In a duel of No. 1 overall draft picks who once played for a national championship, it was left to two old practice squad players and a training camp arm to win Sunday's Paycor Stadium opener that squeezed every last drop of drama out of the Bengals' Open in Orange.
Bengals wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley tied it with his first NFL catch, a wondrous one-armer in the back of the end zone. Backup quarterback Jake Browning won it by engineering one of the greatest last-minute drives in franchise history with a flying third-and-one quarterback sneak on the 15th play that gave them their first lead of the day with 18 seconds left.
Zac Taylor, the old Nebraska quarterback who had a cup of coffee in a Jon Gruden training camp before he became head coach of the Bengals, had just seen emotion meet resolve in the 31-27 victory over the Jaguars and called it the most resilient team he'd ever seen.
"The resilient group found a way. It feels like that's what this year is turning into already. Just a group that believes in each other and never flinches even when things are difficult," Taylor said. "They just looked each other in the eye in the second half and said, 'We're going to figure out a way to win this game.' And that's exactly what they did, and I'm really proud of them."
After watching Joe Burrow and what he means to it all limp into the locker room with nearly 40 minutes to go in the second game of the season, resilience is now the password for 2025.
And yet they are 2-0 and going to Minnesota to play a Vikings team riding with a first-year quarterback coming off a second career start in which he didn't generate a touchdown.
"It's like what I said at the beginning of the year," said wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who was every inch the All-Pro on Sunday with 14 more bloodthirsty catches.
"It's a rollercoaster. Every game is going to be a rollercoaster. Every week from here on out, we've got to focus and execute. That's the only thing. Our quarterback got (knocked) down, we've got to (say) 'Next man up,' and it's on from there."
In the middle of all these King's Island twist and turns was the strikingly stoic Taylor, the computer chip who spits out plays to his quarterback and moonlights as an Ohio Riverboat gambler.
After going for it fourth-and-3 from his 15 with 2:45 left in the fourth hottest game ever on the river, Taylor cooly explained, "It's not one you get to think about very long, I can promise you that. You're trying to solve a third-down problem for some tough looks, and then you have seven seconds to decide what you're going to do there. Now you're getting information, but I've got to decide if I'm going for this or not. And you're getting great feedback, and everybody supported that."
There's a certain serenity around Taylor no matter the chaos the NFL unleashes daily, and there it was again Sunday. The quarterback who is the heart of his program was nowhere to be found. They were never up. There was no running room. The 84 degrees mushroomed during the long, hot day on the turf.
And yet Taylor never looked up from his call sheet, staying the course. Even at halftime with the new quarterback. For Taylor, it wasn't so much finding new plays, it was finding a pace.
"We stuck with the very similar plan that we went into the game with," Taylor said. "Early in the game, they kept us off balance a little bit with some stuff, and I'd say all 12 guys, meaning the play caller and the 11 on the field, we didn't do a great job getting everybody on the same page and finding our rhythm early on. Sometimes that happens in the second half, you figure out your rhythm a little bit better. It starts to calm down."
Browning appreciates him. Especially after throwing his third interception with 5:12 left that put the Jags on the Bengals 12 with a 27-24 lead. Taylor, who last week had asked for the fans to show up ten minutes early, didn't blame them for leaving five minutes early.
But he didn't take it out on Browning.
"Beating the Jaguars is hard enough. Dealing with a coach yelling at you after a third pick would make it harder. Credit to him," Browning said. "I don't think I've ever seen him lose his cool. It makes it really easy to get thrown into a hard situation when you know he's got my back and staying steady."
Steady is exactly what the Jags didn't have. They couldn't finish it off from the 12 as wide receiver Brian Thomas dropped a curious fourth-down pass that replaced a field-goal try.
Steady won when the ball went back to Taylor and Browning. Browning channeled Burrow's 2022 Paycor opener against the Steelers, that tying nine-play, 60-yard touchdown drive in 85 seconds that produced Chase's six-yard touchdown catch with two seconds left.
"It allows me to be delusional and know I need to be aggressive, regardless of what just happened," Browning said of Taylor purring into his helmet. "I think you can see sometimes when the quarterback is in and the head coach is screaming at you about turnovers, it makes it a lot harder.
"He has a good demeanor. That voice in the helmet is pretty calm at all times. It allows me to go play, without feeling that added pressure."
Burrow and Chase may be the centerpiece of Taylor's program, but it is guys like Browning and Tinsley who are the foundations. Self-made, selfless pros.
Browning has almost as many years on practice squads in Minnesota and Cincinnati as he does on active rosters. Two years ago, Tinsley spent his rookie year in Washington on the practice squad. Last year, he got promoted, but played in only two games.
In the locker room, Taylor let some of that serenity slip with his machine-gun praise of Tinsley's journey.
"He exemplifies everything that we stand for as a team and as a Bengal. We define it as a physical, hungry, and an accountable teammate who is willing to do their all to get the job done," Taylor told the media later. "I told Mitch, and I told the team just now, that he probably had the hardest battle to be in this position."
Browning and Tinsley hooked up on touchdown passes within 20 seconds during a preseason game in Washington, and Tinsley had his roster spot. They hooked up again Sunday on a 13-yard touchdown play that tied it at 17 and pumped air back into the building on the first drive of the second half.
"If you're wearing a Bengals uniform on Sunday, I'm going to give you a chance and go down swinging. I feel like good things happen when I throw it up to Mitch," said Browning, who checked from run to pass. "I haven't seen the replay yet, but I heard it was a one-hander. Happy for him, because I've done the practice squad grind, getting to see someone else go through it. He doesn't talk much. He just works really hard. Good to see that."
Tinsley, who celebrates his 26th birthday Monday, celebrated his first catch with typical reserve.
"I've got a lot of reps with both Jake and Joe," Tinsley said. "They're both smart, intelligent quarterbacks who can get the job done, and I feel like they trust me when I'm out there. It's about taking advantage of my opportunities when they give me them and making plays.
"I caught a lot of footballs over this offseason. I put my body in different positions to make sure there's nothing that I can't do. That's what it came down to, really."
It was tough to celebrate in a locker room where crutches leaned against Burrow's locker following the announcement that he had suffered a left toe injury.
"It's weird," one of them said. After making it to 2-0 in his fifth season, Chase said, "It feels good, but it feels (bleep) at the same time." Center Ted Karras offered, "A QB sneak to win it. Nothing better. They were submarining. We knew it. But I'm sure people will be after our ass."
But they were also 2-0.
"It felt like we just got in a fist fight, but that's what's so great about this team," said running back Chase Brown who caught the fourth-and-three gamble for 13 yards. "We're always going to fight back, scratch, claw, whatever we need to do."
Taylor, still cool, agreed.
"Everybody will learn from this and know," Taylor said, "that the Bengals are never out of it."
