Bengals Players (10.31.22)
Bengals T La’el Collins:
On if he felt that this was one of those nights nothing could go right:
“I mean, it just felt like we couldn’t get into a rhythm like we expected to, but we have to go back to work. Obviously not having (WR) Ja’Marr (Chase) is big for us. When we are missing a guy like that, we need to step up and do a better job.”
On the offense stalling in Browns territory and it coming back to haunt the Bengals:
“Absolutely. Anytime you are in the opponents territory, you need to put points up on the board. That’s the bottom line and we weren’t able to do that. We had the opportunity to do that and the defense gave us opportunities but unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize.”
On how hard it is to protect in a game against the Browns when you have to pass:
“That’s what we get paid to do. There’s no exception to that; we have to protect the QB (Joe Burrow), give him time to go through his reads and keep him upright. We have to go back to work and do a better job at that.”
Bengals WR Tee Higgins:
“We just left a few plays out there. Like you said it was a really tough start for us and we dug ourselves in a hole with the turnovers.”
On whether a game like this surprises him:
“Like I said, we dug ourselves in a hole and we were not able to get ourselves out of it and that was the outcome of the game.”
On what he knows about this team and its ability to bounce back:
“We have done it in the past so we just need to regroup. This is a short week so we will come back next Sunday and try to get back on track.”
On QB Joe Burrow saying early on that he thought they had a penalty:
“First quarter, got grabbed but they did not call it, can not argue that. We just have to keep playing, like we did and just have to capitalize on the opportunities that we get.”
On whether this game tonight was perplexing considering that they believed they had it figured out:
“It is football, you can not let it derail your entire season. You just need to take what you did wrong, fix the corrections and move on to the next. It is football.”
Bengals CB Mike Hilton:
On the teams overall performance:
“We couldn’t find our footing on both sides of the football. Defensively, we gave up a lot of third downs. It was a tough night all around but kudos to them (Cleveland Browns). They outplayed us and got a big win.”
On if it was stunning that the defensive played as poorly as it did compared to the rest of the season so far:
“Yeah you could say that. We have to fix what we did wrong. That’s a good team over there and we knew what they liked to do. We just couldn’t make plays.”
On how much they missed CB Eli Apple:
“We missed him a lot. He means a lot to this defense but that is an opportunity for the young guys to get some experience. We look forward to them learning and growing each week.”
On how much the Browns running game hurt the defense in the second half:
“Coming out of the half, they came down and scored on us right away. It put us in a big hole and we just weren’t able to stay afloat. Like I said, they outplayed us and what could we do now. We have a good team in Carolina coming up on a short week. We have to lock in, stay focused and try to get a win Sunday.”
Bengals DE Sam Hubbard:
On the loss of CB Chidobe Awuzie:
“Unbelievable, that hurts really bad. He is an unbelievable player and I wish him all the best. We are going to miss him and I do not know what happened. I just saw him on crutches and this is really tough.”
On so many players checking on CB Chidobe Awuzie in the tent:
“If you know anything about Chido (CB Chidobe Awuzie), it means the world to him. He is one of the most reliable teammates that I have ever played with and not much to say other than he means a lot to this team.”
On how they are going to move on from this loss:
“It is never easy. We are down a bunch of our leaders, DT D.J. Reader Jr. and stuff like that. Young guys are going to get the opportunity to step up and we are going to rally around that.
On whether they see their current record as a hole to dig out of:
“You have to at this point. We have one more shot at each team and our best chance is to go 3 and 3 in the division and then it is kind of going to be crunch time where we do not have any room for error. It is a tough loss but it is football and it is all about how you respond.”
On what he knows about his team and whether he believes that they will bounce back:
“I know the guys we got in our locker room. There are so many leaders, I mean this is one of the best groups of guys that I have been around and I know that there will be no finger pointing. There will be a lot of people looking at themselves and figuring out what they can do individually to get better and that is how you get out of situations like this, I have been here many times before.”
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