That includes thrilling-tell-the-grandkids playoffs, such as the overtime win in the 2021 AFC title game when they came back from 14 down to beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. It doesn’t include a year ago this week in Tampa Bay when Burrow out-Tommyed Tommy and overcame a 17-0 deficit to the Brady Bucs before the fourth quarter even began.
“We’ve been in these situations,” said slot cornerback Mike Hilton, after making another huge red-zone interception a la Tennessee in the ’21 playoffs. “We’ve got guys on both sides of the ball that make plays. When it comes to crunch time, they want to make plays. Shout out to everybody. We just have to keep fighting like we always have.”
Hilton is one of 20 Bengals who played in that 2021 opener and played the whole way Saturday. He was hurt and didn’t play last year in Tampa Bay. Neither did Pro Bowl sacker Trey Hendrickson. They’re the two biggest forces on defense and they still turned over Brady four straight times in the second half, which says something, too. A total of 25 Bengals playing into Saturday’s OT also played in Tampa Bay.
It will be recalled their Pro Bowl-worthy nose tackle DJ Reader forced one of those fumbles and recovered another. But on Saturday they watched him carted off the field after their second snap on defense. They fear a season-ending torn quad.
“I can’t even describe what’s going through our mind when DJ goes down,” said left end Sam Hubbard, who immediately took a knee and took off his helmet before the cart arrived. “Can’t even describe it. Then we rallied around each other and decided we were going to do this for him because he means so much to all of us. That’s our guy, man.
“We’re just a resilient group. That’s the most adversity we faced all season. We just continue to keep fighting. Nobody ever batted an eye. You just keep going and great things will happen.”
Maybe it takes a guy who has been on the…
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