AFC Notes: Joe Burrow, Mason Rudolph, Bengals, Steelers, Titans

Bengals

Bengals S Jordan Battle has built a reputation for celebrating on the field with his teammates. He feels their defense having fun on the field takes opposing offenses out of games. 

“Have fun, celebrate with your guys after the play,” Battle said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “Show excitement. Other teams hate that. When they see us having motivation, having the momentum going into a drive, it’s kind of scary … You can just feel it every day in practice. There is a level of energy that isn’t exactly what we had early in the season.”

Joe Burrow commented that their defense brings “great energy” to the team in practice. 

“We’ve had great energy in practice,” Burrow said. “Guys flying around, dancing, very vocal. Practice has been fun the last couple weeks, and I think it really starts with the defense. The DBs are always bringing great energy at practice. That’s not really my personality. I’m more of a ‘What do I need to do on this play?’ (guy), trying to get motions and shifts and trying to operate. When you’re in practice and you feel your DBs and your defense flying around, being vocal, making plays — it makes practice fun.”

Burrow thinks defenses being productive changes how quarterbacks approach the game.

“As quarterback, when you see (the defense making plays), you start to play the game a little differently,” Burrow said. “You’re not going to quite extend as much. Maybe you take a sack, where, in a different spot, you try to extend or try to get the ball to somebody. And you feel confident trying to protect the ball in those situations when your defense is playing like that.”

• Bengals DT Sheldon Rankins has been downgraded to out for Week 17 and it’s unclear if he will play Week 18. (Ben Baby)

Ravens

The Ravens play the Texans on Christmas Day for Week 17 and could play again in the playoffs. John Harbaugh said he won’t change anything with their play calling to disguise their system in case they face Houston int he postseason. 

“[It’s] not a priority,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s official site. “You try to win the game. There’s plenty of things that we can come up with for the next game that would be the next iterations of whatever we’re doing. Everything we can think of that’s good, we’re going to try to do it.”

Ravens LT Ronnie Stanley feels its an “honor” to play on Christmas given there will be a lot of eyes watching them. 

“Sure,” Stanley said. “I don’t dislike it. I think it’s an honor to play on Christmas Day, because first of all, it’s an important day; it’s Christmas. There are not that many games on. It’s a very big stage to play on, so it’s definitely an honor.” 

• Ravens DL Nnamdi Madubuike was fined $16,883 for roughing the passer (body weight) in Week 15.

Titans

Tennessee fell to the Colts 38-30 in a game where QB Mason Rudolph had three crucial interceptions. Titans HC Brian Callahan continues to harp on the turnover issues that cost them games and wouldn’t commit to Rudolph despite feeling pretty good about his performance overall.

“You’re going to lose a whole lot of games turning the ball over at the rate we’ve turned it over. I think we’re, what do we have 30, 31 turnovers or something like that? I mean that’s insanity,” Callahan said, via Terry McCormick of Main Street Media. “So yeah, it’s going to make it really hard. And that’s where the last two games gotten away from us. We’ve turned the ball over twice in two straight games and in the waning minutes of the half, and it turns into—we could have gone into 17-7 at the halftime and it looks a little different, and all of a sudden it’s 24 and they get the ball back and it’s 31. And that’s how you lose games in this league.”

“I haven’t made any decisions on that. I thought Mason, outside of the one interception at the end of the half—that was kind of his one poor decision of the game that was one he’d like to have back—I thought he did a lot of other really pretty positive things in that game. He was efficient (23 of 34 for 252 yards), and he found ways to complete the ball and he got the ball out of his hand and those things were good. So it was a relatively good performance by Mason.”