Zac Taylor Dissects Historic Defensive, Special Teams Impact Following Bengals Win Over Tampa Bay

Zac Taylor had big praise ready for two of the less prominent units in the Bengals' sphere across recent seasons. Cincinnati got a massive four-turnover day out of its defense and a historic day from kicker Evan McPherson to power their 33-27 win over Tampa Bay.

Cincinnati kept the healthy Buccaneers team at bay and won back-to-back season openers for the first time in the Taylor era (first overall since the 2014-16 seasons). The defense held Tampa Bay to 20 points on offense and recovered four fumbles, while McPherson became the first Bengals kicker ever to hit multiple 55-yard field goals in the same game (four makes total).

"Our special teams were really big with Evan," Taylor noted to the media. "Evan coming up big and making those four field goals. He's the best kicker in the league. We're fortunate to have him, but just walk off the field excited for the win, excited to make the corrections and move forward 1-0."

The offseason additions and old entrenched names came through for the team on a day where Ja'Marr Chase only had two catches for 12 yards.

The tight ends put together a great game led by Mike Gesicki, who notched five catches for 78 yards and one score. Joe Burrow was surgical outside of his pick-six, and McPherson made sure they scored on every drive but one to complement the defense.

"You felt their presence, all of them today," Taylor said about the defense and crowd. "I noticed as I was watching all those D-linemen, B. Cook coming up with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. So it's just really fun to watch those guys get in the action and create all those turnovers, create that energy for the crowd early on. You just saw our crowd. I mean, the flow of games, timeouts--they had to use a timeout with 14 minutes left in the first quarter today. So, never underestimate the role the crowd truly gets to play when we're in a home game. It's an absolute. I say weapon a lot.

"That crowd is a weapon for us, and I'm thankful that we got to play this game at home because that may have been the difference. Getting a couple of first downs, getting a couple of delay of game penalties in a one-score win could have been the difference for us. So hats off to the crowd today."

Cincinnati now turns the page to a huge AFC matchup at Houston next Sunday.

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