Bengals right tackle Andre Smith found himself in an odd incident during Sunday's game when Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan came on the field and got in Smith's face.
Ryan apparently was upset because he felt Smith was holding, but Ryan drew what could have been a devastating 15-yard flag for unsportsmanlike conduct with the Bengals in the red zone. The Bengals didn't convert the touchdown, but Smith won the battle when he didn't engage enough for the flag to be picked up.
It looked like Smith yapped back, but he said he didn't and admitted he had never been involved in anything like it.
"It was cool, though. I guess he was just caught up in the moment," Smith said. "He was very on the field. He was out at the numbers."
But it was Smith's impression that Ryan was fined for what he said and not for going out on the field. He wouldn't say what Ryan said.
"But was I?" asked Smith about the holding accusation. Told the officials didn't call it, he said, "Exactly. I think he was just caught up in the moment."
Smith said he didn't talk back to Ryan because "I didn't have any reason to. We got the 15 yards."
And it was the last time Smith saw Ryan. He said he was nowhere to be found after the game.
"I think he ran into the locker room," Smith said.
HEADY DRE: Bengals rookie cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick missed a week before he came back to work full go Monday night after suffering a concussion a week ago in San Diego. He has no plans to change his headgear and says he has no lingering effects.
"Like I told them, they've got to go through the procedures," Kirkpatrick said of the medical protocols. "They've got to go through all the treatment. I just feel like it was just a head-banger. I don't feel like it was what you would consider a concussion. But if that's what they want to consider it as, it's cool with me. I just feel like it was just one of those plays where you hit a helmet and, whoa, where the hell am I at? One of those plays where you snap back."
Kirkpatrick says he suffered the second concussion of his life blocking on a punt return, but he said it was more like a stunner and he never lost consciousness and that it wasn't as bad as the one he had at Alabama.
"I was making a block. The guy didn't see me and kind of got the best of my head a little bit. It just felt like a bad headache," Kirkpatrick said. "I remember everything. I remember the play. I remember everything. My head was just spinning a little bit."
He certainly remembers the plane ride home with the loquacious Adam Jones.
"I just sat there with a cold towel on my head and listened to Pacman the whole way," Kirkpatrick said.
There are still some hoops to jump through and Kirkpatrick has been leaping through them all week as the doctors match his original baseline test with the ones he's taking now.
"A lot of questions. Just see how you react on certain things physical and mental. That's basically what I was doing was checking on my reactions to certain things, certain situations," he said. "At the end of the week before I leave (for Philadelphia) I've got an appointment with the doctor just to make sure everything is still up to speed and a better update. And I think next week I think I may have one more."
So for the meantime, Kirkpatrick is crossing his fingers for Thursday.
"The goal is for me to just go out today in the walkthrough and tomorrow pretty much just step-by-step," he said. "If I can make it through practice without any symptoms, I'm going to go. Just praying for the best right now."
