back in the game. And offensively, we just didn't give ourselves enough momentum to do that.

SPEAKER_5 (2:46)

What do you think of that game plan?

Zac Taylor (2:48)

I think as a whole, we all got to do a better job. There's not a position, I'm going to say, that can't step up. Coaching, we got to do a better job. So again, the quarterback is always going to bear the brunt of the responsibility and tell all of us to do a better job. The decision to kick on the opening, no way to do it. Just to take the points, make sure we got the points. Again, it's a decision sometimes we've been aggressive with, and this one on the road early on, wanted to make sure we created some momentum for ourselves, so took the points there.

SPEAKER_4 (3:18)

And then, you conned off, where you were on the 38 or in the third quarter of the swim on Bree, just to...

Zac Taylor (3:25)

The backed up 38? Yeah, just create a stop, get the field position, our defense, get them to stop and then capitalize on offense.

SPEAKER_3 (3:35)

Zac, what's been the probably most frustrating thing about those two games stretch for you?

Zac Taylor (3:39)

Well, not scoring. That's the hardest thing. I mean, not scoring enough points, and we did a better job, obviously, securing the football today, but just didn't do enough to put the ball in the end zone.