Bengals savor playoff victory

Taylor and some of his players delivered game balls to three locations in the Cincinnati area, Pontiac OTR, Walt’s Hitching Post and Mt. Lookout Tavern.

“I drive by one bar in particular, the one I went to (Mt. Lookout Tavern), every day for the last three years, and Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, I always see people in there with Bengals gear,” Taylor said. “And so that’s kind of the time when I drive home from work and drive into work, that’s where you kind of think of those big picture things and something I had on my mind for a long time to do, and it worked out to where we had that opportunity to do that last night.”

Taylor and punter Kevin Huber delivered the game ball to Mt. Lookout Tavern near Taylor’s home and was surprised to see how quickly videos of his speech to the fans there went viral. A photo surfaced of tight end C.J. Uzomah handing out a ball at Walt’s Hitching Post. The Bengals had posted on Twitter that a ball would be delivered to Pontiac as well.

Bengals left tackle Jonah Williams loved the idea after seeing how much energy the fans brought Saturday and what the win meant to them.

“I think it’s an awesome gesture that he did and that we did as a team,” Williams said. “It was incredible to see, like I was talking about earlier, the energy in the stadium and I know it was a record attendance and probably a record decibel level just because the fans were so riled up and they were so excited. Being here in 2019 and 2020 when we haven’t been as good. We had the COVID year happen and everything, and so I know it’s been a tough couple of years for Bengals fans and you know much longer before I was here there’s been a lot of disappointments in the playoffs.

“So to be able to give this to the city physically, you know, by actually giving them a ball and symbolically by bringing home playoff win to the city, it means a lot to us as a team. And it feels awesome to have the city behind us and we definitely felt it yesterday and so I thought it was cool to kind of give that gesture of giving back to the city because they’ve definitely supported us, you know, through good and bad times and they’re good right now. So we’re all we’re all pretty happy.”

Looking for D-tackles?

Free safety Jessie Bates said he appreciated getting a text from former Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green congratulating him on the win, but another former teammate was on his mind Sunday morning.

Bates reached out to Geno Atkins via text message to see if he might be interested in a return since the Bengals are short-handed on the defensive line after Saturday’s game saw three players from that group go down with injuries. Bates said Atkins had not yet responded as of Sunday early afternoon.

When asked for injury updates Sunday afternoon, Taylor said defensive tackle Mike Daniels is likely done for the season after injuring his groin in the first quarter, but Larry Ogunjobi’s foot needs further assessment and Trey Hendrickson will begin concussion protocol testing Tuesday.

Daniels had been called up from the practice squad to help with Josh Tupou unavailable because of a knee injury. Taylor had indicated last week that Tupou was dealing with an MCL issue, but said Sunday it’s possible he could play this week.

“I think there’s a chance,” Taylor said. “It’d be hard to say until we get back on the field and get him moving around a little bit, but I know that he wants to, so we’ll just have to play it day to day with him.”

Hendrickson will need to clear daily protocols, including physical activity and a contact practice, which there is time to do before the divisional round. But Taylor said it’s possible the team will need to add a defensive lineman this week, and all options will be on the table.

What’s next?

The Bengals reviewed film from Saturday and began preparing for a potential opponent Sunday, though their divisional round matchup wouldn’t be known until after the Sunday Night game. They will be on the road for the next round at Tennessee or Buffalo.

The league had indicated it might wait until after the NFC Wild Card game between the Cardinals and Rams on Monday Night to determine time slots, but teams would at least know Sunday night what day they would be playing next week.