Press Pass | Liam Coen Recaps Win Over Bengals

Liam Coen (0:00)

Yeah, I mean, I think you look at the last time we were in this locker room last year.

Weren't able to close out a game, you know, in a similar, not obviously the same type of fashion, but similar, right, in a two-minute, where we weren't able to get it done offensively. And the defense had to hold strong, and we end up, you know, a game of inches, get it by a yard. So proud of the growth, proud of the group for sticking with it and overcoming a lot of bad stuff, a lot of self-inflicted wounds that felt a little bit like last year in a lot of ways. So have to go look at that tape and see what it looks like, obviously. But, you know, winning in the NFL isn't easy, and it's a good team.

SPEAKER_2 (0:42)

And just for Ray on landfill coming there, after Tuesday, just go down and make the game safe and tackle.

Liam Coen (0:47)

Yeah, it was huge, man. I mean, we had a lot of guys step in today. A lot of guys contribute to the win. Credit Ray for coming in, the preparation, going through it. Campy, I thought, did a really nice job of calling it with him in mind in some ways and putting him in a position to be successful.

So yeah, definitely needed everybody today.

SPEAKER_3 (1:09)

Taking the ball away roughly about the same rate as last year.

SPEAKER_4 (1:11)

Is that just what this group is?

Liam Coen (1:14)

I think so. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's an identity piece. It's a pillar of our defense.

It's something that they practice over and over and over again on a daily basis, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is about ball disruption. It's every single day. So the amount of detail in which Campy coaches it with and the rest of the defensive coaches, the players take it personally, they take it seriously and they know it's an edge for us. They know it's something that obviously can help us win football games. So I'd like to believe it's a part of our DNA at this point.

SPEAKER_3 (1:46)

How hard is it to coach when there's no flow on either side? And I think there was 24 total penalties out there. That was wild.

Liam Coen (1:52)

I never been a part of anything like that before in my life.

I mean, it just was... I'm not going to say anything to get fined, but... I was trying to be that... No, I know. That was just mental. It was mental. I've just never quite seen something that much in the first half of a football game.

SPEAKER_3 (2:10)

Brian Thomas Jr., huge week, as you said, and a couple of receptions including the touchdowns.

Liam Coen (2:17)

Yeah, I mean, everybody's going to try to continue to create a narrative anytime there's...

Maybe it isn't a star day for somebody. Everybody's going to try to create a narrative, and all we've been is consistent with our messaging to BT, to everybody else, to this locker room, and all he continues to do is stay the course and showed up in a major way for us today.

SPEAKER_4 (2:39)

How good was it for Rodriguez TD to kind of put it up there?

Liam Coen (2:43)

That was huge. You know, I felt like we missed a wide open.

Trev's pissed. You know, he missed strange over the middle there, which was like probably the easier throw that he had of the day that he ended up missing. He was bummed out about it. But then to get the explosive off and get that one, that was huge. I thought that since he did a nice job, for the most part, in against our run in a lot of ways, like it was it was kind of grimy. We had to earn a lot of the yards that we did gain. And but yeah, that was a huge one for us to break that thing open a little bit. Give us a little breathing room.

SPEAKER_2 (3:20)

Liam, was that just a case of stick with what Ryan mentioned, it's going to pop?

Liam Coen (3:24)

Yeah, that's right. I mean, it wasn't obviously we weren't getting chunks. We I felt like we started the game off running it OK. We had the long one, the two, and then we had a negative. It was like a ebbs and flow type of day. It was good. It was positive. And then we went and we kind of took some more negatives. But very proud of the way that those guys stayed the course up front. The backs, I thought, ran really hard for the most part throughout the day.