Bengals defense holds players-only meeting to try to spark turnaround

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Cincinnati Bengals defense — which ranks 30th in the NFL in points allowed per drive and was most responsible for last week’s 39-38 loss to the New York Jets — came together for a players-only meeting on Monday.

“We have leadership,” rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. said. “The guys are leading us. Trey (Hendrickson). Logan (Wilson), (Oren Burks), Geno (Stone) and (Jordan Battle) and BJ (Hill), they’re leading us quite well. It can be easy to lose your head to put it shortly after a game like that. It’s all about coming together and having love for each other. We’ll hold you accountable, but we’re going to grow and get better together as well.”

While players haven’t revealed the content of the meeting, the focus this week around the defensive side of the ball going into Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears has been centered around intangible qualities and around tackling.

Following Sunday’s loss, coach Zac Taylor said that he was looking for someone to step up and lead the defense. He said Monday’s meeting was a step in the right direction.

“You want guys to take ownership and take accountability for it,” Taylor said. “Everybody’s got the right intent. Everyone’s got great energy. Everyone wants to play well on defense and help us win games. The offense has to do their job as well. Special teams have to step up and do their job as well. Sure, they (the defense) has gotten a lot of the attention this week, but at the same time, there’s things in all three phases we have to improve on.”

The Bengals also lead the NFL in missed tackles. Before practices this week, the Bengals have done extra tackling drills that give the players a chance to work on technique. While they’re not actually tackling other players to the ground, they’re working on the fundamentals.

Coaches have also spent extra time talking with players about tackling during meetings.

“You just got to trust your technique and go at the end of the day,” defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “We want to have a defense that plays fast and tackles well in the alley and plays great fundamental football. As coordinator, I definitely don’t want hesitancy at any level of the defense, so we work hard to eliminate that. We want the guys playing fast, playing with energy, playing with passion and if there is hesitancy, we have to get rid of it fast.”

Golden also viewed the players-only meeting as a positive.

“There’s a higher standard there,” Golden said. “We let our brothers down on special teams and offense and we can’t do that. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know what was talked about, nor should I. It does feel like the fact that that was called is a sense of urgency there, as there should be, because we cannot do that to the offense or special teams again.”

Defensive end Trey Hendrickson remains day to day with a hip injury, which has been bothering him for a few weeks and took him out of Sunday’s game against the Jets.

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