Zac Taylor: We felt the presence of our defensive additions on Sunday

The biggest storyline of the Bengals offseason was the moves they made to improve their defense and the new players were front and center in Sunday’s 33-27 win over the Buccaneers.

Defensive end Boye Mafe had a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery while safety Bryan Cook also forced and recovered a fumble. Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen had a sack and the defense forced four turnovers while sacking Baker Mayfield four times overall.

After the game, head coach Zac Taylor said the team “felt their presence” when asked about the new faces but holdover linebacker Barrett Carter shrugged off any suggestion that the performance validated anything to the team as a whole.

“We haven’t answered any questions,” Carter said, via a transcript from the team. “Like I said, this what we expected. We haven’t answered any questions. The Bengals are 1-0, we had four turnovers — that’s great — but we should have won by much more. I don’t mean that against the Buccaneers, but we need to dominate teams, so there’s a lot more plays to be made. This defensive team, we have not done anything. We have not even scratched the surface. There’s a lot more plays to be made.”

The key for the Bengals will now be to use Sunday’s effort as a foundation for the continued defensive growth they will need to end their playoff drought. The next test of that will come in Houston in Week 2.