Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor veered far off his usually conservative path during the Week 8 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and it cost the team dearly.
Down seven points near the fourth quarter, Taylor went for it on a fourth-and-one from his own team’s 39-yard line. The effort failed, the Eagles took over with amazing field position and ran away with the game to the 37-17 final.
After the game, Taylor shouldered all of the blame.
“I felt like we needed to be aggressive there. It didn’t work out, so that’s frustrating,” Taylor said. “I put that on myself. It was a situation where we felt like we needed to be aggressive and get a score on that possession given we were down seven. Anytime it doesn’t go well, obviously, you’ve got to think long and hard about that decision.”
This is one of those things where a coach looks great if it works and even worse if it doesn’t.
The problem here is, it was an odd time to take the risk after just failing on a third-and-short and knowing Taylor’s defense had been struggling.
Taylor can’t really win either way, though. He’s had some infamous moments of crawling into a conservative shell this year. He didn’t here and the fact of the matter is simple — at 3-5, the team’s season is on life support.
