Everything Jake Browning Said Following Bengals' Loss to Broncos on Monday Night Football

DENVER — Bengals quarterback Jake Browning met with the media following Cincinnati's 28-3 loss to the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.

Browning completed 14-of-25 passes for 125 yards. The Bengals have lost back-to-back games by a combined score of 76-13. Watch Browning's comments and read the full transcript below:

Opening statement

“Very frustrating loss. We have to get back to work and figure out how we can be more productive on offense and defense.”

On why the offense is struggling

“I think anytime you are struggling or not doing well on offense, there’s a lot that goes into it. I think for me, my focus is on my role in that which is dropping back, making sure I’m making good decisions and to continue to move the ball forward. There’s a lot that goes into it and I’m focused on my role and trying to be the solution. Finding a way to be more explosive, put up more points, sustain more drives, to be better on third down. Just play better offense in general.”

On if he felt he wasn’t playing as aggressive as he should’ve been

“I don’t think so. Off the top of my head, I think any game you’re going to want some throws back, but I didn’t walk away from the game thinking I just walked in there and tried to chuck the ball around every play. There’s a lot of throws down the field. I thought, as far as from a turnover perspective, we played clean, but we didn’t move the ball so who cares? I think for me, when you’re struggling on offense and struggling with the ball, it’s fighting that urge to have those frustration throws. You’re trying to make something happen and the next thing you know, it’s an interception. That’s kind of the line that you have to tow as far as, I didn’t feel like there was anything down the field just off of memory and looking at pictures on the sideline. I didn’t feel like there was anything down the field where I was like, ‘Oh, I should have thrown that but I was too afraid of making a mistake so I didn’t’. I think for the most part, I hesitate to say I put the ball where I was supposed to go on each play because we didn’t do anything on the offense. For the most part, that was kind of the case.”

On his thoughts on the play calling

“I don’t think it’s a play calling issue at all. When you have a poor performance on offense, there’s so many different things that go into it. For me, things that may even stand out as bad plays but things where you’re like, ‘God, I need to have my eyes on this side because of this’ or whatever. Basically, when you play that poorly on offense for this two-game stretch, everyone’s playing a role in it, and everybody’s got to play a role in the solution. That’s kind of my focus.”

On how to stop the bad plays on offense

“Get back to work and have a solution mindset and try and figure out what are our identity on offense like, what are we, what’s our go-to stuff that we’re going to do and how are we going to. We are good players on perimeter, how do we put them in situations where they can go make plays and do what they’re capable of doing. That’s kind of my main focus. I really just say the perimeter because that’s kind of my area on offense is trying to get those guys the ball.”

On plays that made the difference in the game

“I’m not going to sit up here and say one play. There’s a lot of different plays throughout the game that momentum swings and all that. Overall, the whole performance on offense is very poor and we left our defense out to dry a lot. Not to sound like a broken record, but my focus for this week is, on offense, we’re all part of the problem and we all need to be a part of the solution and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing to be a part of the solution.”

On his interactions with WR Ja’Marr Chase

“Good. He’s on the same page as me, just trying to figure out what’s going to work and what’s going to get us to where we need to be on offense. That’s kind of where the conversations have been.”

On what they can sharpen

“As far as penalties go, I think my role as the quarterback is to make sure we’re not taking delay of games, we’re not putting people in a situation where they’re going to commit penalties. As far as overall on offense I think that that’s more of a [Bengals Head Coach] Zac [Taylor] question. For me, I’m just really focused on trying to figure out what I need to do in order to help us move the ball and help us play better on offense.”

On the effort

“I didn’t think effort was an issue. I think the last two weeks just feels like we never really had momentum. [We] haven’t really been explosive. There are one or two good plays and then we’ll get into first-and-20 and that’s just fighting a hard battle with one arm behind your back when you end up in longer situations, second and long, first and long, leading to third and long. Good offenses don’t do that, so we need to clean it up. I don’t think effort was an issue. I never question anybody’s effort in the locker room. I don’t really think that’s how everything goes for the Bengals. I do think it’s a time when you’ve had two tough losses where you haven’t performed well on offense. You do have to look in the mirror and say, ‘okay, what is my role in this’ and removing all the emotion, the outside noise and looking at the film and saying, OK, what is my role in this, what do I need to do better?’ For me, like I said, because you’re tired of hearing me say it, but that’s going to be my focus this week.”