The Cincinnati Bengals enter “Monday Night Football” against the Jacksonville Jaguars this week as underdogs — a role it sounds like the players are starting to embrace again.
Sans Joe Burrow, those players don’t really have a choice. But as starting center Ted Karras told reporters mid-week, it’s all about embracing the chance to go and knock off a good team in front of a national audience.
“We’re bringing the energy and we’ve got a big prime-time game against a team fighting for the No. 1 seed in this conference. It would be nice to go knock them off on Monday Night Football,” Karras said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I’m just a little angry. That’s how I like to play sometimes. I think just in general we executed better just all 11 guys. A smoother, better practice. Guys came to work. Proud of the way this team is handling themselves. We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves the next six weeks.” ….
Beating the Jaguars to end a three-game skid files under easier said than done territory, especially because Karras’ offensive line will have to come up big in the running game.
But if nothing else, Karras and Co. certainly haven’t given up, as noted by the effort during last week’s loss to Pittsburgh.