The Bengals spent Week 3 making life miserable for T.J. Watt, and Amarius Mims came out of it with a loud endorsement from inside the building.
Cincinnati held the Steelers star edge rusher to one tackle and no sacks, and Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher singled out Mims for the way he handled the assignment. Pitcher said, “There’s a lot of really talented people, but there’s a fraction of the players in this league that truly can be special and he is in that fraction,” Pitcher said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s site.
“ T.J. Watt is one of the best to ever do that job.
To be matched up one-on-one as often as he was without help yesterday (he got some, but not a lot), and to just be consistent and to take the right set. There’s such a confidence for him in knowing, ‘If I just take this set on the angle that I need to take it on and my eyes are in the right place and I strike when I’m supposed to strike,’ there’s very little the guy across from him can do to counter that.
He just has to stay on the path he’s on.”
Bengals coach Zac Taylor echoed that praise, saying Mims absorbed the coaching and showed up ready for the challenge. “ He’s practicing hard.
He’s really taking it to heart what we need out of him,” Taylor said. “T.J. is a heck of a player.
We’re not going to fall asleep on that. I told Mims before the game and during the game.
Don’t have an ego about it. If you need something.
He handled it really well. He had command and a lot of confidence.”
In Baltimore, the Ravens may be forced to reshuffle the middle of their line after injuries hit both Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic against the Cowboys. Rookie Olaivavega Ioane is the likeliest candidate to slide to center, and coach Jesse Minter said the team will sort through the best option over the next few days.
“As we’ll sort through making our roster better over the next couple of days, he’ll prepare to potentially play that position,” Minter said via The Athletic. “We’ll figure out the best five guys to put out there in this particular week as we may add a piece or two from losing a couple of guys.
But major shoutout to him, to be a first-round pick and sort of deal with the pressure and things of that, and obviously to be kind of rolled in there as a starter right from the beginning.”
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is dealing with an injury situation of its own after cornerback Jalen Ramsey said he broke his right wrist in Week 3’s win over the Bengals. Ramsey said he’s still evaluating how much he can protect the injury while keeping his play at the level he expects.
“ I got to be able to protect it, obviously, ” Ramsey said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “[It’s a] broken wrist, so it’s not like I can’t really do anything about it.
It’s just going to be about seeing if I’m able to protect it and also still be myself in a good enough capacity where I feel like if I go out there, I won’t be letting any of my teammates down.”
He didn’t offer any firm update on whether he’ll be available going forward. “It was hurting,” Ramsey said.
“We’ll see. That’s all I can give you, I think.”
The Steelers also got a look at young cornerback Daylen Everette, and Jamel Dean came away impressed by how the third-rounder handled himself, including a key pass breakup on third down. “I was very impressed at how he responded because I remember being out as a rookie, you get the little jitters,” Dean said.
“ But once he made his play, he kind of settled in. So I was like, OK, I see you.
I love it.”
Joey Porter Jr. was back on the practice field Tuesday, and Mike McCarthy offered a cautious read on whether that meant he could play Thursday. “ We hope so.
Today’s another day. Obviously, we’re on a Thursday schedule, so today is more of a jog through.
So, yeah, we’ll see how he does today.” (Nick Farabaugh)
Porter ultimately was traded late Wednesday night after being ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Browns because of his “back injury.” He could make his debut for the Cowboys on Sunday.
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