Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor met with reporters on Wednesday for the first time since Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed in the first quarter of Monday night's game.

Taylor discussed the emotional moment between himself and Bills head coach Sean McDermott just before the NFL announced the postponement of the game.

The Cincy head coach also cleared up some confusion about whether or not the NFL tried to force the players to resume the game.

Taylor said he met with McDermott at midfield to discuss the situation.

According to Taylor, McDermott told him that he needed to be at the hospital with Damar and not coaching a football game.

Here's a clip of Taylor discussing that conversation.

Inside look at what happened on Monday, #Bengals head coach Zac Taylor says that #Bills coach Sean McDermott told him: "I need to be at the hospital with Damar. I shouldn't be coaching this game."

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— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 4, 2023

Taylor also told reporters that there was no directive from the league or the NFL to resume play.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor said there was no directive for players to start warming up to return to play. Taylor: "There was no push for anything to happen."

— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) January 4, 2023

ESPN's Joe Buck has maintained that they were told that players have five minutes to warm up before resuming the game.

From the New York Post:

After Hamlin was taken to the hospital, there was a point when Buck said on the air that the teams were told they would have five minutes to warm-up. The information about the game resuming, Buck said, came from ESPN’s rules expert John Parry, who was in direct communication with the league. (NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent later denied the NFL was going to resume the game, but did not say anything in real time). ESPN showed Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow throwing as if he expected the game to continue.

“They said they’re going to give five minutes of a warm-up to these players to get ready,” Buck said via phone.

Without being part of those conversations, there's no way to know exactly what was said. I imagine there was a lot of confusion and uncertainty about what to do. Ultimately, though, the right decision to postpone the game was made.

Hamlin, by the way, is still hospitalized and in critical condition at UC-Medical Center after experiencing cardiac arrest on Monday night.

According a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter, Hamlin is showing signs of improvement.

Update from Bills: Damar Hamlin remains in the ICU in critical condition with signs of improvement noted yesterday and overnight.

He is expected to remain under intensive care as his health care team continues to monitor and treat him.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 4, 2023

Featured image via Sam Greene / USA TODAY NETWORK