AFC Notes: John Harbaugh, Russell Wilson, Bengals, Ravens, Steelers

Bengals

The Bengals fell to 3-5 in Week 8 after giving up 37 points to the Eagles at home. Cincinnati DC Lou Anarumo acknowledged Philadelphia’s talent but aims to put their poor performances in the past.

“You’ve got to believe that you’re going to keep getting better and you’re going to put some of those mistakes behind you,” Anarumo said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “I think that’s what we’re always striving for. I think it’s a good football team that we played, and we’re going to face multiple good teams coming up. I have faith in our guys, and faith in our team and faith in our coaches.”

Bengals HC Zac Taylor knows they are capable of good defense because of games against the Browns and Giants but needs to see it consistently. 

“I think we’ve got the right guys in there that understand we’ve gotta play better,” Taylor added. “We’ve gotta find a way to get off the field and get stops. I think we’re committed to that. There are other guys that will continue to find roles that we’ll find different ways to utilize them to see if they can create sparks as well. But I think we’ve seen that the last two weeks against Cleveland and New York. They gave us winning performances and allowed us to win the game. This week wasn’t good enough by any group on our team.”

Ravens

The Ravens fell to the Browns 29-24 in Week 8, marking the first team to allow Cleveland to score 20 points this season. Baltimore HC John Harbaugh reiterated his belief in the defense after a rough showing.

“We’re very confident in our guys — we always are,” Harbaugh said, via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. “We’ve played great defense, and we’ll keep working, and we’ll put up some good defensive games — I’ll promise you that.”

Harbaugh also commented on S Marcus Williams not getting any snaps despite being healthy. 

“It was a personnel decision. We’re kind of working through some things there. I feel very confident Marcus is going to be out there playing great football the rest of the season. I’ll just talk about it being an internal type of situation.”

Steelers

The Steelers moved to 2-0 with QB Russell Wilson as the starter and 6-2 on the season after a 26-18 win over the Giants. Wilson talked about how he felt through his second start and expressed his confidence in this group to have a strong second half of the season.

“I felt more fluid,” Wilson said, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “I haven’t really missed any games in my lifetime, and you miss five, six games, and you’re just, ‘OK, all right, you got to get your rhythm.’ … Sometimes it’s not easy every possession, especially when you’re going against good teams, and so you just respond. I think the most important thing is just response.”

“We’ve got great confidence. We haven’t done anything yet. We’re obviously sitting here at 6-2, which is a great thing, but it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything. When we look back at it all, we got to be making sure that we’re staying focused on the next task, and that’s to really take care of our bodies, take care of our minds, enjoy this with your families and all that stuff this bye week.”