Zac Taylor had plenty to like after Cincinnati’s 33-27 win over Tampa Bay, but the biggest takeaway came from the units that usually don’t grab the spotlight. The Bengals got a four-turnover performance from their defense and a record-setting day from Evan McPherson to open the season with a win.
The result gave Cincinnati back-to-back season-opening victories for the first time in the Taylor era, and the first time overall since the 2014-16 seasons. Against a healthy Buccaneers team, the Bengals’ defense held Tampa Bay to 20 points on offense and came away with four fumble recoveries. McPherson, meanwhile, became the first Bengals kicker ever to make multiple 55-yard field goals in the same game, finishing with four makes.
“Our special teams were really big with Evan,” Taylor noted to the media. “Evan coming up big and making those four field goals.
He's the best kicker in the league. We're fortunate to have him, but just walk off the field excited for the win, excited to make the corrections and move forward 1-0.”
Even with Ja’Marr Chase limited to two catches for 12 yards, Cincinnati found production elsewhere. The tight ends stepped up in a major way, led by Mike Gesicki, who finished with five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. Joe Burrow was sharp outside of his pick-six, and McPherson helped the Bengals score on every drive except one.
Taylor also pointed to the defense and the home crowd as major factors in the win.
“You felt their presence, all of them today,” Taylor said about the defense and crowd. “I noticed as I was watching all those D-linemen, B.
Cook coming up with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. So it's just really fun to watch those guys get in the action and create all those turnovers, create that energy for the crowd early on.
You just saw our crowd. I mean, the flow of games, timeouts--they had to use a timeout with 14 minutes left in the first quarter today.
So, never underestimate the role the crowd truly gets to play when we're in a home game. It's an absolute.
I say weapon a lot. "That crowd is a weapon for us, and I'm thankful that we got to play this game at home because that may have been the difference.
Getting a couple of first downs, getting a couple of delay of game penalties in a one-score win could have been the difference for us. So hats off to the crowd today.”
Now Cincinnati moves on to a big AFC matchup at Houston next Sunday.
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