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DUKE JOHNSON JR.**
What happened on your touchdown catch?
"Johnny being Johnny. He got out of the pocket and was able to see me. Delivered a great ball and I made the touchdown."
You went scoreless in the second half for the second straight week. How do you avoid that in the future?
"Execute and details. There are a lot of little things that you wouldn't see unless you were playing in the game, so a lot of details."
BARKEVIOUS MINGO
What are the emotions right after this loss?
"Every time you lose, you want to know what's wrong, what happened, how do you fix it. But for us, it's just wait until we get back and watch the film. The next time we practice, we'll work on our mistakes and come out and win our next game."
What was the difference between the first half and second half defensively?
"Again, we're going to have to look at it and see what happened. It's a tough pill to swallow. We wanted to win this game, but we've just got to see what happened."
You had a couple of injuries in the secondary and were missing some key guys tonight. How did that affect you?
"In the NFL, it's always 'next man up,' but those guys were definitely missed. Those are key guys that contribute and help us win games. When you don't have those guys you miss them a little bit. The guys here know it's next man up. If somebody goes down, they've got to be ready to fill that role. We had some young guys that came in and did a great job. Unfortunately we didn't get the win, but they still played a pretty good game."
There were not a lot of opportunities for your defense to create plays ...
"Their quarterback does a good job of getting the ball out; he gets it out fast. And the line protects well. With that combination it's hard to get a little pressure. But we've got to fix it. We've got to see what happened and try to come out next time and cause some pressure and get some turnovers."
DESMOND BRYANT
What is allowing offenses to put more points on the scoreboard in the second half?
"It's hard to say. I don't have an answer."
Is it halftime adjustments? Are teams making halftime adjustments and able to exploit something?
"I'd have to watch the tape to really know that. I don't know."
You got after Andy Dalton a few times, especially in the first half ...
"Yeah, we had some great coverage on those plays, honestly. I was able to beat the guard, but Andy held the ball a tick longer and I was able to get there."
RANDY STARKS
After your offside penalty in the red zone that kept an eventual touchdown drive alive for the Bengals, did one of the coaches say something to you on the sideline?
"No, nobody said anything to me. At the time, I didn't know the offside was on me. Once they scored in the sideline is when I found out it was on me. I was pretty upset they called me offside, but there is nothing you can do about it."
Desmond Bryant said there were times the defense didn't just have enough 'want-to' and the Bengals offense wanted it more. Does that surprise you?
"I mean you can say that, but at the same time, I just think they made more plays than we did. Like I said, we had energy and were playing with them. It was a close game, just (not) in the second half. That's something we've been doing the last couple weeks and we
need to figure it out."
PAUL KRUGER
You got good pressure on Andy Dalton ...
"Yeah, I thought a lot of guys played well in that way. We were able to disrupt him a couple times. He was able to sneak out and make some plays on his feet. I think we did a pretty good job in that way. Just some of the ones that were able to get out on us, that's where we've got to make the transition."
Is there an explanation why you have played well in the first half but have had a dropoff in the second half?
"I couldn't tell you exactly what it is. I think that's just something we need to look at — how to come out with the same fire and the same energy, game plan, or whatever it is that we did to have success in the first half, and continue on that road. I definitely notice the same thing. We've had times where we can be successful and have drives that go well for us. We just need to put that together for a full game."
