Mike Hilton could look up from the slot and see Cam Taylor-Britt out of the corner of his eye. Linebackers Logan Wilson and Germane Pratt conferred in front of him. In front of them on the defensive line, B.J. Hill stood next to Trey Hendrickson, on the other side of Sam Hubbard.
And he could hear a very big birdie behind him in the voice of Vonn Christian Bell on Tuesday as the Bengals defense began laying down the soundtrack of another post-season run in their first seven-on-seven snaps and first 11-on-11 walkthrough plays of the season in a voluntary practice on the Kettering Health Practice Fields.
“I definitely think we have a little higher sense of urgency to make sure we’re starting off with a really high level of communication,” said the relentlessly productive Wilson, a mere six interceptions from becoming the Bengals’ most prolific interceptor ever at linebacker at the start of his fifth season.
“Because, obviously, last year we had those lapses of communication, so we’ve harped on it all offseason. Even in walkthroughs, we’re trying to make sure we over-communicate. If we’re all wrong, we’re all right. As long as we’re on the same page, we can survive every down in this league.”
Hubbard calls it a point of emphasis in the wake of a season the Bengals were in the NFL’s top tier of big plays allowed.
Tuesday’s plays marked those defenders’ first snaps together since they started the 2022 AFC title game in Kansas City, where they held Patrick Mahomes’ soon-to-be-crowned Super Bowl championship offense to two touchdowns. Bell, returning after a year hiatus, has, Wilson agrees, not missed a beat in the Bengals scheme.
“Like riding a bike,” said Bell after those get your-feet-wet 10 snaps or so in seven-on-seven.
Hilton helped conjure up Bell’s game-breaking interception for the Bengals in overtime of another AFC Championship in KC by simply communicating who had help where. On Tuesday,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at News…