It took a lot longer than anyone hoped, but Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor picked up his first win on Sunday against the New York Jets. After the game was emotional with red eyes, and he talked about how much the win meant to everyone.
“These guys fought their tails off the last nine months waiting for a moment like this,” Taylor said in the aftermath, via Paul Dehner of TheAthletic.com.
Taylor said the thing he is most proud of with the team is no one started to point their fingers. It would have been easy for players inside the locker room to turn on each other, but that didn't happen.
“It’s easy to give up,” Taylor said. “It’s even easier to start pointing fingers. That’s what we didn’t see anybody do. It speaks to the leadership we have, throughout the building, really, that we have stuck together and find the positives. . . .”
Even through all the struggles, players have stuck by Taylor and after the game, he was presented with the game ball by the team. Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap thinks the win on Sunday was just the first of many in Taylor's head coaching career.
“We know Zac’s gonna have a hell of a career,” veteran defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. “But this season hasn’t started off the way that any childhood dream of being a head coach would have started or drawn up. But we wanted him to remember this moment, regardless of how the season has went.”
There is still a lot of work to do for the Bengals and it might take a while for them to get where they want to go, but it's good for Taylor to have his first win under his belt.
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