After Monday night's 38-33 loss to the Commanders at Paycor Stadium left the Bengals looking for their first win of the season, their two leaders had a brief summit in an alcove before head coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Joe Burrow stepped into the locker room.
"It was mutual," Burrow said. "It was a very positive conversation. We're not happy with where we're at, but by no means is the season over. We're 0-3. There's 14 left to play. We just have to continue to get better and see where the cards fall in the next 10 weeks. We just have to go into this week preparing to get better and trying to get a win. That's all I can do."
Burow says he'll do some soul searching.
"There will be some critical thinking I'll have to do to see what kind of leader I want to be going forward," Burrow said, "and what I feel like the team needs from me going forward."
Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., said Taylor delivered "a great message," in the post-game.
"We've got to do whatever we can to come out of Charlotte 1-3," Brown said of next Sunday's game against the Panthers. "One day at a time. Stay committed to our team and our plan."
It just so happens the guy waiting in Carolina is old friend Andy Dalton, the winningest quarterback in Bengals history who is looking for his third win over the Bengals with a third team. Dalton came off the bench in place of the benched Bryce Young last week and led the Panthers to an upset win over the Raiders.
Dalton, who turns 37 next month, is 13 years older than Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels, the rookie who beat the Bengals Monday by completing an NFL rookie-record 91% of his 23 passes.
Dalton has wins over the Bengals with the Cowboys in 2020 and the Bears in 2021, and the Bengals beat him in New Orleans the last time they met in 2022.
"It's nice to see that for his career," Brown said. "But he's in our way."
MIMS UP NEXT
First-round pick Amarius Mims got the worst of battlefield promotions Monday. In the same series he made his NFL debut in the second quarter as an extra tackle, he became the right tackle for what appears to be the rest of the season when Trent Brown was carted off the field with a knee injury.
Both Taylor and center Ted Karras said it looked bad for the 31-year-old Brown, the 10-year vet they signed in free agency. Mims, 21, proved he's the future with a superb preseason cut short by the Aug. 10 pectoral injury that prevented him from practicing full until Saturday.
Now the future is here.
"It means Amarius Mims is the next guy up and nobody's better for the job. He's the guy we drafted to play right tackle and I'm excited to see what he can show with a full week's prep," Karras said. "I think he did all right. I'm sure like any NFL debut we've all had, there are things to get better."
On his first snap, Mims lined up next to Brown and moved safety Jeremy Chinn down the field as running back Zack Moss picked up five yards cutting off that side up the middle.
Mims helped the Bengals rush for 124 yards on 6.2 yards per attempt. He gave up a sack in the third quarter when he allowed Notre Dame rookie Javontae Jean-Baptiste, a seventh-rounder, to get inside him, but the Bengals overcame it to score a touchdown. He then had a false start on the extra point, but that didn't hurt them because Evan McPherson still made it.
SPECIAL KICK
Maybe the biggest play of the night was the opening kickoff of the second half, when Washington running back Austin Ekeler broke it 62 yards and rookie cornerback Josh Newton saved a touchdown with a tackle at the Bengals 33. It led to Washington's fourth straight touchdown for a 28-13 lead.
"It was a tough start to start the half. We're coming out of the half (and) we give up a big kickoff return (that) put them right down there," Taylor said.
Or, as Washington head coach Dan Quinn said, "He gave us the field position that changes everything."
For the second straight game, McPherson had a rare miss. Last week in Kansas City, it was an extra point. On Monday, with the Bengals trailing, 14-7 in the second quarter, he missed the first of his six field-goal tries this season when he hooked a 48-yarder. It was his first miss from less than 50 yards since Christmas Eve of 2022, when he hooked a 43-yarder in the 17 degrees of New England.
BIG PLAY
The Bengals' Cam Taylor-Britt came into the weekend as Pro Football Focus' highest-graded cornerback in coverage and found himself locked up with Commanders' No. 1 receiver Terry McLaurin when McLaurin made one of the key plays of the game. He bolted between Taylor-Britt and safety Geno Stone down the middle late in the first half for a 55-yard pass that put the ball on the Bengals 4 and led to Daniels' touchdown run that made it 21-10.
"I knew the deep shot was coming, but at the end of the day I've got to run," Taylor-Britt, "You're on a guy like that. I didn't have the chance to get a hand on him. I wasn't in press, I was off. He stemmed me outside. I have to open up and have to run. Good guy. You know what type of receiver he is. I never take that away from him. But it was my technique."
2nd-AND-20
Burrow said if there's been a common denominator of the first three weeks, "We've had opportunities and didn't cash in on those."
The defense had a great shot when they had to get the ball back with the Bengals trailing, 31-26 with 9:42 left. Thanks to Bengals Pro Bowl edge Trey Hendrickson's third sack of the season, Washington was backed up into a 2nd-and-20.
But the Bengals allowed the Commanders to convert a first down with three passes of eight, eight and nine yards, the last a fourth-and-four killer with Daniels working against the blitz and finding tight end Zach Ertz in front of safety Vonn Bell. They didn't get the ball back until 2:10 left, down 12 points.
The Bengals didn't have starting defensive tackles B.J. Hill and Sheldon Rankins (hamstrings), and while backups Jay Tufele and Zach Carter started, the first two guys off the bench made their Bengals debuts. Rookie Kris Jenkins Jr. played 25 snaps with a cast on his surgically-repaired thumb, and 14-year vet Lawrence Guy played 18 after signing Tuesday with no training camp.
Seven times the Commanders' offense had third-and-two or shorter, or fourth-and-two or shorter. Six times they got the first down.
"That's just too manageable. That's usually way better for the offense than the defense," said Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson. "(Daniels) was taking what we give him when he can. First couple of reads, and if it's not there, just find a way to get a few yards. And it's second and five and then it's third-and-two, and third and manageable. We just couldn't find a way to get them off the chains We didn't have TFLs or anything like that to get them off track."
Wilson and fellow backer Germaine Pratt led the team with nine tackles each. They each have 33 total tackles this season, tied for the most over the first three weeks of a season by any Bengals player since at least 1987.
Pratt nearly came up with his signature fourth-quarter turnover on the last drive when he caused Ertz to fumble on the first play at the Washington 31, but an offensive lineman grabbed it away on the ground.
"They scored every time they had it. We have to get a stop. That's what it came down to," said left end Sam Hubbard. "It felt like we were never in control with their tempo and muddle huddle."
Stone said Daniels' pace was a factor.
"They were doing a lot of hurry-up and speed-breaking us. That's on us," Stone said. "We have to communicate and make sure we're all on the same page."
Wilson says the Bengals have to get back to winning the close ones.
"All three games we've lost are by one possession," Wilson said. "In this league, you have to find a way to win those."
