Former Bengal Cris Collinsworth said what everyone thought a week ago Sunday night in Los Angeles when rookie cornerback Josh Newton thwarted the Chargers' first third down of the second half knocking away quarterback Justin Herbert's bomb intended for wide receiver Quentin Johnston to begin Cincinnati's comeback.
"They just had to make a play like this," Collinsworth told his NBC-TV audience. "At some point, somebody had to win a one-on-one battle."
With the Bengals back to work Monday after the bye, Newton reflected on one of his career-high 51 snaps during the best outing of his season in which he finished the game opposite Cam Taylor-Britt on the corner.
"I feel like it ignited guys. We kind of got on a roll after that," Newton said.
That's just the M.O. Newton brings out of Texas Christian as a fifth-round pick. A speedy, alert defender who plays salty and savvy with a brew of intangibles his coaches love and looks like they are going to put on display often in Sunday's game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the Steelers at Paycor Stadium.
Newton says he found himself going against NFL leading receiver Ja'Marr Chase in Monday's truncated practice on the Paycor turf for the first time since training camp. Since it was what they call "Good on Good," (Ones vs. the Ones), it could mean many things for Newton with starting cornerbacks Dax Hill and DJ Turner on injured reserve.
What Newton knows it means for sure is that juices were flowing Monday.
"It got the competitive spirit going. The testosterone was through the roof. Just getting back in that rhythm," Newton said. "You're out there against Nine (Joe Burrow), One (Chase) and Five (Tee Higgins).
"It's an opportunity to get better. I've been looking at that since I got the call to look for the opportunity to go against these top guys. At the end of the day, if you want to be considered a top guy, you've got to be able to stop a top guy like those. Maybe they're the best receiver tandem in the league and I get to go against them every day. To go against those type of guys is nothing but excitement, Make me better. I want to get them better. If I get them better, we're doing our jobs for each other as teammates."
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, along with defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and cornerbacks coach Charles Burks, have admired how Newton approaches his job ever since he arrived.
"He's had a great mindset. He's had tremendous energy, very focused, very mature for a young player in terms of how he conducts himself on the field and how much it means to him," Taylor said after practice Monday. "I was pleased with some of the things he's done, just with his mentality as he's gone out there and practiced, even today. Impressive young man, and we're going to count on him going forward."
READING THE ROOM
Taylor has mastered the bye with the Bengals coming out of the last three breaks winning all three by an average of 33-20.
So, take note.
On Monday, the ping-pong tables returned to the locker room for the first time this year after some recent conversation. They've been staples for the last few years until the Bengals rehabbed the locker room in an extensive project this past offseason.
Kicker Evan McPherson said Taylor told the team in the last meeting before the bye last Monday that he'd bring them back.
"That was kind of the theme. It got everybody excited," McPherson said. "Some people may think it's stupid, but I think it does help because the vision of it is you're playing with guys you might not always talk to. There are a bunch of guys you may not get around to talking to.
"Everybody loves ping pong, so you may be playing against a guy or with a guy that you don't talk to much. I feel like the teams I've been on the past three years have been really close. I feel like the games we play with each other have something to do with it."
Edge Joseph Ossai, like McPherson, a four-year Bengals vet, gets it, too.
"If the head coach says it matters, then it matters," Ossai said. "He's right. If you look at the meat and potatoes of it, all it's doing is bringing guys together, allowing guys to find an excuse to spend time with each other. It means a lot on that field when you know a guy personally. His success makes you happier, stuff like that. I might be bias because I love to play ping pong. It can't hurt in my opinion."
Taylor didn't want to make a big deal about it, but he knows December. In their last 11 December games, the Bengals are 9-2 and Burrow hasn't lost a December game in three years.
"I just want guys to interact. That's one way to do it," Taylor said. "I'm not overthinking it too much, but here's a way to create some energy and get guys up and active … It's December football now, and we need everyone to be at their best. Need everyone to have energy when they walk in the building. That creates some competitiveness. That's about all there is to it."
And there's the Good on Good at Monday's practice. Taylor says not to overreact, but the man fills notebooks with observations for a reason.
"It was just 7-on-7, so it wasn't 11-on-11 or anything like that, so I wouldn't read too much into it," Taylor said. "Sometimes it's the most efficient way just to get the reps in and kind of get the Ones more reps, so to go good-on-good was a way to do that.
"I think every single bye has come at different points in the season, so the schedule is always tweaked a little bit. I'm always looking back at that as we go into a bye week to make sure I'm not overlooking anything, but it comes at different points in the season, different stages in your season, and so we always just react accordingly to what the team needs now."
MONEY MAC BANKING ON MARKET REBOUND
When McPherson missed field goals from 48 and 51 yards in the fourth quarter against the Chargers with the score tied at 27, it marked his toughest moment as a pro since his rookie year and the 25-22 loss to the Packers at Paycor. That's when he missed a 57-yarder with 23 seconds left in regulation, and a 49-yarder in overtime.
And it will be recalled he bounced back to have the greatest postseason ever by a rookie kicker. On Monday, McPherson reflected that season turned around during an early December game at Paycor against the Chargers.
He missed his first kick of the day, a PAT of all things, but in the third quarter he cracked through a 48-yard field goal and then hit all but two the rest of the way through the Super Bowl.
"I tell this story a lot. I feel like I got really depressed my rookie year and I didn't really care much about football," McPherson said. "Then for whatever reason, I opened up to my wife about how I was feeling before that game and told her I was struggling mentally about just playing football … hit the 48-yarder and for whatever reason the mindset just totally flipped and obviously went on to have a spectacular end of the season. That's why it stands out to me."
That game was on Dec. 5, 2021 at Paycor, nearly three years to the day of Sunday's Dec. 1 game.
McPherson has been missing left. Which he says is strange, but not an exception. The OT miss against the Packers barely slid by left, just like the 48-yarder in L.A. last Sunday.
"My whole career since I've started kicking, my misses have always been right. For these to be left, it's pretty interesting for me," McPherson said. "So I feel like the bye week and then this week, my focus is just figuring that out and figuring out what I'm doing wrong and trying to make connections. "
McPherson says he "unplugged," from the world during the bye as he tries to figure out how he's missed four straight from beyond 50 after making 24 of his first 31 field-goal tries from 50 in his career.
He and his wife visited their folks in Fort Payne, Ala., and immersed themselves in family.
And golf.
"Just getting to walk the golf course and meet new people out at the golf course and just kind of hang out and chill," said McPherson, applying a worthy links lesson. "I think it's just understanding I have a strong enough leg to get it there. Just don't overswing and try to kill the ball."
SLANTS AND SCREENS
How great of a season are Burrow, Chase, and Trey Hendrickson having?
The Bengals didn't have a game, and Chase goes into this week still the only receiver with 1,000 yards. Hendrickson, with 11.5 sacks, heads into Sunday against Pittsburgh still with a one-sack lead over Houston's Danielle Hunter. And Burrow still leads the NFL with 27 touchdown passes with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson needing two Monday against the Chargers to just tie …
According to McPherson, Chase is a catch-all teammate. He actually apologized to Chase Monday.
"I like to apologize to those guys because those guys play their tail off and for me not to come through at the end, it really sucks," McPherson said. "We give each other a hard time even if we're struggling. He's just a good guy. A good supportive teammate. He told me he's always going to support me good or bad, win or lose. He's always going to be there for me. I really appreciate that guy. Really good teammate." …
Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, who missed the last game when he fell sick during the trip to L.A., is still battling a viral issue and didn't practice Monday …
Left end Sam Hubbard missed practice for personal reasons …
