Trey Hendrickson, Bengals Defensive Leaders React to Offensive Frustration With Historically Bad Play

CINCINNATI — The Bengals' defensive leaders echoed many of the same statements on Monday that they've said all season. Stones to turnover on this beach of defensive despair are running out as part of arguably the NFL's worst defense in the last 50 years, midway through the 2025 season.

From Trey Hendrickson, andJordan Battle, to Geno Stone and Cam Taylor-Britt, no one had a solution when speaking in the locker room.

The offense is getting hung out to dry, and the defensive stars know it after giving up 86 points in the past two weeks. Hendrickson understands, even though he's playing by far the best of any defender and trying to fight back from injury.

"I've done this for a long time. I think there are some things we can address together. But again, that was his decision. He's a very emotional player. We want that," Hendrickson said about Chase Brown's angry postgame comments on Sunday. "I can tend to be that way as well, but as long as we stay as a collective group, right? We lost as a unit, and that's all, whatever the roster is made of, including practice squad guys. So we all take that on the chin, and we aren't happy about that. And making those changes is something I think we should all be excited about for this bye week."

Those changes are hard to envision altering much at this point in the season, with your defensive talent barge largely landlocked until the spring.

Cincinnati isn't going to bring in a whole new unit before tomorrow's trade deadline. Guys like Battle and more have to start tackling soundly after he admitted himself that he's "just gotta wrap up" Colston Loveland during the fateful final Bears touchdown.

The whole defense has missed nearly 100 tackles so far this season, by far the most in the league.

"Maybe see more run game together. Maybe see more passing game together, you know, as a unit," Battle said on what they can do to fix the mess. "See whatever we can do to adjust. You know, that's just the main thing. You know, coming back from the bye week."

Geno Stone has played on "really good defenses" before in Baltimore, but the Bengals have been "embarrassing" in defending opposing offenses. The veteran is playing better this season compared to last, but it has to be a collective rise.

According to FTN's Aaron Schatz, the Bengals now have the second-worst defense through nine games by DVOA, since 1978. Only the 1979 49ers were worse.

"I feel like the same thing each week," Stone said about the issues. "We say one play, two plays this, and it should never even get to that point throughout the whole game. If you watch film, it all comes down to people just doing their job. At the end of the day, it's frustrating because I'm really passionate about this. I'm really passionate about playing this game.

"I love every guy we got here, but everyone's got to want it. And I've tried to tell JB (Jordan Battle) a few times that he gets too passionate sometimes, and lets his anger and stuff show too much of his emotions. But it shows that he cares. There are a lot of guys on this team that care, but it all comes down to people doing their job."

The Bengals have another chance to turn the season around on this side of the ball next Sunday against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers for their final battle in 2025.

The Cincinnati Bengals now have the second-worst defense through 9 games by DVOA, since 1978. Only the 1979 49ers were worse.

Part of the issue: the Bengals have actually played one of the easiest schedules of opposing offenses. pic.twitter.com/vcKteBd4dA
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@ASchatzNFL) November 3, 2025

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