Zac Taylor on Bengals' Win Over Steelers: 'This is the Expectation'

Taylor not satisfied after biggest win of his head coaching career

CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor's coaching tenure with the Bengals has been filled with adversity, bad endings and losses.

It took him 12 games to get his first victory. He still hasn't left an opposing stadium with a win. His 0-14-1 road record is about as bad as it gets. 

Despite the struggles and the poor record, Taylor's message to the media and fans has remained the same. 

“I know there’s a day where we’re gonna bust down this wall and there’s gonna be some great times ahead. I know that," Taylor said last month. "These two years that we’ve endured will serve us incredibly well in the future when we’ll win a lot of football games, we’re playing for championships, these will be times that we look back and reflect on as almost necessary for where we end up being.”

The Bengals gave Cincinnati the the rest of the country a glimpse of Taylor's vision in Monday night's 27-17 win over the Steelers.

They beat down the team that has pummeled them for years. They did it with their third-string quarterback and a defense that was missing multiple key pieces. 

“This has been the expectation. Every Sunday, when you walk on the field, you expect this result," Taylor said after the game. "This is been the expectation for us, and this is going to continue to be the expectation. It just feels like we knew we were going to win, and we won.”

The Bengals' defense played their best game of the season, despite not having Geno Atkins, DJ Reader, Logan Wilson and Trae Waynes.

They were flying all over the field and set the tone early. Vonn Bell's huge hit on JuJu Smith-Schuster was the highlight of the night. 

"I seen 19," Bell said referring to Smith-Schuster's jersey number when asked about the play. 

The turnover put the Bengals in position to take a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. 

"Our defense was doing that all night," Taylor added. "They were getting guys on the ground, and I didn’t see many missed tackles. They made some big one-on-one plays down the field."

The most impressive thing about Monday's win wasn't forcing three first half turnovers or taking a 17-0 halftime lead. It was the way the Bengals responded to the Steelers counter punch in the third quarter. 

How many people thought "here we go again" when Cincinnati went 3-and-out to start the second half and  Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers on a four-play, 67-yard touchdown drive?

Pittsburgh cut Cincinnati's lead to 17-10. The pressure was on Ryan Finley, Taylor and the Bengals' offense to step up after the defense had played well for most of the night. 

They delivered. 

Taylor pushed all of the right buttons on a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Finley capped it off with a 23-yard touchdown run that gave Cincinnati a 24-10 fourth quarter lead with 11:26 remaining. 

"I thought everybody did a good job executing it. [Ryan] Finley had some big runs for us. The big touchdown run was huge," Taylor said. "It was a good job by those guys adjusting over the course of the game offensively. Our guys were able to handle a lot of things that we adjusted as the game went [on], and I’m really proud of the way they handled it."

Taylor didn't get tight, despite having a 17-0 lead evaporate in minutes. He didn't get conservative like he would've in the past. 

The Bengals blew a 21-point lead against the Colts in Week 6. They had no business losing that game. 

The Taylor that coached on Monday night would've left Indianapolis with a win. 

That's a sign of growth for the second-year head coach, who might've just saved his job by leading his team to victory in a game that they had no business of winning. 

It was easily the biggest win of his head coaching career.

“I don’t really worry about that. We just needed a divisional win against a team that we’ve struggled with for a while now," Taylor said. "Just to see the response of our players in the locker room after the game—they earned that. They’ve been working hard every week, [and] we haven’t gotten these wins. It’s just fun to watch them enjoy themselves, and they will carry that energy over this week."

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