During the bye week, Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan called out his offense, effectively saying that coming out of the break, it can’t just be the Ja’Marr Chase show.
Fast forward to this week, while the team preps to take on the San Francisco 49ers, offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. says that message was received loud and clear in the locker room.
In fact, Brown revealed that those things Callahan said were first said in a behind-closed-doors meeting before the team split for the bye week.
“I have the utmost respect for B.C. The way he carries himself and handles his business. I can’t say enough great things about him,” Brown said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “That meeting was somewhat needed. Make sure everyone had their mind right. Especially heading into the bye. Everybody got it, but that’s how it should be.
Brown continued: “He was just being honest. You need those things at times. I believe every man in this locker room holds themselves accountable … To have B.C. call us out, kind of let guys know in front of our coaches and our peers (is good). ‘Hey, this has to be better. This has to be better. This is good, but this can be better.'” …
Callahan’s offense started the season much as it has every year of his tenure, slow and struggling. While blame could go to things like Joe Burrow’s calf injury robbing the unit of summer reps, little things like bad communication along the offensive line and outright drops from even star players didn’t help.
Whatever the reasoning, as expected, it sounds like Bengals leaders got the messaging right and players have responded equally as expected.
As for Brown, he says he’s good to go for Week 8 against the 49ers despite the injury before the bye.
