From the sounds of it, injuries prevented the Cincinnati Bengals from putting somebody else besides Darius Phillips back on punt returns during the team’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Phillips proceeded to muff two punts, costing the team 10 points in an eventual 26-23 overtime loss.
According to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, Phillips wasn’t necessarily in the plans at all, but injuries elsewhere prevented them from calling up somebody else:
“Taylor and special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons haven’t made up their minds yet and don’t have to until Wednesday’s practice. The only reason Phillips did it Sunday is because injuries to linebackers Logan Wilson and Markus Bailey forced practice squad elevations of two backers and they couldn’t go get anybody else.
Granted, that’s easy to say in hindsight. If the Bengals had felt that strongly about it during the week they could have made additional moves.
Either way, the team tried to get Stanley Morgan back on returns mid-game, only for him to fumble, too. Eventually, the staff settled on putting slot starter Tyler Boyd back there.
Of course, the game-altering damage was already done by that point. Pooka Williams Jr., Trenton Irwin and Trent Taylor are all options to take over the job, which will get sorted out in practice this week.
