When it comes to motivational speeches, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor isn't known as one to give a bunch of them. Taylor is seen as a man who is calculated with his words, and there is one catchphrase that served as the catalyst for the Bengals' run to a second straight AFC Championship Game appearance.

According to Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Zac Taylor was conducting a final meeting before his club met the Tennessee Titans Nov. 27, and what he said was something that stuck with the players, and later caught on with the team's fan.

“They got to play us,” Taylor said.

While pointed at the time, it was after Cincinnati's 20-16 win over the Titans when those words started to stick. During the postgame speech, Taylor asked what was said the night before, and defensive assistant Mark Duffner screamed, “They gotta play us!”

As the season went on, more stories have come out about the feelings the Bengals have had throughout the season. To say the players have not been shy about sharing those feelings would be an understatement, but one could understand why.

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All year, Cincinnati has heard how their run to the Super Bowl last season was a fluke, or a one-year flash of success. When the preseason rankings came out, most had the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills among the favorites in the AFC. Even in the AFC North, it wasn't uncommon to hear the Baltimore Ravens as the favorite to win the division.

But here we are, and the Bengals are one of the teams left standing for conference supremacy. Like everyone else along the way, Kansas City has to play them for the crown.