The Bengals got a strong early answer from a unit that spent much of 2025 taking its lumps.
In Cincinnati’s 33-27 Week 1 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, rookies Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. looked far more settled than they often did during a 6-11 season that saw the Bengals finish with the NFL’s second-worst defense, allowing 382.1 yards per game. One game won’t erase all of last year’s problems, but it was a sharp start for a linebacker group that needed one.
The biggest swing came early. On Tampa Bay’s second drive, Carter helped force a strip-sack of Baker Mayfield, and Knight scooped up the loose ball before rumbling 27 yards for a touchdown that gave Cincinnati a 7-3 lead. The play set the tone for a defense that forced four turnovers on the day.
After the game, Carter talked about what that moment meant to him.
“Damn near brought a tear to my eye,” opened Carter postgame to reporters. “That's my brother.
I'm glad that we were able to make that play. And I mean this in the most humble way possible, but, we as a defense, we expect to make those.Those are the plays that are gonna get our team to be playing in late February.
So, I'm so glad that, we kickstarted the season with the D-Knight scoring a touchdown. That's my brother for life and it means the world that he was able to scoop and score.”
Zac Taylor liked what he saw from both linebackers, telling Voice of the Bengals’ Dan Hoard that they played loose and confident.
“I saw guys play with a lot of confidence, flying around, having fun, you know, and not thinking too much, like a rookie can do. These guys have now earned some confidence from the experience they've gotten. They have the trust of all the coaches and their teammates, and they went out there and made some plays," Taylor said.
Carter’s final line included five solo tackles and the forced fumble. Knight also finished with five solo tackles.
Taylor said the speed of their reactions stood out, along with how they handled the defense.
“I think just the speed in which they diagnose things and go make a play. There's no hesitation, which over the course of the season they certainly improved on, but they trust the talent around them. So you don't have to do too much,” quoted Taylor to the media.
“I thought that they had really good command of the defense. Barrett with the headset and doing a good job getting us in the right calls.
So I was impressed. And again, there's improvement for everybody we had, but I thought it was a good starting point.”
Tampa Bay still moved the ball for 282 yards and averaged 5.4 per play, but the Buccaneers were held to a 50% touchdown scoring rate in the red zone.
Cincinnati now heads south to face the Houston Texans, who opened with a 36-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
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