Bengals Coach Zac Taylor, Quarterback Jake Browning Take Turns Assigning Blame in Latest Uncompetitive Showing

CINCINNATI – Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Jake Browning didn’t see eye to eye Sunday evening.

But that divergent vision wasn’t during the three hours they were flailing against Detroit Lions in another blowout that dressed up as competitive for Halloween.

No, the disagreement came in the immediate aftermath of Detroit’s 37-24 mollywhopping before a pro-Lions crowd of 66,115 at Paycor Stadium.

It went something like this.

Taylor: I was terrible today, and I’ve got to be better.

Browning: No, I was the reason we lost.

Taylor: Put this one me.

Browning: I screwed over the team.

That last one from Browning is almost verbatim from his postgame press conference, which differed greatly from Taylor’s.

Whereas Taylor tried to find some positives in scoring 21 fourth-quarter points for the first time since Week 15 of 2023 – when it was Browning again leading a three-touchdown rally on the way to an overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings – Browning’s words were void of any sort of optimism.

On the subject of accepting blame, Taylor’s point was that it’s his responsibility to keep the team out of danger.

But repeatedly throwing short of the first down marker on third down didn’t exactly feel like riverboat recklessness.

“I call the plays on offense,” Taylor said. “I put this thing together. I’ve got to be better for this football team. It just hasn’t been good enough. I put that on myself, and we’ve got to get that fixed.”

A little past the midpoint of the third quarter, it seemed as though the Bengals were going to blow past the franchise record for worst point differential in a three-game span.

The mark is -80, set by the 2008 team that lost its first eight games and then endured losses of 27-10, 34-3 and 35-3 in Weeks 11-13 on the way to a 4-11-1 campaign.

When the Bengals were trailing 28-3, their three-game differential was -88.

Browning started all three of those games and threw every pass.

His eight interceptions are one more than he had in seven starts in 2023, when he led the team to a 4-3 record.

Those eight picks have come on 124 passing attempts for a 6.5 interception percentage. That’s the worst mark by a quarterback with at least 100 attempts through his team’s first five games since Jake Delhomme posted a 7.5 in 2009.

Browning threw two interceptions in the first half against Detroit, and his third came two plays into the second half, giving the Lions just 28 yards to cover to bump the lead to 21-3.

“There were a lot of players who played winning football today. I did not,” Browning said. “Three interceptions that put our defense in a tough spot, our whole team in an awful spot.

“I don’t have an answer right away, but obviously I need to find a way to take care of the football better, start faster and make better decisions.”

Browning had no choice but to take responsibility.

He wasn’t the sole reason the Bengals lost, but he certainly was the biggest.

He came into the season regarded among the top backup quarterbacks in the league – if not the best – based on that 2023 run.

The boos started early as the Bengals’ first five drives ended in punt, punt, interception, punt and interception.

“I’m sure a lot of people wanted him on the bench at that point,” Taylor said. “I could hear it. We stuck with him, and he comes back and has three straight drives for touchdowns.

“That’s the Jake Browning I know,” Taylor added. “He’s resilient, was served adversity in the face, and you can count on him to keep bouncing back.”

That was the main thrust of Browning’s postgame news conference.

When he wasn’t beating himself up for performance and decision making, he was vowing to work even harder to try to make sure his next start doesn’t look anything like the last three.

“I’ve put our team in brutal situations due to bad decision making, so, yeah, I need to figure it out,” he said. “All I can do is respond and try to work as hard as I can during the week to put myself in position to help this team win games and avoid these disastrous plays.

“So that’s my focus, is just how much time can I spend on tasks this week to just double down and try to improve and help the team by making better decisions.”

Taylor said he didn’t consider benching Browning.

But Browning had to have wondered if it was coming after his third interception.

If the Bengals had a more seasoned backup who had more than a few weeks on the roster, a chance might have happened.

After the fourth-quarter rally, Browning likely bought himself at least another week to prove he can get back to what he displayed in 2023.

It’s not just his starting job that’s on the line. It could be his career.

If he’s not able to pull himself out of this, neither the Bengals nor the rest of the teams in the league will be eager to offer him a contract, not even a reasonably priced one as a restricted free agent.

You could tell from the way Browning was flogging himself that he isn’t concerned at all about 2026.

It’s all about Week 6.

“This hurts, and it should because I care, and I want to play better,” he said. “I work really hard at this, not that anyone should really care that I work hard or not as this is a performance-based league. But yeah, it hurts and it should.

“I feel a great responsibility to get back on track,” he continued. “I think for me, anytime I’m going through something difficult, it’s just double down on work ethic and seeing it all the way through.

“Whether it gets better or now, that’s to be determined. That’s the unknown. But it will not be because of lack of effort and lack of dedication to trying to get better and putting our team in better situations to win.”

Taylor said he still has confidence in Browning, but that has a shelf life.

“I believe in him,” Taylor said. “I saw the turnovers that were happening. We’ve got to be better. We can’t excuse him.

“After a game like that, we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Taylor said. “I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we had. To say, ‘Jake can’t win games for us,’ I believe Jake can win games for us. I do. We’ll just continue to look at everything personnel wise.”