The Cincinnati Bengals stumbled hard this week, with Jake Browning under center. The team took a historic one-two punch in Week 3, suffering the worst loss in franchise history against the Minnesota Vikings, 48-10, the largest deficit in any game (45). Those five turnovers in enemy territory laid the foundation, and the Vikings made them pay every time. The Bengals head coach, Zac Taylor, was front and center postgame, laying it out raw and real.

“Okay, tough game for us today,” Zac Taylor said after the game. “Really, the starting point for us is five turnovers, five to zero. All five in plus territory. When we’re going in to put points on the board, two of them obviously directly led to touchdowns. They all to the best of my recall led to points.” That set the tone for disaster, with two directly leading to Vikings touchdowns. 

Cincinnati handed the Vikings five turnovers on a silver platter. And cornerback Isaiah Rodgers wrecked the Bengals with his plays. He forced three of those giveaways himself. “When the turnover battle was five to nothing, you put a sixth one on the ground that we recovered um and expect to win. So, a lot of things came of that. Which make things look pretty ugly,” Zac Taylor added.

The Bengals’ defense started shaky, too. “I thought to be truth be told defensively the first drive they had two penalties that gave him 25 yards right out the gate.” But turnovers were the real killer. “The turnovers in the first half are indicative of why the score was it was the way it was.”

But if the first half got Cincinnati on the wrong side of history, the second half wasn’t any good either. “In the second half, the dam broke a little bit at times there, but again, we got to buckle up. This is a loss. That first half was ugly. We’re going to have to make a lot of corrections from it, but we’re going to have to be ready to move on. We’re on a big stage next week and we’re going to get a chance to redeem ourselves if we can handle things the right way.” 

The Bengals had finally put points on the board, trailing 17-3 in the late first-half drive. Browning found Noah Fant, who made a move upfield just as the ball suddenly vanished. That’s when Rodgers showed up. He punched the ball loose, scooped it up fast, and while most in U.S. Bank Stadium were still watching Fant, Rogers was already up off the turf with the ball in hand. Zac Taylor reflected, “We just want points on the board… Obviously, we had two turnovers there in quick moments that gave them gave them a bunch of points.”

The running game offered no reprieve. “I mean when we’re playing from behind, they’re just chomping at the pit to tee off on us in in the pass rush and in the run game. There’s a lot we have to prove in the run game. It’s not pretty right now.” Fixes are needed: “We have to really identify where we’re going to be in the run game, what we’re going to hang our hat on, who we’re going to run behind.”

As far as the offensive line is concerned, Taylor was clear: “I didn’t see the line have one turnover today.” The blame was shared: “Very clearly this is on the entire team.” Turnovers weren’t random. “They’re a team that hunts the ball… had one last week… Derrick Brown punched one out in a very similar situation with Atlanta.” Vikings corner Rodgers proved the Bengals’ nightmare, forcing multiple turnovers and returning two for touchdowns.

But the coach is taking full responsibility. “We’ve said what we need to say in the locker room. I think realistically we need to look at why this game got away.” Defensive touchdowns stole momentum. “Two defensive touchdowns times we’re getting momentum, and they’re punching the ball free and they’re getting the ball. It’s tough to come back from that.”

But despite the beatdown, the spirit remained. “Our guys kept responding and trying to put ourselves in a position. I didn’t see guys quit. It was just a tough, tough all-around loss, and we’re all going to have to own it.” But if Taylor’s press conference was accountability central, Browning’s was about front-row admission and mental cleanup after the wreck.

After Zac Taylor, Jake Browning’s raw reaction revealed

It was Browning’s first start since 2023, which left him bruised. “I think when you have that many turnovers in the first half, you know, you’re going to play from behind the whole game, and we just never really got into a rhythm, and they stuck it to us today. That was bad,” the quarterback said.

On the infamous pick-six, Browning said, “Take away from the pick six is just know when to throw the ball away.” A lesson learned the hard way. Battling the sting of the loss, Browning laid out his mental process: “I think you got to sit in it like we got to work today. And you got to sit in it. And you got to go through those emotions of like just being miserable.”

The momentum in the game truly shifted right before halftime. “Yeah, I think right before the half is really when it snowballed….I felt like we kind of got into a rhythm a little bit, crossed the 50 and ended up having another turnover. And so, I think just in general, anytime you turn the ball over that much, you’re going to get blown out. And that’s exactly what happened.”

But the quarterback shared the hardest part about being a part of a game like this. “Trying to sitting in it right now and being miserable. I think just got to be able to bounce back.” He also mentioned that, as it’s their first loss, the team is fortunate and is going to focus on what went wrong.