While Burrow found six receivers for a catch of at least 18 yards, a situational suffocating defense anchored by two gifted cornerbacks gave the Cardinals’ best player, record-breaking tight end Trey McBride, a longest play of an 18-yard touchdown after the game’s two-minute warning.
“We put our two best guys on their two best guys,” said Bengals rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. “That’s how you do it.”
Cornerbacks Dax Hill and DJ Turner II had help, of course. The 6-foot, 195-pound Hill was able to run with and muscle the 6-4, 246-pound McBride on the early downs while dime cornerback DJ Ivey and a selection of zones stalked him on third down.
McBride’s 10 catches were enough to break the NFL’s single-season record for catches by a tight end. But after Hill knocked down a deep pass underthrown by backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett on the sidelines on the first series of the second half, McBride had just two catches for 18 yards on four targets. When they got the ball back, it was Bengals, 30-7.
Meanwhile, Turner, the Pro Bowl alternate, made sure the Cards’ leading receiver, Michael Wilson, did nothing more than a 38-yard catch-and-run touchdown. He had four catches for 51 yards on nine other targets.
“We just keep on improving,” said Turner of a defense that has allowed 42 points in the last 10 quarters. “I tell everybody, if you make a mistake, just don’t make it again. I made mistakes in the league. I learned from them. I improved … That’s what I tell all the boys.”
Turner loved the Cody Ford play. The locker room did. When Taylor gave him another target and threw him a game ball for his 21-yard catch, the “Cody, Cody,” chant was as loud as the one that erupted in Paycor when he made his play late in the third quarter.
Ford, all 6-3, 346 pounds of him, a backup offensive lineman who started at four spots last year, found himself in another one last Tuesday when offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher approached him with the play.
They didn’t know if tight end Noah Fant (ankle) could play (he ended up being active), so the Bengals wanted to make sure they had another body available for their big personnel groups.
“Just to keep the guys in the O-line room, keep that energy sky-high. Not that I need to create anything to do that,” Taylor said. “But we practice it, he caught it during the week, and I felt like (it was) the right moment to get it called.”
The route was a hitch. Not only that, he would be split wide. Not only that, the greatest receiver of his time, Ja’Marr Chase, would be in the progression.
“I thought he was joking,” Ford said. “Then we practiced it. Then we practiced again. And I began thinking, they’re going to run this.”
It’s a glimpse of why the Bengals are still playing hard for Taylor with no playoff tiebreakers in the offing. Down deep, he’s still the Cynthia Circle commissioner back in the Norman, Okla., cul-de-sac organizing all the backyard games.
“It was a positive,” Turner said of the Ford play. “I was happy for him.”
