Zac Taylor On Joe Burrow’s Personality Mirroring His Team’s And More In Bengals.com’s Taylor-Made Takes

As the Bengals prepped for Sunday’s Battle of Ohio against the Browns at Paycor Stadium (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12), head coach Zac Taylor chatted with Bengals.com senior writer Geoff Hobson.

GH: Do you think this team’s personality stems from quarterback Joe Burrow?

ZT: It certainly helps when you’ve got a guy like that leading the charge. Like I said, he’s going to go for the throat. The team can feed off that. They know that we’ve always got a chance with him at the helm, so that certainly helps our defense like, ‘Man, if we can just get a turnover here, we’ll go score,’ and that’s what Germaine (Pratt) did, and that’s what the offense was able to do.

GH: You guys played that game on Sunday with no panic. There was more than a little adversity. The failed fourth-down attempt in the red zone. The touchdown drop by Tyler Boyd. Patrick Mahomes hitting a couple of bombs. It wasn’t easy, but you guys have been there.

ZT: Yeah, I think our guys were very comfortable with the moment. That’s when our guys, really, I feel, are at their best. When it would be able to appear the pressure’s on, but it’s not. Our guys, they’re very prepared, very confident, so those moments don’t become too big for them. They really embrace it. They’re ready to make the play if the opportunity comes their way. That’s just how you feel coaching the team. You’ve got confidence because they’re so confident. It allows you to play aggressively on defense, aggressively on offense and special teams, and gives us an opportunity to go win.

GH: Your team’s time of possession has been impressive during this four-game winning streak. Really, all year. Is that a product of how well you guys are running the ball, strategy, defenses? (Excluding OT, the Bengals are fifth with 32 minutes per game, up more than 90 seconds from last year, and they’re at about their average in the last month.)

ZT: We’ve certainly seen a lot more overall two-safety zones. Whether that’s Cover 2 or Cover 4, mixtures of that. I…