Bengals: Best quotes and moments from AFC championship media day

Chris Roling
·2 min read
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Cincinnati Bengals stars and coaches had plenty of interesting things to say and moments that unfolded during AFC championship Wednesday ahead of the team’s AFC title game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Considered one of the biggest media events of the year besides Super Bowl media week, the event saw plenty of the team’s biggest names involved.

Joe Burrow was there, of course. Ja’Marr Chase chatted about how Les Miles thought he should play cornerback, not wide receiver. Burrow also noted how his headset died during the win over the Titans and forced him to call his own plays.

That, plus more that we’ll chronicle below as the team preps for Sunday’s showdown in Kansas City. Here are the top moments as the team has eyes on a possible Super Bowl berth.

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Ja'Marr Chase on how KC will try to stop him

Last time Chase met the Chiefs, he put up 266 yards and three scores. He anticipates this time that the defense will attempt to do more to keep him contained, as noted by ESPN’s Ben Baby:

Injury updates

The Bengals are about as healthy as any team could hope to be while going into a conference championship game, as Zac Taylor revealed:

Vonn Bell on how Lou Anarumo preps

Syndication: The Enquirer

It turns out a veteran like Bell has a pretty interesting nickname for defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo ,as captured by Jake Rice of Bengals.com:

“(Anarumo is) a scientist. He always has the method, always tries to put us in position to make plays and take away their strengths and make them play left-handed. Really take away the threats and that’s what he does well. That and putting guys in position to make plays. He always has some formula in his head, and we try to diagnose that throughout the week and make it easier for us to play faster and put us in situations to make plays. Hats off to him.”

Burrow on his time at Ohio State

Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Burrow’s path with the Buckeyes eventually led him to LSU. He says he wouldn’t be the same player were it not for that experience, per Rice:

“I loved my time there. I stay in contact with a lot of people from Ohio State. Like I said, I wouldn’t be the same player. I think I am who I am because of the difficult times that I went through in my career. And if you look at all the quarterbacks that were in the playoffs, a lot of them have gone through a lot of adversity throughout their careers, whether it was early on in high school without offers or after college not getting drafted high or, having to go to a junior college or anything like that.”

The only player capable of rattling Burrow is...

Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

…Ja’Marr Chase, of course.

From the man himself, per Rice: “As far as Ja’Marr goes, we’ve been together for a long time, so he kind of knows how to get under my skin every now and then.”

Burrow on when he actually felt back to 100 percent

Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

It was pretty obvious watching the Burrow from early this season compared to the Burrow of now and understand he wasn’t 100 percent after coming back early from his knee injury.

He dropped the exact timeframe he really started feeling back to his usual self, per Rice:

“I wouldn’t say that I had less confidence on it earlier. I would say that I wasn’t able to do certain things that I had been able to do in the past, like make people miss in the pocket and extend plays. I really couldn’t do that until after the bye week. That’s when I started to finally feel like myself. I think that’s when I started to play my best football.”

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