LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Bengals head coach Zac Taylor got two hits for the price of one when he worked his team against the Bears in the driving rain in Thursday's joint practice at Halas Hall.
Taylor has wanted to practice in the elements since last year's Opening Day soaker in Cleveland, and the Windy City delivered.
"It's good to learn what works for us and what doesn't in this environment against a different team," Taylor said. "As it got heavier as practice went on, it's good to get a sense of which passes would be most beneficial for us. Here's how we can run the ball. And the footing, just keeping your feet underneath you. The grass gets a little loose when it gets it like that. I thought it was good to learn from."
It was far from prime working conditions for the two Heisman Trophy winners working on adjacent fields. You know it's a tough day to throw when Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is pretty much only talking about the run game. He said the rain was similar to last year's opener.
"We ran the ball well. Tough to throw into rain like that, but I thought the run game was good," Burrow said. "The ball's slick. Tough to hold and to throw the ball outside the numbers and down the field. But it was good to work that."
Bears safety Kevin Byard III explained it similarly to chicagobears.com after his defense registered three interceptions. Byard, who is tied for fifth among active NFL interceptions leaders with 28, got one against Burrow.
"Just kind of trying to disguise the coverage a little bit and kind of really just read the quarterback's eyes (and it) kind of took me towards the ball," Byard said.
But, like Burrow said, preparing for a joint practice is tough.
"It's nice to get some new faces across from you, but it's tough because you don't game plan against them and you don't watch tape," Burrow said. "You're not going to beat their coverage. You have your plays, they have theirs, so that's always the challenge. It was good work overall."
Burrow did get two red-zone touchdown passes to wide receiver Trenton Irwin in team drills as well as a red-zone seven-on-seven touchdown to tight end Mike Gesicki. In the same team drill, wide receiver Andrei Iosivas made a nice sliding catch in front of the pylon.
Ready to Roll
Burrow did enough good work that he pronounced himself ready for Opening Day whether or not he works in next week's joint practice against the Colts.
"When game one comes, I'll be ready," Burrow said. "It doesn't matter if we have one or not. Another one is going to be nice, but I'll be ready."
Burrow just keeps adding on to the training camp reps he's never had in his five NFL seasons. His first joint practice on the road comes just days after his first preseason touchdown drive.
"These are the reps I haven't had the last couple of years," Burrow said. "The more reps you get before the season, the better you'll be … I'm happy where I'm at and moving in the right direction."
Injury Round-Up
The Bengals suffered two significant knee injuries that could be season-ending. On one field while working on kick return, backup running back Chris Evans was carted off after being put in a cast. A few minutes later on the adjacent field, the same thing happened to backup left tackle D’Ante Smith.
Both were expected to play extensively in Saturday's preseason game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 19) against the Bears at Soldier Field in their bid to make the roster.
Right tackle Trent Brown suffered some lower back tightness about halfway through practice, and Cody Ford took over.
Homecoming
Bengals wide receiver Charlie Jones, who grew up about an hour away in Deerfield, Ill., had a nice homecoming. Practice was closed because of the weather so his family couldn't watch, but it was a lift for him just to be back on the field again.
He had a scare in practice last week when he knocked knees, but Jones returned Thursday to run routes on air and individual drills. He also caught a punt from the Bears' Tory Taylor, his old college roommate at Iowa.
"It was the best-case scenario," Jones said. "A step in the right direction."
Other Notes
- Here's what Burrow likes about the run game:
"(It's) matching up with our play-action, it's matching up with all of our formations really well. The O-Line is really happy with the schemes we have in there."
- Thursday's other Heisman winner, Caleb Williams, is going to make his Soldier Field debut Saturday when the Bears play their starters against the Bengals' Twos and Threes. But Williams, like Burrow, the overall No. 1 pick, is going to face two cornerbacks vying for the starting job opposite Bengals' No. 1 cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.
Dax Hill, who has been playing with the Ones since his three deflections in last Saturday's preseason opener, has been getting snaps ahead of DJ Turner, the incumbent who started on Saturday.
"I thought (Hill) had a good game the other night. I think he's making progress every single week," Taylor said. "Way too soon to say right now where that is and everybody still has plenty of opportunity."
- Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt welcomed Caleb Williams rudely to practice with an interception in the first seven-on-seven drill.
"Very first play, man. Set the tone for the day," Taylor-Britt said. "And I believe that kind of just carried on throughout the different team events in everything."
Still, Williams got some shots in with a post touchdown to wide receiver DJ Moore and a fade touchdown to wide receiver Keenan Allen. In the move-the-ball period, the Bengals stopped Williams on four downs, which included Taylor-Britt's leaping pass deflection on a deep ball down the sideline against wide receiver Nsimba Webster.
"I think we held up. We did our job and we went out there and competed all day," Taylor-Britt said. "I didn't see too many explosives, man. We played top-down through there, especially on the back end. Communication was great very noisy on the field. I believe they had more trouble than us today."
Taylor-Britt and starting safeties Vonn Bell and Geno Stone won't play Saturday and, like Burrow, they may have played in their last game before the opener. Taylor-Britt says the secondary is already better than last year.
"It's night and day. With the two safeties that we got back, now is very different," Taylor-Britt said. "Having Vonn back, that voice that we need, and Geno just fell right into place basically with the backend and we've all kind of come in together and helped each other out in every way."
Taylor-Britt came away impressed with Williams.
"He's a good passer. He extends plays. You have to stay plastered," Taylor-Britt said. "The play is never really over with the ball in his hands. You can compare him to Pat (Mahomes) in a way just because of how elusive he gets after their regular play. It's like a second one."
- Burrow and Jake Browning (rib) are on the sidelines Saturday, so Logan Woodside and rookie Rocky Lombardi are going to quarterback the night. Taylor isn't sure how long Browning is out, but indicated if it might be a different story if it was the regular season.
"It's just better to let it settle instead of continuing to push through it, which maybe if it was a game you could. It's just going to nag for a while, and just let it rest," Taylor said. "It could be through next week, that's a possibility, but I think it's just a day-to-day thing that we kind of see how it goes. If you do it soon, too quickly, you can re-aggravate it."
- In the last period of the day, Woodside moved the ball with passes to wide receivers Kwamie Lassiter II and Shed Jackson. It set up Evan McPherson’s 51-yard field-goal attempt that hit the right upright.
