The Cincinnati Bengals Week 1 game didn’t go as planned with a 24-3 loss to their Ohio rivals, the Cleveland Browns. The offense that didn’t have quarterback Joe Burrow all preseason was a little rusty and only managed to put up 142 yards in the game, with a glaring 2-of-15 third down conversion rate.
Zac Taylor’s message to the team after the game focused on the fact that it’s early in the season and there’s a lot of time to turn it around.
Buy Bengals Tickets“This isn’t the team that we are going to be. We all understand that.” Taylor said, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic.
And that’s true. The team that played in FirstEnergy Stadium was not the team that went to back-to-back AFC Championships despite keeping around much of the roster. Burrow is coming off of a calf injury and hasn’t been able to see game time with his offense since the playoffs.
It’s not likely that Bengals fans are panicking after the loss to the Browns, but regardless, it is still the message you want to hear if a loss like that happens.
