Cincinnati Bengals players are not happy with the Baltimore Ravens coming out of their Week 18 matchup and before the rematch in the opening round of the playoffs.
In fact, the Bengals’ distaste with things Ravens players did on Sunday was a theme of the locker room while celebrating the second AFC North title in as many years.
Specifically, members of the defense expressed anger at the actions of Ravens offensive players.
“I don’t really have much to say about that team over there. I have respect for some guys over there, and I don’t for some,” defensive tackle DJ Reader said, according to Jay Morrison of The Athletic.
Defensive end Jospeh Ossai said the following: “I don’t want to get into details, but somebody on that team …We’ll see ’em next week. That’s all I’m saying.”
Rookie Cam Taylor-Britt probably had the most notable quote, though.
“There was a lot of cheap s— going on,” Taylor-Britt said. “Just know that we owe them. Even though we won this s—, we owe them. … It was a lot of late stuff. Just after the play, doing dirty stuff you shouldn’t do in football. Aiming at guys’ legs and stuff and other dirty hits. We don’t play like that. We’re gonna remember that.”
Players didn’t offer up more in the way of specifics, but there were plenty of examples, like a shot to Ossai’s back near halftime that caused a scuffle before teams went to the locker room. Another notable example was a Ravens defender purposely slamming into Ja’Marr Chase while running to his teammates in the end zone:
Ravens were petty and chippy all game pic.twitter.com/EJEWlEsA7Y
— Chris Roling (@Chris_Roling) January 9, 2023
Then again, Bengals backup Jackson Carman came off the bench and inexplicably finished a block after the whistle well into the opponent’s bench, setting off a skirmish.
It’s easy to point fingers and suggest that while the Ravens sat critical players while resting up for an understood playoff rematch that things were chippier than normal. But as guys like Trey Hendrickson said, it was also simply an AFC North game with high stakes.
Either way, Bengals players being this open about it means there is a week for the bad blood to fester before the wild-card round.
