Bengals' Trey Hendrickson bounces back from detrimental penalty with dominant game
A potential shutout was brewing at Paycor Stadium an hour into the Cincinnati Bengals' matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. Cincinnati had a 14-0 lead over its I-74 adversary, and had just gotten off the field on defense. Except the defense didn't get off the field. Edge defender Trey Hendrickson was flagged for a late hit […]
A potential shutout was brewing at Paycor Stadium an hour into the Cincinnati Bengals' matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. Cincinnati had a 14-0 lead over its I-74 adversary, and had just gotten off the field on defense.
Except the defense didn't get off the field. Edge defender Trey Hendrickson was flagged for a late hit on quarterback Gardner Minshew and the drive extended. Minshew ended up throwing a fourth-down touchdown pass 14 plays later, and the Colts ran back a Jake Browning interception two plays later to tie the game up at 14 a piece.
The entire game changed in an instant, and it all stemmed from Hendrickson's uncharacteristic mistake. Hendrickson would more than make up for the blunder with one of his best games of the season.
Two of the Bengals' three sacks and two of their six tackles for loss are created to Hendrickson as his bid for a third consecutive Pro Bowl nomination grew immensely stronger. Hendrickson gave second-year left tackle Bernhard Raimann fits during the afternoon and made his presence felt in all four quarters.
The first play of the game was Hendrickson's first sack as he bull-rushed Raimann back into Gardner Minshew. The game effectively ended when Hendrickson sacked Minshew again on the Colts' 4th-and-15 play with 5:17 remaining down three scores.
"He's a force out there," head coach Zac Taylor said of his star pass rusher. "You got to pay attention to him at all times and does a great job. We talked about this a lot last year, even when he's not hitting the quarterback and making plays, they feel him and they have to devote resources to him and allows for other guys to step up as well when they're doing that kind of stuff. I thought Trey did great job today."
It's almost par for the course for Hendrickson, who's now up to 13.5 sacks on the season after 12 games played.
Momentum is a funny thing in football, and it definitely felt like Hendrickson's penalty was a tipping point in what could've been a disastrous loss. He instead verified that his impact will always be immensely more positive than negative. And the team as a whole responded accordinly.
"We can't have it, Trey knows that. Trey is the first one to own up to it," Taylor said of the costly flag. "And it is what it is, we move on from it. I think we've done a great job, keeping the penalties not be a part of what we do. And so again, that's a learning moment for everybody and we'll respond the right way."
The response got the Bengals back in the AFC playoff picture, and Hendrickson's career year continues without a costly mishap to muddy it up.
Bengals breath a huge sigh of relief after avoiding familiar problem
That was a close one.
