As he headed into a rare fall weekend that didn't involve a game, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor spent some time with Bengals senior writer Geoff Hobson reflecting on halftime adjustments, Joe Burrow's natural classroom work ethic, Mike Hilton's impact and the challenge of facing a good friend next Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium who also happens to be Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
GH: You obviously made some effective halftime adjustments Thursday night and you haven't had many comebacks from halftime deficits. Is that part of the evolution three years in now? With their knowledge of the scheme, is it easier to make those adjustments at halftime?
ZT: It's a little bit of that and it's a little bit of, you know, sometimes the first half might come down to three plays. Three plays killed three drives. It's more about, 'Hey, listen, there's nothing necessarily they're doing that we haven't prepared for. Here's the initial plan in the second half.'
You can tell when a first half hasn't gone your way when I'm not even through my first ten calls I want to get off my call sheet. You still have three or four of them left, just because of the situations you put yourself in. Generally, that tells you it's not a time to panic and rip up the game plan. Lets' just calm down and make this first possession count for us in the second half, which our guys did and we're able to get it going from there.
GH: It did look like you went in a pretty different direction in the second half with all the heavy formations and the runs.
ZT: That was part of the first half plan. We didn't get enough plays to get to the fourth run on the call sheet until the third quarter. You want to call those things on first and second on normal and we were more second- and-nine and second-and-10, so you don't get to pull that stuff off the call sheet as quickly as you want to.
GH: You've been around quarterbacks and coaches in this league for a decade on the cutting-edge stuff. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is a good friend. Where would you put Joe Burrow when it comes to Xs and Os. A graduate degree? A doctorate? After 14 games, where is he?
ZT: He's as far along as you need him to be. I think that's the best way to put it. It's hard to put him up against other quarterbacks who played 10, 18 years in this league. He's as far along as we need him to be. There are still going to be some things that pop up that he has yet to experience. What? Fourteen games or something at this point? There are some quarterbacks in the league with over 300, 400 games. There are things that come with experience. But he puts himself in really good position to be prepared and able to execute when we need it.
GH: Is he a grinder? Does he study a lot? Or does it just come naturally to him?
ZT: Both. I think he's got a really high baseline of football IQ. Maybe because his dad is a coach. He grew up around the game. Maybe he's just built that way. It's hard for me to say, but he also puts in the work. You're there on Saturday talking through situations. He's clearly prepped and that's stuff he does with (quarterbacks coach) Dan Pitcher and that's stuff he does by himself. It's always comforting to know he's ready to go.
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