What happened tonight?

“Running downhill with (Brian) Robinson Jr. outside, and a couple deep balls. I had one and one of my teammates had one, but those were the only really explosive plays.”

They had some longer plays…

“Yeah, with the quarterback they have, they can definitely extend the playing time.”

How frustrating was it knowing what the offense was going to look like and them scoring on every drive?

“Very frustrating. They were going on long drives the whole game. They had a lot of third-and-two. We wanted to get them into third-and-long, so they had to pass the ball outside, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Why was Jayden Daniels 21-for-23 tonight? How did that happen?

“It was those fast throws.”

How do you accept where you are now at 0-3 level?

“Try to embrace it and we’ve got to move forward. We’ve got to move on to next week with Carolina and get ready to play.”

Is there a sense of disbelief?

“No, I don’t really mean that. We know we can do it. We had chances against these guys and we just have to take every chance we get.”

Their attack in third-and-short, fourth-and-short seemed very controlled. Did you notice that?

“Yeah, they rushed us really hard and slowed us down. That’s our fault. We’ve got to communicate and make sure we’re all on the same page. Hats off to him (Jayden Daniels). He had a great game.”

You went into the season with high expectations. Where are you emotionally now?

“I’m in a great mood. You know, it’s the NFL. Crazy things happen in this league. Anybody can beat anybody any week. We just got to put it together. We got it. Every game we’ve lost is a one-score game. It’s not like we’re not there.”

When Jayden Daniels threw the touchdown, it looked like you were in front of Terry McLaurin. Was there a problem tracking the ball and getting it like that?

“I had no cover at all and he gave him the ball.”

You never expected to be 0-3. How do you understand that now?

“At this point you just have to move on. You can’t think about 0-3.”

The Bengals averaged over six yards per rush today. What was going on? What did you see? How did you do so well?

“We knew the run game was going to be the emphasis. We knew these guys gave up a lot of yards in the run game. So we had a lot of things planned out. We went out there and executed at a high level and tried to do that consistently.”

I can’t remember the last time I saw a game where neither team gave the ball away and neither team lost the ball. It was an incredible game of football in that sense. Have you ever seen a game like that?

“Not where both teams didn’t score. We just have to do a better job of playing complementary football. When I saw us staying on the field a little bit more, we always have to think that way. But like Chase (Brown) said, we’ll look at the film, find a way to get better, and try to do that again on Sunday and, you know, come out with a win.”

What was going on? The Commanders’ two defensive tackles — that’s the best duo in the league. Did you guys just kind of attack them and they went right at it?

“I think so, in a way. But we knew they were going to come down hard and we’re going to take advantage of that, on some of the run schemes. But we obviously wanted to end this game with a win. So that’s what we’re focused on right now. And we’re just looking at the film and just finding ways to get better.”

And then the running game opened it up for Joe Burrow. Joe passed for over 300 yards, three touchdowns and a high completion percentage. When you run the football like that, it’s easier to throw it, right?

“Yeah. No question. No question about it. It opened up the passing game. And we’re just going to try to continue that trend and continue to be an explosive offense.”

How does it feel to be 0-3 now?

“It doesn’t feel good, but it happens. We just have to learn from it. Move on. And prepare for next week.”

The offense was clearly cooking, but you had three possessions where you settled for field goal attempts. Unfortunately, in a game like this, that proved to be costly…

“Yeah, we’ve got to score (TDs) when we get in that red zone. We’ve got to take advantage of it.”

How about your performance? 100+ yards, two touchdown catches… what did you think?

“It was a good game, but I’m more of a team-win (guy). So I think it would be good to have one with that.”

What now?

“Come back to work. Watch the film. Corrections. And we have to move on. But we can’t have games like this. We have to win games like this so we can move on.”

Is there any desperation at this point, even though we are already three games in?

“I don’t know. I’ve never been here before, bro. I’ve never felt this before. So, it’s a first for everything. Because you’ve got to be on one team. You’ve got to stick together — stick as one. That’s the only way we’re going to win.”

How great was it to have Tee Higgins back? It seemed like it helped you a little bit too…

“Yeah. It was awesome having Tee there, man. It was just like old times, just having fun.

When you look at what you, Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins have done, do you see that as the way forward for you guys? Big plays that show what you can do?

“That’s more of the standard that we have. It’s not really something that we have to show. It’s really the standard that we have to be.”

Jayden Daniels is incredibly impressive. I don’t know how well you can look at his performance, but it was a very good rookie quarterback performance. What did you think?

“He’s a great player. I’m not going to lie. That was the first time I sat next to the spring game and watched him. So, he’s a very outstanding player.”

Do you have confidence that the defense can recover from what happened tonight?

“Yes. One hundred percent. Defensively, leading our pack is when we play (good) football games. But tonight it was the other way around. The defense will still be good. They have their pack; we (in attack) have ours. We just have to keep going and move forward (together).”