Rookie long snapper William Wagner had the kind of calm, reassuring debut you would expect from a Michigan man with all those Ohio battles against the Buckeyes under his belt.
He got his first NFL tackle, Evan McPherson hit all three of his kicks (which wasn’t a given in this one with a rookie involved), and he had a front-row seat for another guy making his debut.
With 19 seconds left, Bengals punter Ryan Rehkow dropped a punt on the Browns 5 and safety P.J. Jules, playing gunner in his first NFL game, did what he was told to do by special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons when he downed it at the 1. It’s just that Jules almost waited too long as it bounced too close for comfort to the end zone.
“We were in a ‘bleed,’ situation,” said Wagner of a play where they wanted to bleed the clock by letting the punt bounce for as long as possible if it wasn’t caught.
“He did what he should have done, but don’t give Darrin a heart attack like that. But he did a good job and Ryan had a great punt.”
Moments before, Wagner found himself snapping to Rehkow in their own end zone. “By the ‘Dog Bin,’ or whatever it is.” Told it’s known as the ‘Dawg Pound.’ Wagner offered props.
“Couldn’t hear a thing. Loud,” Wagner said.
How loud? The only place he has heard louder, he said, is the Penn State student section.
“Ringing in my ears,” he said.
Taylor indicated right guard Lucas Patrick is headed to injured reserve with a calf injury, but not for the season. He says he’ll be out a few weeks …
Remember that regimen engineered by NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson and Bengals strength czar Joey Boese during Hendrickson’s hold-in?
They couldn’t have drawn up Sunday any better. Hendrickson gutted through 57 plays, or 75% of them, the same number he took last November against the Chargers. And he was right-on brilliant. Pro Football Focus had him graded at 90.2 with eight pressures that included a sack, two hits, and five hurries.
Plus, an awed defensive coordinator.
“He gave us way more than I thought, and that’s an amazing human being, to be able to do that. But his play count, he kept wanting more,” Golden said, “and he did a great job when he was in there.
“He impacted the game, impacted the quarterback. I thought he was really rugged in the run game, and he missed a lot of reps.” …
Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt didn’t fare hardly as well with PFF, and he impressed Golden Monday morning when stopped by his office.
“He was one of the first guys that came to me right prior to the defensive unit meeting,” Golden said. “He said, ‘I’ve got to do a couple things better, and I got you this week,’ and that kind of thing. And so his self-awareness is good. Cam, you can coach him hard.” …
Add fullback to backup offensive lineman Cody Ford’s growing resume. Ford, who last year played four spots that included a tight end in motion, lined up in front of running back Chase Brown on the Browns 1, and Ford wiped out linebacker Mohamoud Diabate on the edge as if it were supposed to be run.
No run. Play-action. And the man Ford replaced, tight end Noah Fant, slipped off his block and was wide open for quarterback Joe Burrow’s touchdown flip.
“That’s true, old-school Spider Two,” Taylor said. “That’s Spider Two Y Banana. Right there. That’s not exactly how we called it, but that is a play I threw probably 14 of my 16 touchdowns in college on. Simple as that. If you like the Jon Gruden term that’s basically what that was.
“That’s not a full-speed rep that we get. We walked through that a million times and talked through how we want to cut the edge. That’s a big job, but in terms of actually repping that live, we have not done that with him.” …
Fant played 26 snaps, had the same five targets as Ja’Marr Chase, and had a team-high four catches for 26 yards. Mike Gesicki, coming off a 65-catch year, played 16 snaps and had a 14-yard catch on three targets. Taylor says not to read into any of that since the playtime percentages will change from game-to-game at that spot.
“Lot of flexibility in our tight end room. You are going to be able to look at every game and the playtime percentages can be different in every single game versus every defense we face,” Taylor said. “We are fortunate to have five tight ends who we trust. Four are active on game day, we had a fifth inactive, but we have five we believe can go in and operate our offense and give us what we need to win.” …
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