Zac Taylor slams Chase Brown for calling out defense after Bears heartbreaker

The Cincinnati Bengals lost the craziest game of the year. On Sunday, the Bengals nearly had a 42-41 victory over the Chicago Bears in the bag. But with less than a minute remaining, the Bengals defense allowed a 58-yard touchdown to Bears tight end Colston Loveland, resulting in the 47-42 loss.

Bengals running back Chase Brown didn't hold back after the game, saying it was up to the defense to stop the Bears with less than a minute left in regulation. Brown said that "We put the ball in the end zone, and go up a point at the end, finish the f*****g game. Just end it."

Those comments have gotten to Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, and he didn't like that Brown called out the defense.

Zac Taylor alludes to Chase Brown's errors after running back blasts Bengals defense

Although no Cincinnati offensive player can be blamed for being frustrated with a historically bad defense in their own locker room, Zac Taylor didn't think Chase Brown went about his critique quite the right way.

All told, Brown had eight catches for 75 yards, but it took 14 targets to reach those totals. Hence Taylor's remarks, via Dave Clark of The Cincinnati Enquirer:

"Not if you're not doing everything you can, on your own...And I've pointed it out with Chase. There was two big plays that we could've done better that would've led to points. And so, I think I liked (the reaction from) Ja'Marr (Chase) a little bit better. I can tell Ja'Marr's frustrated, but he didn't want guys coming at him if he had a poor performance or something that he was disappointed in. I trust that that's a one-time thing, and we'll learn from that. That's not how we want to react, and one of our best players, one of our highest character players I think in moments of frustration said that, and I don't expect it to happen again."

Taylor's response come as a way to prevent a potential locker room rift in the future. As he says, he doesn't want players to go after Brown if he had a bad performance in a game. Plus, he called out Brown for two errors he made, a key third-down drop and a miscommunication on another play.

Plus, Taylor brings up how star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase handled his post game comments, in which he said, "I'm going to keep pointing at the offense. I can't point to the defense."

The reality is that the Bengals are coming off back-to-back losses in which the defense was unable to fend off the opposing offense. The week prior, the Bengals blew a 38-24 lead with over 10 minutes remaining to the New York Jets and lost 39-38 after allowing two touchdowns. Then this week happened, in which the defense squandered the offense overcoming a 41-27 deficit to taking a 42-41 lead in the span of less than a minute.

This season, the Bengals' defense ranks as the worst in football, as they have allowed an average 426.6 yards and 33.3 points per game, both the highest in the NFL. Despite these numbers, Taylor said he is still sticking with Al Golden as defensive coordinator.

Brown said what probably many Bengals fans felt. But Taylor doesn't want any finger pointing on the team. Thus, Taylor said that comments like the one Brown made won't be tolerated.