Dexter Lawrence walked away from his Bengals regular-season debut with a win, a loud home crowd in his ear and plenty to like about how Cincinnati opened the 2026 season.
The Bengals beat the Buccaneers 33-27 to start 1-0, and Lawrence’s stat line only told part of the story. He finished with one quarterback hit, but he was a constant problem for Tampa Bay all afternoon, helping make things easier for Cincinnati’s young linebackers, who came through with big moments of their own.
After the game, Lawrence made it clear the atmosphere mattered.
“Loud,” Lawrence said about the home crowd. “I like that.
Keep that coming. I like that.
I just kept pumping them up every time I had the chance, so it was a joy.”
Cincinnati’s defense set the tone by holding Tampa Bay to 20 offensive points and forcing four fumbles, three of them by Baker Mayfield. That kind of turnover rate probably won’t show up every week, but it was enough to keep the Bengals in control for most of the game and give the offense the kind of cushion it needed.
For Lawrence, the message afterward was simple: the job is only getting started.
“We know the team goes as we go, so we put that responsibility on our back, and we knew we needed to play physical and strong and with a motor, and that's what we did,” Lawrence said.
The focus now shifts to Houston next week, and Lawrence said the Bengals can’t let one strong opener change the approach.
“Gotta keep proving it,” Lawrence noted. “We gotta continue to bring it.
I think we are mature enough to know we can't allow all of that to hinder who we are. We just gotta be ourselves and go dominate.”
Before the game, team owner and president Mike Brown had already laid out what he believed Lawrence could bring to Cincinnati. In comments to Dan Hoard, Brown described the defensive tackle as “unusual” and praised his size, movement and power.
“He's unusual. He's a very big man, yet he carries himself like a smaller man, which is what you want.
He can move easily and well, and he's powerful,” Brown told Dan Hoard before the game. “It's hard for the opponent to handle him with a single blocker.
That guy, if he's a single blocker, had better be very good. That's what he brings to the defense.
He's effective against the run because he can penetrate. He is just powerful enough to push the blocker aside or get the edge on the blocker.
“And as a pass rusher, he gets real penetration. He can get deep in the backfield towards the pocket and the passer.
He's an unusual player. We think he will benefit us, make us better, and give us the chance we are looking for to go all the way if we can.”
Lawrence will get his next shot at Houston next Sunday, with his first sack in a Bengals uniform still on the table.
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For Bengals fans, it was a familiar kind of relief after a summer of watching another teams big contract and big expectations attached to Mayfield in Tampa. His new three-year deal keeps him in place for the long haul, but Sunday was a reminder that even with that kind of security, the margin for error is still razor thin when the ball keeps coming loose. [Read more 🡒]