Bengals found added motivation to end 49ers' home win streak
The Cincinnati Bengals had won two straight games. The San Francisco 49ers were losers of two straight games. And yet, the latter was the clear favorite when taking the field. Why? Because the 49ers don't lose at home. They've been victorious in 17 of their last 18 contests in Levi’s Stadium, and Brock Purdy had […]
The Cincinnati Bengals had won two straight games. The San Francisco 49ers were losers of two straight games. And yet, the latter was the clear favorite when taking the field.
Why? Because the 49ers don't lose at home. They've been victorious in 17 of their last 18 contests in Levi’s Stadium, and Brock Purdy had yet to experience defeat in front of his home crowd.
The Bengals knew all of this going into Sunday, and it became added fuel to pulling off a groundbreaking upset.
In his post game presser, head coach Zac Taylor noted that he told his team about the Niners' home winning streak, which was at 11 games entering the day. He also equated it to ensuring they knew about the Buffalo Bills' home playoff history during last postseason.
"That's things we feed our players," Taylor said of relaying that key piece of info. "Because this is the type of team that responds to that, they want to hear that. They want to hear that Buffalo had lost one home playoff loss in their history. They wanna hear this team's won 11 in a row at home, because someone's gotta beat em, and it's gonna be us.
"I think that's just kind of the edge that these guys play with. They want that information to fuel them and they responded how I assumed that they would."
They responded as quick as possible. Following an opening three-and-out caused by the defense, Joe Burrow and the offense provided a 7-0 lead out the gate. He ended up with one fewer touchdowns (3) than incompletions (4), and the defense matched with three turnovers.
Taylor's team almost always finds a way to topple a juggernaut and write its own history. This win becomes the latest bullet point.
Bengals have officially put the NFL on notice
A statement win for the now 5-3 Bengals.
