After such a complementary Bengals' win last Sunday in Houston, compliments flew right after the game.
Defensive coordinator Al Golden made sure to pat director of player personnel Duke Tobin on the back after his wave of linemen pressured Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud into submission ("a great job in terms of giving us an opportunity to have players that are versatile"), as well as special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons with, "I felt like I called backed up twice early in the game," after Ryan Rehkow's first two punts.
As cornerbacks coach Charles Burks peruses the tape Monday, he offers a compliment, too, when asked when his tandem of Dax Hill and DJ Turner II is going to be mentioned in the same breath as Houston's Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter.
"Well," Burks says, "they played on the same field, and they were the best corners on the field."
He watches the defense's second play of the game and there is Turner getting his left hand in to knock a slant away from Texans wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson. That leads to the first of Golden's bottomless vat of third-down pressures. This one has the middle dropping out, safeties Bryan Cook and Jordan Battle blitzing, and Stroud not able to throw off either foot. Hill is all over the middle. Wide receiver Jared Wayne, playing his seventh NFL game, is no match.
"I thought DJ set the tone on the second play of the game," Burks says. "They threw a high-percentage throw, and he made a play, and I think that carried right over in the third down."
It's the first of eight PBUs on Sunday, Burks calculates. Four from Hill, two from Turner, one from slot cornerback Jalen Davis.
"That's a lot of production coming from those guys," Burks says.
In Houston, Hill actually did what no Bengals cornerback has ever done in the stat era, via Pro Football Reference, when he racked up double-digit tackles (10) with four passes defensed. The closest any Bengals' corner came to that was 21 years ago on the same weekend when Deltha O'Neal had five passes defensed and nine tackles in a win over the Vikings at Paycor Stadium.
Turner and O'Neal share the Bengals' single-game PBU record of five with two other cornerbacks, Rodney Heath and Johnathan Joseph. Turner pulled it off in last season's break-out year as one of the league's top cover men, and Burks believes his style mixed with Hill's versatility makes them truly dangerous.
"Dax can do whatever you ask," Burks says. "He's probably our most versatile piece in the secondary. He's playing corner at a high level right now. He's had two back-to-back solid games. He's been in great position."
Hill is off and running in his fifth season. He leads all cornerbacks with 17 tackles, is within two of the league lead for PBUs, and chalks up a good deal of it to the pressure supplied.
"The front makes it a lot easier. We just feed off their energy. It allows us to play freer," Hill says after the 41-pressure day. "It's great to see them doing their thing up front. It allows more plays for the back end."
Hill's versatility spilled the Texans with tackles and PBUs from in the slot and on the outside. Burks clicks to the first three plays of the second half. As Turner sets the tone of the first half, Burks says Hill sets the tone for the second half.
Turner starts it on the first play when he bats away a pass for Hutchinson over the middle because defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence makes Stroud throw it behind him. Then, on second-and-10, Hill is tracking receiver Jaylin Noel out of the slot and across the middle, and Hill plays through Noel's hands for the breakup.
"Good position," Burks says. "Even if there's a completion, Dax is right there in good position."
Another third-and-10 and another Golden pressure. This time Lawrence and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen drop, and there is Hill over the middle again, this time working on the outside with Wayne.
Inside, outside, Burks believes it's all overblown.
"I think people make too much of a big deal with that. You put these guys in position to do what they do best," Burks says. "And what he does best is coverage man-to-man, and he can blitz, and he can tackle, and he put that on full display."
Hill didn't work out of the slot a lot Sunday, but he can. That's how he became a first-round draft pick at Michigan. Burks rewinds back to the game's second third down. A third-and-five from the Texans 13.
With Hill in the slot, he's draped on Hutchinson's quick pivot just past the sticks for an incompletion as Stroud and the crowd scream for a flag. "But there wasn't," says Burks, again emphasizing Hill's solid positioning.
"Perfect break on the ball. So you've got PBUs in multiple positions, and when we went zone later in the game, he tackled really well," Burks says.
He fast-forwards to the last snaps of an 80-play game and there is Stroud in hurry-up down two touchdowns from his own 30 with 1:43 left. He and has to check it down to 6-5, 242-pound tight end Dalton Schultz. The 6-foot, 195-pound Hill cuts him down immediately for a five-yard gain.
"He's physical. A tremendous tackler," says Burks, but Hill isn't so sure.
"It's not where I live," Hill says. "I get in there every once in a while, but I don't want to live in there too much."
But go back to the first play of the game. Hill coming up to finish off linebacker Barrett Carter's tackle of running back David Montgomery's two-yard run. That proves to be a harbinger of the Houston backs getting 18 yards on 14 carries.
"Force the run back inside for the big guys," Hill says.
That's the first play. Now Burks takes you all the way to the next-to-last play.
Hill battles Hutchinson in man coverage all the way to the back right pylon. Hill hangs with him, and makes it difficult for Hutchinson to make the catch and keep his feet in-bounds. He can only keep his feet in without the ball.
"Again, I mean, 10 tackles. Four PBUs. That's an outstanding game," says Burks, none too worried about which tandems get the buzz. "We've got to just keep winning. That's all we're focusing on is getting better. Handling what's in front of us. And that's it."
That, and his tape.
