“Yeah, I can eat my words, most definitely,” Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt said with chastened, but unflinching candidness as he stood at his dressing stall in the team’s locker room at Paycor Stadium late Monday night. “We did take an L tonight.”
The Bengals were stunned by Washington Commanders, 38-33, and their failure — the third straight of the young season — already is creating earthquake-like fissures through their fans and their immediate future.
With their 0-3 start this year, the Bengals playoff hopes suddenly are on life support. Only one NFL team since 2000 has started the year 0-3 and made the playoffs. Only six teams since the 1970s have accomplished the feat.
The Commanders were supposed to come into Cincinnati and play the part of the Washington Generals, the hapless marks for the Harlem Globetrotters’ entertaining hijinks year after year.
For the national stage, Monday Night Football extravaganza, the stadium was packed and roaring by kickoff.
Along with anticipation for what was about to come, there was also a nostalgic appreciation of the past as Bengals greats Tim Krumrie and Corey Dillon were being inducted into the Ring of Honor while many of franchise’s legendary players looked on.
But the boos began with 2:04 left in the first half when Washington scored its third straight touchdown, this one a 5-yard keeper by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels that so fooled the Bengals defense that he was able to trot into the end zone unscathed.
The displeasure of the hometown fans added even more decibels when the Commanders scored on the next possession midway through the third quarter.
This time Daniels — who was on his way to having a historic night, one that would make Taylor-Britt eat his words — bamboozled the Bengals defense again and floated a one-yard TD toss to his 6-foot-5, 320-pound tackle Trent Scott, whose touchdown dance looked like a big bowl of Jello doing the bunny hop.
By night’s end — in a stadium that was more than half deserted after disgruntled fans had made an early exit — Daniels was being celebrated across the league and even got begrudging atta-boys from several Bengals players.
He completed 21 of 23 passes against Cincinnati. His 91.3 percent completion rate was the best by a rookie in league history. Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott had held the record, completing 87 percent of his passes against Tampa Bay in 2016.
Possession after possession, as Daniels turned the Bengals defense into step-to-slow foils, Cincinnati fans grew more frustrated over what was supposed to be a return to glory year with Joe Burrow again healthy and some dynamic young players added to the mix.
That’s why Paycor became a late night boo-fest and Bengals veteran guard Alex Cappa understood that.
“This town will let you know when they’re not happy and rightly so,” he said afterward. “We have a lot of educated and passionate fans and we’re 0-3. So we’re gonna take it on the chin for a while.
“We deserve some of the hostility from our fans.”
Taylor-Britt’s comments didn’t come with a calculated agenda — he shoots from the lip without malice — but his pregame tweak of Daniels and the Washington offense didn’t age well come late Monday night.
In the days leading up to the game, he basically said that Daniels — the rookie out of LSU who had won the Heisman — hadn’t done anything that spectacular so far and that Washington kept it simple for the him. He said the Commanders ran a “college offense.”
After the game – in which Washington scored more points on the Bengals in a regular season game than anyone had since 2021 – the Commanders posted a perfect retort on their social media site:
“Not bad for a college offense.”
Daniels — who hadn’t thrown for a touchdown in his first two NFL games and had thrown over 41 percent of his completions behind the line of scrimmage — threw for 254 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and had a 141.7 passer rating Monday night.
He overshadowed fellow LSU alum and Heisman winner Joe Burrow, who had a standout game in his own right. He completed 29 of 38 passes for 324 yards and three touchdowns, two to Ja’Marr Chase who was back in old form with six catches for 118 yards.
The Bengals ran the ball well, too, with Chase Brown (8.9 yards per carry) and Zack Moss, but their defense couldn’t stop the run or contain Daniels.
After the game Burrow sought out Daniels for a midfield embrace and so did Chase, another LSU product.
“He’s a great (expletive) player,” Chase said afterward. “That was my first time sitting down and watching him besides the spring game. He’s a very outstanding player.”
Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt agreed:
“He’s electric with his feet and the way he extends plays. When you’re in the NFL and have an electric quarterback like that moving around the pocket, you’ve got to have 12 people against a guy like that.”
Pratt talked about his team crawling out of the hole it is in and said each player has to hold himself accountable.
He blamed himself for Daniels completing a fourth-down pass late in the game that otherwise might have changed the tide, instead of helping set up the Commanders final and decisive touchdown — a spectacular throw and equally impressive 27-yard catch by former Ohio State Buckeye Terry McLaurin — that provided the winning margin.
It was just two seasons ago that Pratt ripped teammate Joseph Ossai for an end of the game penalty that set up Kansas City’s win in the AFC title game.
A day later he apologized:
“I was wrong. As a man you can look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I was wrong.’ I wasn’t a good teammate in that moment.”
Late Monday night, Taylor-Britt wasn’t quite so contrite, but he was close.
He admitted head coach Zac Taylor had chided him about his comments after he’d said them. And Monday night Taylor reiterated that displeasure in his postgame comments.
“He just said don’t talk about the other team,” Taylor-Britt said.
While he said he didn’t regret what he said — and didn’t think it “was that crazy” and he’s right — he said he’d learned his lesson:
“It definitely won’t happen again.”
And sure enough, a couple of minutes later when someone asked what was next for the sinking team, he addressed the upcoming game with Carolina:
“We’ve got a great opportunity in the coming week. We get to go into Carolina and make a statement. We….”
He stopped and didn’t finish the next thought.
Lesson learned.
No need for a bib.
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