Bengals' Zac Taylor greatly sugarcoats Jake Browning's rough first start
For his perceived faults as a head coach, Zac Taylor does not throw anyone under any bus. The leader of the Cincinnati Bengals is extremely careful with what he says in front of a microphone, exhibiting a collectedness that does not fluctuate depending on the success of the team.Sometimes that includes lying for the sake […]
For his perceived faults as a head coach, Zac Taylor does not throw anyone under any bus.
The leader of the Cincinnati Bengals is extremely careful with what he says in front of a microphone, exhibiting a collectedness that does not fluctuate depending on the success of the team.
Sometimes that includes lying for the sake of support, and that's essentially what Taylor did when discussing quarterback Jake Browning's first-ever start.
Browning turned in a performance that looked solid on the stat sheet, and dreadful on tape. It's why despite completing over 73% of his passes and averaging 8.7 yards per attempt, his grade from Pro Football Focus was a meager 39.9. Browning displayed accuracy and the occasional creativity to produce positive moments, but a closer looked revealed how overwhelmed he really was. Again, it was the first time he's ever played a full NFL game.
This is what makes Taylor's comments so surprising, considering he reviewed the film before giving the following answer.
"You know, there were some things that I was really pleased about," Taylor said. "I thought he was really sound in his decision making. You look at the normal downs in the first half he was 8-of-10, with seven of those being efficient, leading us down there to score a touchdown. There were some things that I thought he handled very well, and there were some things that, with experience, will really help him as he moves forward.
"I was impressed with how he handled it on the sidelines and his demeanor in the game, and rebounding from a tough interception is difficult. Still have a lot of confidence in him moving forward."
Okay, he's the head coach, of course he's going to say there were things he was "really pleased" about. Decision making should not have been one of those things he willingly mentioned!
Browning may've only thrown one interception on Sunday, but he easily could've thrown more. He threw the ball into harms way no fewer than three times, and the Steelers dropped a tipped ball that was initially forced to Ja'Marr Chase in tight coverage. Another errant pass was tipped up into the air only to land in the hands of Chase. That's luck, not sound process.
Turnover-worthy plays were just one part of Browning's questionable decision making. The Steelers pressured him 11 times throughout the day and sacked him four times. That's a rate of 36.4%, far too high for a quarterback to be responsible for. Browning held the ball too long on several occasions, including the play below in which he missed a potential touchdown for rookie Andrei Iosivas.
Instead, T.J. Watt sacked him nearly five seconds after the snap.
Decision-making encompasses multiple facets of quarterback play. A former QB and QB coach like Taylor knows this, and because of that, his answering shouldn't fool anybody.
Taylor was right to credit Browning for his efficiency on early downs. The Bengals produced a success rate of 55% passing the ball on first and second down throughout the day, which is even more impressive factoring in their horrendous run game. That's an actual building block to point out, and it's totally acceptable for Taylor to commend the positives of his players, regardless of how the game turned out.
It would do more bad than good for Browning if Taylor was completely honest and went through all the negatives of the day. But when he goes so far to says things he can't possibly mean, it sticks out like a pass headed right to the defense.
Jake Browning’s pre-game comments came back to bite him and the Bengals
Browning had plenty of confidence entering his first NFL start, and learned the hard way how tough the job really is.
