Cincinnati Bengals safety Jessie Bates isn’t thrilled with how his unit performed during the team’s Week 2 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
In fact, he opened up Thursday about how the post-game chat with the team went and hinted the approach the locker room is taking if things don’t change.
“The talk that we had after that game wasn’t pretty. If we don’t figure it out, some people won’t be here,” Bates said, according to ESPN’s Ben Baby.
And it’s hard to blame Bates for being so candid. His defense coughed up 35 points, highlighted by 215 rushing yards and three scores on a 6.1 average for Browns rushers.
The Bengals could easily make some excuses. It went down on a short week thanks to a Thursday game. Nick Chubb is one of the NFL’s best. Geno Atkins and Mike Daniels were missing from the heart of the defensive line.
But accountability has been a big theme for the Bengals this offseason as the overhauled roster got an influx of leaders. Bates isn’t one of those new guys, but he is a leader expected to set the tone.
The task doesn’t get much easier for Bates and his defense in Week 3 on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles. We’ll see if the unit can improve, but Joe Burrow has already stressed a sense of urgency for his team as they seek out their first win of the season.
