Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said last week that he has unwavering confidence in quarterback Jake Browning, but the message was a bit different after Sunday’s game against the Lions.
Browning threw three interceptions in a 37-24 loss that dropped the Bengals to 0-3 in games he’s started this season. Taylor said in a postgame press conference that he still believes in the quarterback, but acknowledged that the team can’t turn a blind eye to performances like the one he turned in on Sunday.
“I do. Of course, after a game like that we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Taylor said, via a transcript from the team. “I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we had. To say Jake can’t win games for us, I believe Jake can win games for us. I do. We’ll just continue to look at everything we can personnel-wise.”
Browning rebounded to throw three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but the Bengals had already fallen behind 28-3 and he won’t find much objection to his characterization of his performance as “just brutal.” Brett Rypien, Mike White, and Sean Clifford don’t have histories that offer much reason to believe they’d be better, however, and that makes for a bleak outlook in Cincinnati right now.
