Cincinnati (2-4) travels to play the Cleveland Browns (1-5) this week looking to start stacking wins following a 17-7 victory against the Giants.
“I think we were all working so hard for it, and to see it come to fruition after a lot of adversity we faced early in the season, that’s good, but it’s one game,” Hubbard said Monday. “Now it’s about taking it week by week, and by no means are we sitting here like we’re finished. We’re just getting started, and it’s a good building game to have.”
The Bengals benefited from having everyone available on the defensive line for the first time this season, and it was clear from the first five games the impact injuries to Sheldon Rankins, B.J. Hill, Myles Murphy, Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson had on the overall unit.
Hill, Murphy and Jackson had made their return from injuries in Week 5 and Jenkins came back in Week 3 after missing the first two games because of thumb surgery; however, now the group is starting to get into a rhythm playing together. Hubbard said he noticed the difference of having a deeper rotation late in the game, as he still felt fresh. There were eight defensive linemen that saw 20 snaps or more Sunday.
“Usually, you’re pretty beat up and you’re out there in survival mode, and I feel great the day after; late in the game I was ready to roll and I think a lot of guys felt that way,” Hubbard said. “Having that rotation going with all our guys back is going to go a long way, and I love it.”
“McKinnley, Kris, those guys coming off being injured, they made some plays and provided energy,” he added. “You get young guys, and they provide a spark for you, and us old guys can feed off that and they take some of the work load off.”
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said the defense has always been a confident bunch of players, but on Sunday, they played up to their own expectations. Germaine Pratt had a redzone interception on the Giants’ second drive, and Cincinnati forced two turnovers on downs in the second half.
The Bengals held New York scoreless in the first half.
“They’ve always known the truth of what we’re capable of and ... that’s the reality we’ve seen from our guys throughout the week going into a game,” Taylor said. “This did not catch us by surprise to see our defense play like that, give up seven points and do a good job with two big fourth-down stops and create a turnover in the red zone, so no surprise to us. We’ve got to continue to build off that. That’s why we always sit up here and say it’s a long season. You’re always going to face that stretch of adversity, we hit a pretty big stretch early on and we worked through it and now we’ve got to be the best version of ourselves going forward.”
While the defense put up its best performance of the season Sunday, the offense saw a drop-off from previous weeks when they scored 33 points or more in three straight games. New York’s defensive line caused problems with pressures and sacks, and the offense struggled to overcome those issues.
Taylor acknowledged that guys did get beat on some 1-on-1s, but said after watching the film, there were some easily correctable issues that went beyond individual matchups for the offensive line.
“There were some sacks that weren’t on them,” Taylor said. “There was a quarterback pressure where we had a cadence issue where Amarius looks like he gets beat. … You walk off the field as someone associated with the offense, feeling like, ‘Man there were a lot of things we’ve got to improve there,’ and then you really drill it down and ‘OK, there’s some easily correctable stuff that we’ve got to do a better job managing that will allow us to play more efficiently.’ ... Very correctable things that I feel confident we can be better at moving forward, that we have been really good at in the past.”
Cincinnati is still waiting for a game where all three phases are clicking at once, but Taylor believes the team is close to seeing that “complementary football” that has been missing.
“I think we’ll get there,” Taylor said. “I think it was good to see our defense play that way from start to finish. Offensively had some positive moments to build off of. Special teams had some big moments as well. It’s hard in this league to come out in all three phases and feel like, ‘Man, we got them in all three phases,’ because we’re playing some really good teams. Pleased with the environment we went into, find a way to win in the fourth quarter, did some positive things there and build off that going into a division game this week.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Browns, 1 p.m., CBS, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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