The Most Interesting Things Bengals DC Al Golden Said After His Winning Debut in Cleveland

CINCINNATI – Al Golden spent his first regular-season Sunday morning as an NFL defensive coordinator going for a walk around downtown Cleveland about five hours before the Cincinnati Bengals kicked off against the Browns.

Golden said Monday that no, he wasn’t walking to the game.

Instead, he covered about five miles in 75 minutes and spent the time sipping a Starbucks cold brew while running through the call sheet he would be using in what turned out to be a 17-16 victory.

During his first victory Monday as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator, Golden carved out about 20 minutes to answer questions from reporters about everything he saw from his group in the season opener and what’s next.

Here are some of the key topics he covered:

On the feeling of vindication after spending the three season preseason games in incognito mode so as not to tip his plans for the regular season, resulting in the Bengals allowing 391.3 yards and 30.3 points:

“Obviously when you do what we did in preseason, which is not show anything that we showed yesterday, that's difficult,” Golden said. “That's a choice that we made, and I think that helped us yesterday. I really do. But it was hard for those guys to go through that, because it lingers. It doesn't go away. It lasted three weeks. So that was tough. But I think they had the resolve.

“But none of us came here, whether it's free agents or coaches or guys that go drafted, and especially Zac (Taylor) didn't bring me here to win one game,” Golden continued. “It's not like 'Oh, yeah. I told you.' We're on to the next game. It's short lived in this league. I'm glad we won. Now we have to build off of that.”

On rotating cornerbacks:

Josh Newton started ahead of DJ Turner II, but Turner out-snapped Newton 46-29 and had maybe the biggest play of the game with an interception of Joe Flacco on a dropped pass with 84 seconds left in the game.

“I've always believed the guys that practice the best or show the most consistency start the game, and the guys who play the best finish the game,” Golden said. “I think there's a reward in both cases.

“I'm not saying that's particular to this instance, because DJ – and Myles Murphy is another guy that they – got injured and their timing wasn't good. DJ missed the two weeks leading up to game week and that was unfortunate. Fig was doing a great job during that time, and we have a lot of confidence in him, too. So whatever we have to do to keep mixing that entire group up and get the right guys on and keep everyone fresh, that's the plan moving forward.

On the struggles of cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt:

SportRadar had Taylor-Britt targeted eight times while allowing seven receptions for 85 yards.

Pro Football Focus had Taylor-Britt tarted seven times while allowing six catches for 75 yards.

"He's one of the first guys who came to me prior to the (Monday) defensive unit meetings and said, 'You know, I've got to do a couple of things better. I gotcha this week.' His self-awareness is good. You can coach him hard.

“There's a couple of things he wishes he had back, so I'm not sharing anything he hasn't already said or believes,” Golden added. “First games are like that. First games are tough. You're seeing looks that you didn't prepare for. This goes on for a month until you get a beat on what everybody is settled into. So this month is tricky, and you have to control your variables. I thought our coaches and players did a good job of doing that. We had very limited mental errors.”

On defensive end Trey Hendrickson playing 75 percent of the snaps, which was much more than expected after he ended his hold-in and had five practices before the opener:

Golden didn't say what the plan was, but it didn't include Hendrickson being on the field as much as he was.

In 2024, Hendrickson only played 75 percent of the snaps in eight of the 17 games.

In Sunday's opener, he had one sack and could end up with another half one after the league reviews the one B.J. Hill had in the fourth quarter, when Hendrickson got there at just about the same time.

With eight pressures in the game, according to PFF, Hendrickson is tied for the most in the league heading into Monday night.

“He gave us way more than I thought,” Golden said. “That's an amazing human being to be able to do that. His play count, he kept wanting more, and he did a great job when he was in there. He impacted the game, impacted the quarterback. I thought he was really rugged in the run game.

"I think the thing about Trey in that game is he worked hard to get us into those (third) downs on early downs. He didn't just come out (onto the field) on third down, when we were in that down. He worked really hard for us, to get us into those downs. We always talk about earning the right to rush the passer, and he did that. You have to be an extraordinary human to be in the kind of physical condition that he's in, given the fact that he has not taken any snaps for us in a really long time. You’re talking about last January.”

On the four penalties on the opening drive:

The four penalties on one drive are tied for the most by a Bengals defense since at least 2000.

In 2016 against the Steelers, Pat Sims and Dre Kirkpatrick each had a pair of penalties in the fourth quarter, leading to the game-winning touchdown.

And in a 2003 game in Cleveland, Duane Clemons had two offsides penalties, while Artrell Hawkins and Tank Williams each jumped offsides once.

On Sunday, Taylor-Britt and Turner were flagged for defensive pass interference on a pair of third down stops. Linebacker Oren Bucks drew an illegal contact penalty, and Hendrickson committed a roughing the passer foul.

“Cam's, I think that's gonna be called more often than not. OB's, I can't say anything to him but sorry. (On Turner’s), you can't tug. Whether it was significant or not, sometimes they just see that. And then Trey, again, it wasn't forceful and obviously it wasn't malicious, but there's nothing we can do about it.

“I think the biggest thing from our standpoint is control what we can control. We've got to be better in terms of those penalties and don't give anyone an opportunity to throw the flag. That hurt because we had multiple times to get off the field there and I think the second series, we were three-and-out, so it could have been a much better start. We were hindered by that.”