The reigning AFC champs were underdogs Sunday. Apparently, no one thinks their assistant coaches are good enough to poach. They’re over it. Cincinnati is just going to keep winning playoff games.
By the time Zac Taylor boarded for the short flight back to Cincinnati, the Bengals coach had cooled off a bit. The edge he carried in the immediacy of postgame, over the potential coin tosses and neutral sites catering to other teams but not his, and the way the group of players he’s proud of has been regarded, has dissipated a bit.
What hadn’t, though—and won’t—was the basis for all of it.