With his old defensive captain returning as Ruler of the Jungle for Sunday's Paycor Stadium opener (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 12), Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is urging fans to cut short their tailgates by 10 minutes.

Here's the memo from Taylor's pre-practice press conference on Wednesday:

"Here's exactly what I'm looking for. I know how loud we're going to be, so let's do it early. Let's show them right out of the gate. I think when Sam Hubbard is out there as Ruler of the Jungle, every seat is packed.

"I'd love to look up, I'm just asking for one game, a 10-minute sacrifice from the parking lot. That might just mean getting up 10 minutes earlier and getting to the stadium 10 minutes earlier than you normally would. So do whatever you want in those extra 10 … So when Sam is the ruler, I'm kind of looking up at that escalator to my right and it's blank."

Taylor says by then he's usually immersed in his call sheet or where the ball could be and a thousand other details. Not this Sunday.

"In this game, I'm going to … For this game, for one second, I'm going to look up there and see everybody in their seats," Taylor said. "It would be awesome, just to send the message to the team that we have to do our best to start 2-0, and for all the great things that we want to do this year, it starts with playing great at home and that's a collective effort from our players, our coaches, our fan base."

BIG THREE AGAIN

The Bengals have won six straight dating back to last year with quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins as game captains. Expect them Sunday.

Yes, Taylor is superstitious.

"I've worn that blue jacket that I've had on every road game since we've been winning, so I'm going to keep wearing it," Taylor said. "It's got all my kids' names on it, and I'm going to keep sending Joe, Ja'Marr and Tee out there until I decide that's what's not best for us."

TURNOVER TALE

Key to the game? After escaping last Sunday's opener because of a plus-two turnover ratio, Taylor is hammering it home.

"Jacksonville leads the league right now in that margin. They're first; we're tied for second," Taylor said. "So I think that goes a long way in deciding these early season games, the discipline aspect of all of this stuff. We're excited to be at home. To be 1-0 and come home, I know our fans are juiced up. I know that's gonna be a big part of this game, too, is using the home-field advantage to our advantage."

SHOT PLAYS

Upon further review, Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher isolated three deep shots the Bengals were a whisker away from completing against the Browns.

Two went to Chase and one to the other wide receiver, Higgins. Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II got a hand in on a back-shoulder throw to Chase, and on the other two, Chase and Higgins couldn't get their feet down on throws where Burrow took some heat.

"Really there are three plays outside the numbers where if we make one of them, we feel better coming out of it," Pitcher said before practice Wednesday. " We didn't make any of them. They're tough plays, they're not easy plays to make.

"The defender made a good play on the one to Tee. I thought Tee did everything he could to stay inbounds on that one. Newsome made a strong play on the ball to Ja'Marr. None of this occurs in a vacuum. We're playing a really good defense. The scheme is tailored toward their people. They play aggressively. They're a challenge. They got the better of us in the second half."

All three plays came in a second half Burrow cooled after orchestrating two first-half touchdown drives.

"I thought he played well in the first half. I thought there were plays that we left on the table in the second half," Pitcher said. "I mean, you can say that about every single guy, so I didn't think it was any different with regards to Joe."

TIMELY TIMEOUTS

Also in the second half, they took all three timeouts to beat the play clock.

"For the most part the communication was fine," Pitcher said. "We design it in a way to try to do everything we can in our power to help limit the opportunity that (Pro Bowl sacker) Myles Garrett has to impact the game. Sometimes Joe gets up there and it's not comfortable with the look we have. We try like hell to stay in looks that are comfortable and feel like we're accounting for him or whoever else. Sometimes that happens. We give Joe that license .., It's never a good thing to use a timeout outside of those spots. It doesn't mean there aren't appropriate times to use timeouts in a scenario. They were appropriate."

FIRST STARTS

Taylor didn't know before the newser that he's never won in Week 2, but he does know he's never been 2-0 in his six previous seasons. The last time the Bengals were 2-0 was the year before Taylor arrived in 2018.

"That part doesn't matter. Our team each week has focused on really central things, starting with week one," Taylor said. "Same type of focus for week two. So big picture-wise, that doesn't concern us. What concerns us is starting out 1-0 at home and that puts our best foot forward for all the things we want to do in our division. Just keep it a lot simpler than the things that are probably more fun to talk about. In our rooms, it's as simple as that."