Press Conference: Zac Taylor on Bengals' Struggles, Confidence in Jake Browning and Preparing for Lions

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Zac, any injury updates coming out of one day?

Zac Taylor (0:03)

I think overall, we came out pretty clean. And so we'll just, we'll manage it day to day, but I didn't come away thinking we're going to be losing anybody after last game, so feel good about it.

SPEAKER_1 (0:13)

Was Kate Taylor-Brent limited in his availability on the day?

Zac Taylor (0:17)

No, I mean, he dealt with a hamstring early last week.

But I thought he felt everything okay. We got some corners we can rely on, so we're not afraid to rotate those guys through.

SPEAKER_1 (0:28)

Was that just a performance thing, then you just would be in the field?

Zac Taylor (0:31)

We're just always trying to find the guys that are performing the best at the moment and thought we had some good options there.

SPEAKER_1 (0:35)

Do you think Shemar has a chance this week?

Zac Taylor (0:37)

We'll see. We'll manage through the week, but he's progressing along.

We'll see if he can go this week. I couldn't give a great answer on that one right now.

SPEAKER_3 (0:47)

What about Joiner?

Zac Taylor (0:49)

No, he won't practice today.

SPEAKER_4 (0:50)

Joiner?

Zac Taylor (0:51)

Who's that?

SPEAKER_1 (0:52)

Charlie Joiner. I'm sorry.

Zac Taylor (0:58)

He won't practice today. We'll get him through the week and see where he's at.

SPEAKER_5 (1:02)

Zac, what can you do as a coaching staff to help Jake? And maybe what can Jake do to better help himself?

Zac Taylor (1:07)

Yeah, I think first and foremost it's my job to help Jake and find ways to give our guys the best chance to help Jake as well. So I know that's a very broad answer. But each defense is a little bit unique. I think it's going to be nice playing at home. Being able to use our verbal cadence allows us to do some things that maybe is a little more difficult to utilize on the road. Knowing you're going to be late with the play call and all that kind of stuff getting to the line of scrimmage. So I'm optimistic right now that we put together a really good plan. I'm excited to get to work, practice today. We're all accountable that three points isn't good enough, ten points isn't good enough. Our expectation is that we have to score a lot to take pressure off our defense, put pressure on the opponent. We have not done that the last two weeks in particular.

And it really starts with me on offense, getting those guys in a rhythm, create some momentum. Again, so our defense isn't out there all day.

SPEAKER_6 (2:03)

Zac, after watching the film Monday night, what is the best starting point for getting to the root cause of all the penalties?

Zac Taylor (2:11)

Well, you've got to look at each one of them individually. One of them was a fourth and two they called on Ted for his head bob. That only comes up on the road. Sometimes that will be called, sometimes it won't. One of them was an illegal formation with the tackle being back. That's something that they're on every single rep, every single tackle. We have to do a better job playing within the lines there. Two were starts by a rookie guard. We got to clean that up. That's something we can't allow us to set ourselves back. And then one of them was a procedural third and long.

We got stuck in the wrong formation on third. So we took the delay game. Instead of trying to make it right on the third and 15 or calling a timeout, we took a change. Whether it was the call came in, the huddle call, whatever it was, when we lined up, we could see we weren't right. And so instead of banging a tight end on third and 15, timeout on third and 15, we took the delay. So those were, to my recollection, all of them, the starts we can't have. We have to line up appropriately with our tackles. Again, something every team's warned about every game is a big point of emphasis for the league right now. So those are things that are nothing to do with Denver, nothing to do with Detroit, all things we have to do better at. We prided ourselves on being a disciplined team. There's been exceptions in the past where we haven't been, but I would say through and through, we've been a very disciplined team and too many penalties on unforced stuff the other night.

SPEAKER_1 (3:41)

Coach, those are two tough losses in a row.

Zac Taylor (3:43)

You're a dad.

SPEAKER_6 (3:44)

What do you do? What do you say to these guys to keep them up and ready to go?