After his first game as the Bengals offensive coordinator, Dan Pitcher emerged late Monday afternoon and said the opener had been put "to bed," an hour ago.
So, the alarm clock had already been ticking to Sunday's showdown in Kansas City (4:25 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the two-time Super Bowl champs as he and head coach Zac Taylor sketched out what they're looking to build on.
At the top of the list is a run game that produced nearly five yards per carry and a touchdown in running back Zack Moss’s first nine carries as Bengal, as well as a defense that held the Patriots to a touchdown despite missing 13 tackles, per Pro Football Focus.
"We've got to maintain the momentum of the run game in the second half that we were able to establish. I think if we had another drive that wasn't so dictated by the score and the time on the clock, I think we would have continued that momentum yesterday," Pitcher said.
"I think we established a downhill rhythm in the second half of that game. A little bit in the second quarter, but definitely in the second half, the scoring drive for sure. I thought we came off the ball on the drive and the backs ran hard and were running through contact. We had two five-yard runs in a row from the 10-yard line to punch the ball in. Definitely building blocks there. Just like the rest of it when you have (48) snaps, we didn't get to do a lot of anything … That's our fault."
The Bengals ran just 48 plays against New England, the second-fewest in a game quarterbacked by Joe Burrow, surpassed only by the 42 they ran in a 2021 win at Pittsburgh. As simple as it sounds, they're simply looking to run more plays.
Their first first down didn't come until 10 minutes left in the first half, as Burrow's hit wide receiver Andrei Iosivas coming back to the sticks for a 12-yard gain on third-and-six.
"You've got to get the first first down. It sounds simple, but you saw it in the fourth drive," Pitcher said. "When we get the scramble, we get the first first down,and then it's like the pressure's off, and you're just playing football."
If there's one thing Taylor took to heart, it's how slowly the Bengals started. He said they felt good enough to jump out to 21-0. For him, this loss wasn't some kind of a trend because they lost their third straight opener failing to score 21 points. Taylor seemed to be saying when you turn it over three times (once on downs) and miss tackles, you can lose in Week 15, too.
"As we got more opportunity, I think we averaged 4.4 per carry (on the run). It's a good start. We started a flow there in the second half. The next time we got possession, it was a two-score, eight minutes left, and we couldn't continue to build on that," Taylor said.
"There were positives to draw from. I thought the execution up front by the tight ends and the linemen were good. I thought the backs ran really hard. I thought they made good yards after contact. If we could have played with a 10-0 lead, done a better job putting us in that position, and we can lean on that, you continue to force more missed tackles and the kind of things that they did to us. Credit to them how they played, but there was some encouraging things, but we need to create more opportunities for ourselves."
Defensively, the Bengals allowed pretty much only 10 points because the turnovers translated into field two goals. Although the Pats racked up 170 yards on the ground, Taylor, like linebacker Germaine Pratt, said it's fixable.
Tackling.
"There were a lot of things in the run that were positive," Taylor said. "The emphasis is going to be on the missed tackles for those big plays, but there were plenty of plays we did a great job becoming physical at the point of attack and shut them down there.
"Third downs. We were at the threshold where we were going to stop them and the quarterback ran through. Picked up a big one with his feet. But I thought there were times we did well in match coverage. Tight man coverage. We were able to get a turnover on downs in there."
LJ REACHES OUT
Bengals rookie punter Ryan Rehkow left Paycor Stadium Monday with a football that had more tape wrapped around it than a weekend project. Kicker Evan McPherson needed it to document all of Rehkow's accomplishments in his NFL debut.
Rehkow not only set the NFL record for the highest gross average of at least four punts in a game with 64.5 yards per punt, but his 80-yarder also broke Kyle Larson's 75-yard team record that had stood for 19 years and was tied by Kevin Huber in 2013.
"What a great day. Do you know what this guy did in his first game?" McPherson asked.
McPherson made sure it was documented for posterity on the ball as Rehkow thanked him profusely.
"This guy's my captain," Rehkow said.
And that 52-yard net average? Not quite as long as Huber's club-record 55.3, but longer than Lee Johnson's runner-up 51.3 drilled in the Seattle Kingdome in 1994.
Johnson reached out to Rehkow to congratulate him after the game Sunday.
"After one game, he destroyed everything that LJ stands for," the still playful Johnson joked from Provo, Utah Monday. "I told him, 'You couldn't wait for one game? You didn't have to do it all in your first game.'"
In the first game Johnson punted for the Bengals in 1988, Boomer Esiason threw for 332 yards. In the last game Johnson punted for them in 1998, Doug Flutie threw for 319 yards for the Bills. In between, Johnson punted in a Super Bowl and across 169 games while becoming their all-time leading punter until Huber got him about 30 years later.
This is why it's a small world. Johnson, who came out of BYU about the same time as an up-and-coming coach named Andy Reid, saw Rehkow punt every day because he's been working in the BYU athletic office of development for the last decade.
"I can't believe Andy Reid cut him," said Johnson of his old teammate now the Chiefs head coach. "What people didn't realize about Rehkow is the balls that were used in college here at BYU are the worst balls for punters. They're really tight quarterback-friendly footballs. I told him 'Oh my God Rehkow. When you get an NFL ball, you're going to salivate.' He's got the leg to be as good as anyone. You saw it."
Johnson punted for three teams in the old AFC Central: indoors in Houston and outside in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
"It all comes down to how you kick in November, but I don't worry about Rehkow," Johnson said. "He's punted in some bad weather, and he'll be fine. He's got an elite leg. He's a quality guy.
"The thing that impressed me about him is that he's not only got a great leg, but he's also consistent. He's good from the 50, too."
Now Johnson is fired up for this week's Bengals-Chiefs game. He knows Reid cut Rehkow because they've got a guy nicknamed "Punt God," in Matt Araiza. In his NFL debut Thursday night, Araiza averaged 48 yards on his three punts with a long of 56 yards. If he's the Punt God, what's that make Rehkow after he hit three of least 57?
"That's going to be a punt-off," Johnson said. "You've got a great one there."
FIRST-DOWN MARKER
The Bengals were four-of-11 on third down against the Pats and on a handful of misses Burow threw short of the sticks.
"It's twofold," Taylor said. "It's a fair question that makes sense.
"There are things that you call beyond the sticks, that you're not just throwing the ball beyond the sticks, because that's oftentimes where they are. I could get into every single rep on why it happened. I felt like we had a good point in place, and they did a good job. You got to give credit to them too."
Both Taylor and Pitcher thought Iosivas had to convert that fourth-and-two down 13-0 from the Pats 36 in the middle of the third quarter. But he only got one when Burrow flipped a screen to him behind the line and cornerback Jonathan Jones blew him roaring unabated downhill.
"We've got to be able to get that there. There was a good block in the perimeter," Taylor said. "We've got to be able to get two yards in a critical moment in the one-on-one."
Iosivas huddled with one of his best friends Monday morning to talk over the play and running back Chase Brown gave him some advice for the next time.
"I knew we had the numbers to do it," Iosivas said. "I saw (Jones) coming downhill. I knew I had to run through his face. I asked Chase today how I could get two yards. He said to try to pick a shoulder instead of trying to run through the middle. I'll take that into account. I still pushed him back a yard. Next time, I'm just going to pick a shoulder."
LAST DRIVE
Taylor and Pitcher thought Burrow made largely good decisions, and they felt like the Patriots had more to do with taking away the deep passing game than Burrow's decisions to go underneath.
For the most part, Taylor thought he had good protection. Although on the first series, Burrow got enough pressure to fumble before he recovered, and he got sacked to end the third series.
"There were a couple times the picture changed. That's one of the things they do well on defense. They change the picture on you very close to the snap," Pitcher said. "They're well-coordinated. When that happens, sometimes you pick it up a tick late. That affects your ability to distribute the ball. There's no one thing. I don't characterize his performance by any type of hesitancy, maybe on a couple of plays. Overall, we've just got to be better."
After the game, Burrow seemed most peeved about the last drive. "Not my best drive," he said.
With 3:04 left and the ball at the Bengals 10, the Bengals had all their timeouts and the two-minute warning to win it. But they got five yards on a check-down pass and had to punt. First down seemed to be their best shot, but Burrow couldn't connect with Iosivas.
"Seeing the picture pre-snap and post-snap and then making that decision, which side of the progression to work," Pitcher said. "Sometimes, most of the time, damn near all the time, he makes that call right. That's one probably he wants back. There's a lot that we want back from yesterday."
