CINCINNATI (WXIX) - If the ball literally bounces a different way on Sunday in Cleveland, then there’d be a microscope on the Bengals’ cornerbacks instead of a spotlight on a defense on the rise.
At that position more than any other, there’s a very fine line between being a hero and being the goat. Look at DJ Turner, who gave up too much cushion on what could have been a reception for the Browns late in the fourth quarter but instead turned into the first interception of his NFL career.
The Bengals are still looking for answers at outside cornerback, and Al Golden rotated Turner and Josh Newton on Sunday while Cam Taylor-Britt had the worst game of the group.
“I’ve always believed the guys that practice the best or show the most consistency start the game and the guys who play the best finish the game,” Golden said.
Taylor-Britt had the toughest day, allowing a touchdown in man coverage, a 25-yard catch as well as a third down conversion that set up a chip shot field goal (still a miss) for the Browns as Taylor-Britt fell was flat footed.
On Monday, Taylor-Britt went up to Golden and spoke about some things that the fourth-year corner knows he needs to do better.
“His self awareness is good,” Golden said. “Cam, you can coach him hard. And there’s a couple things that I think he wishes he had back. So I’m not sharing with you anything that he hasn’t already said or believes.”
“Now it’s just you got to prove it,” Zac Taylor said. “You got to prove that it’s going to be consistent during the season. But I thought Cam had a good training camp, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him. Some of the plays were not his best plays in the game the other day. I see better than I hear, so just show us that you’re going to improve on that. And I trust that he will.”
Taylor-Britt says that there are two main areas that he has to address: his anticipation as he gets lined up, and his leverage. The receptions that he allowed on Sunday did look different from the plays that he struggled the most with in 2024 — vertical routes down the sideline.
Taylor-Britt knows this is a prove-it year for him as he goes through a contract season. He spoke multiple times with reporters on Wednesday about his Week 1 performance not being up to his standard.
Last year, bad plays snowballed into bad games and a bad season for Taylor-Britt. With Golden now running the defense, there’s a better system around Taylor-Britt for him to respond better to adverse moments like this one. Taylor-Britt has spoken highly of Golden, and Golden’s system covets corners like Taylor-Britt who have strong ball skills.
Newton got the surprise start on the opposite side on Sunday. Turner missed two weeks of practice leading up to game week, which put him behind the eight ball a bit. The injury came at a bad time, and Turner was catching up a bit on the practice field with the game plan.
“DJ missed the two weeks leading up to game week and that was unfortunate,” Golden said. “(Newton) was doing a great job during that time and we have a lot of confidence in him, too, so whatever we have to do to keep mixing that entire group up and get the right guys on and keep everyone fresh, that’s the plan moving forward.”
Newton had a quiet game, which is good for a cornerback. But he also wasn’t tested much, and Golden didn’t have him on the field for the biggest plays of the game.
Turner got off to a strong start with a pass breakup down the sideline against Browns’ top receiver Jerry Jeudy, and Turner got a lot of chances to show what he can do in man coverage.
“He’s always competitive,” Taylor said. “Now he’s back fully healthy and performing well and earning opportunity and he goes out there on the field and just does what we want him to do. I’m proud of him for the way that he responded to that (injury) and accumulated more reps for himself and proved that he deserves to be out there after a bit of a slow start to camp.”
Turner had a poor first few weeks of training camp, but a five pass breakup performance that included plays against Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. His pass breakup against Jeudy was a continuation of that.
Turner’s performance on Sunday was still a mixed bag as he committed a defensive pass interference penalty and allowed two catches, including a big one on third down on what nearly became the Browns’ go-ahead drive.
The opener didn’t provide many concrete answers on what the plan at outside corner should be going forward.
“Whoever is hot,” Turner said, “Is going to play.”
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As soon as he made contact with the Browns’ 6-foot-8, 375 pound offensive tackle, Shemar Stewart knew that he was going to win the rep.
“Once I felt him leaning, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s over with. Out the window,’” Stewart said.
It turned into a viral clip. With the Browns trying to pound the rock in a goal line situation, Stewart tossed Dawand Jones to the side line tackling dummy. “It’s falling back to technique and fundamentals,” Stewart said. “It’s getting leverage. Growing up as a kid, one of the first things you hear playing football is that the lower man wins. When you’re going up against someone who’s 6-foot-8, 375 (pounds), he’s not going to be low. If you can use his weight and height against him, he’ll go down every time.”
Stewart doesn’t know where his strength comes from. In the weight room, he lifts “375 on a light day” instead of 450 pounds like some of his teammates.
For whatever reason, he’s able to access a rare amount of strength on the football field. That was evident all game in his NFL debut as Stewart left a mark with his physicality. No play summed that up better than when Stewart tossed Jones to the side.
“I feel like with natural strength, that’s me,” Stewart said. “I don’t know where it comes from, but it just happens in the most key moments.”
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There were three main reasons why the Bengals’ offense shut down in the second half against the Browns. Two of them shouldn’t pop up again for a while, but the third one is an area the Bengals need much more from.
The biggest reason why the offense got stuck was that three aggressive throws to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins in the second half were just a foot-or-two off. The Bengals typically always make these plays. But because of some Week 1 rust and sticky coverage by a talented Browns cornerback group, the Bengals’ superstars just didn’t connect. If any one of those turns into a completion, it changes the tenure of the entire game. If all of them are completed — and they had a good chance — then the Bengals drop 30 points in Week 1.
“When you’re going to face man coverage against a good team that’s going to be able to rush you, then (near misses) are going to happen,” Taylor said. “One I would take that call back, we called a go route (for Chase) versus a soft corner. There’s a couple plays you always want back as a play caller. That’s probably one of them right there.”
Myles Garrett wrecked the game in the second half. While Orlando Brown Jr. also has to play better, Garrett destroyed plays and demonstrated his rare ability to turn power into speed on the edge. Dylan Fairchild also had a tough NFL debut (containing a spin move was a key part of the second sack on the drive with three straight sacks), and he’ll have to be better going forward.
The more concerning aspect of the season opener was that the Bengals had two chances to put the game away with their four-minute offense. In both cases, the run game failed them. More often than not, the Bengals lost yards. On these plays, a whiff on a run block by Fairchild, ineffective perimeter blocking (including from jumbo tight end Cody Ford, Noah Fant and Drew Sample) and a play where Orlando Brown Jr. tripped and fell over all cost the Bengals.
“They got tough at the end,” Dan Pitcher said. “The four minute execution was poor, and we’ve got to evaluate that part of it. We come away feeling terrible about the second half in a lot of areas.”
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