FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Observed and heard in the locker room after the Cincinnati Bengals' 43-17 loss to the New England Patriots:
Green goes to Revis Island: Bengals receiver A.J. Green knew he would have his hands full on the outside with cornerback Darrelle Revis expected to be matched up with him all night. Even if Green's expectations were reached, he still walked away from the game feeling as if Revis didn't get the best of him. "He did a good job," Green said about Revis. "But I didn't feel like he shut me down. I had steps on him. ... I didn't feel like he did anything special that I had never seen before." Green was targeted seven times and caught five hard-earned passes for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Defending high tempo: From the first drive through the last, the Patriots maintained a brisk pace to their offense. It was so brisk that it apparently caused some issues for the Bengals, who had little answer, particularly against the run. New England had more than 500 yards of total offense, and 220 yards of it came on the ground. A sizable chunk of their 500 yards came when the Bengals quick-snapped the Bengals. "They were just on the ball. We didn't have our calls in. We were still looking at the sideline trying to get a call in and they had their hands on the ball already, snapping before we were even ready," Bengals defensive tackle Domata Peko said.
Humbled locker room: After the loss, the Bengals were mostly quiet as they changed quickly and slipped out of the locker room in order to make their charter that was expected to get back to Cincinnati around 4 a.m. ET. There wasn't much said about the defeat. Most players acknowledged that they knew the game had the potential to go the way it did. At least one also didn't think this game proved anything about the Bengals' performances in prime time. "We still don't think about it that way," offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "We think about the fact we came to New England and were going against a team that just got their teeth kicked in and were going to play their best game possible."
Lesson learned? Whitworth was quick to say he believed the loss could prove beneficial for the Bengals. Just like the Patriots, who lost last Monday in blowout fashion, 41-14, the Bengals can't drop two in a row. "This is how championship football goes," Whitworth said. "If you lose a game, you bounce back the next week and you make somebody pay for it. That'll be our job next week."
