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PITTSBURGH _ Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, who went from Pro Bowl candidate to benched this season, is back to playing well again during this four-game winning streak, and he says the reasons are as stark as the Bengals' assignment here Saturday against the Steelers.
"Do my job. As simple as that. The plays that will come to me will come to me," Taylor-Britt said this week. "Man-to-man situations, win your one-on-one. When the ball comes, use my God-given ability. Other than that, be where I need to be at all times. Let us all work together at getting off the field."
The Dec. 1 game against the Steelers at Paycor Stadium stands as a microcosm to Taylor-Britt's season. He broke up the first series with a pick-six. The Steelers tied it on the next series when wide receiver George Pickens got loose on a screen for a 17-yard touchdown that PFF charged to Taylor-Britt. But when the game was done, PFF rated him as the Bengals' top defensive player of the game.
"I can do a better job of setting the edge on that, then I don't think that's a touchdown," said Taylor-Britt, who says there's a road map to preventing Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson from again hurting them underneath in space after a game they missed 14 tackles.
"Tackle, tackle, tackle … Just put a body on a body. Make Russell be a quarterback."
It could be the first sub-20 degree game for the Bengals since the 2017 New Year's Eve game in Baltimore kicked off in 19 degrees. Taylor-Britt, who played in college at Nebraska, has no problems with that.
"I love (must) games. Cold, but I played four years in it. I'm kind of accustomed to it," Taylor-Britt said. "A lot of guys don't want to play in it. You just have to bring the fight to it. Don't let it get into your head. You just have to go out there and play or you don't. I don't know how to put it. It's a mind-set thing … Be a man or not."
WATT TO DO
Rookie right tackle Amarius Mims, who reportedly has a broken hand, came in questionable after not practicing Thursday, and it left Taylor trying to figure out how to play defending NFL sack champion T.J. Watt.
Watt did damage that game with a forced fumble of quarterback Joe Burrow, but Mims didn't give Watt a sack. If Mims can't go, Taylor has two options: Start Cody Ford in his fourth different spot and put Cordell Volson back at left guard, or keep Ford at left guard and give Devin Cochran his second NFL start and first at right tackle.
One thing is for sure. No matter who is out there, Burrow knows he'll have to overcome a play or two by the Steelers.
"We played there in 2022, and T.J. Watt jumped up, caught my ball on a choice route and then got slammed and I threw a pick," said Burrow this week. "And then another time I was throwing a curl route and somebody jumped up and tipped it at the line of scrimmage and I threw another pick. There's just nothing you can do about that. They have great players on defense that are going to make plays. You've just got to go out and make more."
Burrow has also taught himself to go in with a clean slate in the mind.
"I stopped trying to think about how defenses are going to try to play us a while ago because I would find myself getting in to that mindset," Burrow said, "and you get out there and you see a bunch of stuff you hadn't seen before, and so, at this point in my career, I feel like I've seen enough football I just read and react on the fly to whatever I'm seeing, whatever coverages are thrown at me. I'll be ready for anything."
ROSTER MOVES
Bengals running back Chase Brown tried to give his sprained ankle a go in pregame warmups, but he wasn't able to do it well enough to be active for Saturday night's must-game against the Steelers. Brown was among the first Bengals on the 21-degree field at 5:45 p.m. as he tried out the sprained ankle that kept him out of practice last week.
Brown ends up 10 yards shy of his first 1,000-yard season, and the Bengals have to find a way to make up for his eight straight games of at least 90 yards from scrimmage. Back on Dec. 1 against the Steelers, Brown rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown on just 12 carries and had 30 yards on three catches.
Khalil Herbert gets the call to replace Brown after his most active game as a Bengal last Saturday with 23 yards on four carries against Denver. Herbert, acquired in a deadline-day trade with the Bears, has 45 yards on eight carries and one catch for seven yards.
Rookie running back Kendall Milton, active for his second NFL game, is looking for his first NFL carry.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor left rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton at home for this one. It's the second time Taylor has opted to sit Burton after a healthy week of practice. He did it for the Nov. 3 win over the Raiders amid reports Burton missed that Saturday walkthrough.
Burton, the third-rounder from Alabama who hasn't played more than nine snaps in the four-game winning streak, didn't appear on this week's injury report until he was declared out Friday with a non-injury designation.
Taylor did Saturday what he did against the Raiders back in November and promoted wide receiver Kendric Pryor from the practice squad.
Pryor, an undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin who has spent the bulk of his three seasons on the Bengals practice squad, played in his only NFL game that day against the Raiders and had a catch for nine yards.
Burton leads the team with 13 kickoff returns for a 29-yard average, a spot now possibly entrusted to Pryor and veteran running back Trayveon Williams. Pryor had two kick returns for 43 yards against the Raiders. Williams has five returns this year, the last on Sept. 29, but has 33 in his career.
Rookie wide receiver Isaiah Williams has been their punt returner since being claimed off waivers in early November, but he did have a kick return for 36 yards before the Lions waived him.
