Bengals notes: Burfict back with an edge, Steelers criticize him

Marvin Lewis chuckled, and shook his head. In the moments following his team’s 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals’ head coach was asked about the return of Pro Bowl linebacker Vontaze Burfict and about the aggressiveness and vocal element he brought to the team.

“Now he puts me back to work on Sundays,” Lewis said Sunday afternoon.

“He has, obviously, the right personality to play this game. It’s part of his personality but it’s also part of my coaching work.”

The Bengals’ linebacker returned from over a year off due to injury to make five tackles while playing 36 snaps after just three official days of practice last week.

“I’m a gamer,” Burfict said Monday. “I’m a gamer. I don’t even like practice. I like the games. So, I only practiced one practice that week in helmet and shoulder pads on and I come out and play the game. It’s always bumps in the road, you just gotta go over that speed bump.”

Postgame, and then again Monday, Burfict’s teammates talked about the lift they received from seeing him back in uniform – and then he started the game with back-to-back tackles.

“Yeah, I felt like me suited up gave them that urge, just gave them a little spice, you know what I mean?” he said. “It’s always fun when one of your guys comes back off an injury, especially the injury I’ve had and just trying to battle it out against a rival. Since Rey (Maualuga) went down (with a right calf injury) they kind of really needed me so I kind of just had to dig deep down and finish the game.”

He admitted after the game that he was winded as it wore on, but Lewis said by the end Burfict was fighting to get more snaps. For him, it was a way to pay back his teammates after he felt they helped him complete the rehabilitation process through consistent support.

“Yeah, it’s a team thing,” Burfict said. “It’s a team thing. We have so many captains on the defense, so many leaders, and we hold each other accountable.”

And one of those ways he did that was on the sidelines, unafraid to jump into the huddles with defensive linemen and those in the secondary after defensive possessions, not to mention his linebacker group.

“He’s a bomb, now,” defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry said. “He’s a bomb. He’s one of those guys that he’s so smart if something goes wrong with the play he knows what happened before we even get to the sideline.”

Gilberry smiled.

“And that can be a bad thing sometimes because he’s very vocal. But overall we’re very excited to have depth at that position because we’ve got a long journey ahead of us and we’ve got to find a way to win more games. So, from this point, however many it is to get to the Super Bowl, that’s the ultimate goal.”

Steelers call out Burfict

It took one game, and Burfict once again found himself at the center of controversy when he rode Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell out of bounds into the Steelers sideline following an eight-yard catch and run.

On the play, Bell was open and turned upfield as Burfict was in pursuit. He contacted the running back with a clean, form tackle at the Bengals’ 44. Reggie Nelson was coming down from the 40 in support, so as Burfict brought Bell down in the field of play, the running back also lowered his head in anticipation of Nelson. In a manner of seconds, Bell's right knee was bent awkwardly as the trio slid out of bounds. Burfict immediately got up and ran toward the Bengals sideline.

After the game, Steelers offensive linemen Ramon Foster and Marcus Gilbert felt the Bengals’ linebacker intended to injure Bell and took offense to what they perceived was Burfict’s celebration at the injury.

Attached is Ramon Foster's take on Burfict's reaction to Bell Marcus Gilbert called Burfict's behavior "bull(crap)" pic.twitter.com/qNIpJtqD82 — Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 1, 2015

When asked about it after the game, Burfict said Bell is a friend and ran away because he heard a pop.

But early on Monday morning, Steelers linebacker Vince Williams tweeted a now-deleted physical threat to Burfict, to which the Bengals linebacker responded:

Later on Monday – though Williams didn’t apologize – he hinted he was frustrated by Bell’s injury.

“Dropped one when I thought about my dog going down today. It could happen to anyone at anytime,” Williams tweeted.

In the Bengals locker room Monday, Burfict shrugged off the vitriol from Williams.

“We won," Burfict said. "He’s mad they lost. I have nothing to say about it. It was a clean hit. Le’Veon is a friend of mine. I didn’t intentionally mean to hurt him. It’s football. He’s going to come back strong.”

Burfict wasn’t the only one to notice the language coming out of the Steelers’ locker room. Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth also saw the shots his teammate was taking and was quick to point out through his Twitter account that Pittsburgh seemed excited about Mike Mitchell knocking out Marvin Jones with a clean hit over the middle of the field.

“You just dismiss it,” Whitworth said Monday. “I just said something because it’s funny to go to a reporter and whine about something like that. There are a million plays over history of time of guys making a big hit and celebrating. That was a simple tackle a guy ran away from excited that he made the tackle and kept him from getting a first down.

"I don’t understand what’s malicious about that. You don’t know when you hit somebody how bad an injury is in the moment. There’s no way to feel that way and know what happened. I just thought that was silly.”

Injury update

For the first time all season, the Bengals suffered relatively serious injuries in a game. Linebacker Rey Maualuga was knocked out early with a right calf injury, and he did not participate in Monday’s practice. Also missing was right tackle Andre Smith, who suffered a concussion chasing down a Pittsburgh interception return.

Defensive end Carlos Dunlap was knocked from the game briefly with a shoulder injury before putting himself back in late, and he was limited in practice.

The Browns are in far worse shape, with seven key players missing practice – including starting cornerback Joe Haden (concussion), starting safety Donte Whitner (concussion) and backup safety Jordan Poyer (shoulder). Starting wide receiver Andrew Hawkins (concussion) and starting quarterback Josh McCown (shoulder/ribs) also did not practice. Also out on Monday were receiver Brian Hartline (concussion) and tight end Rob Housler (hamstring).

Starting defensive back Tashaun Gipson (ankle) and linebackers Nate Orhcard (shoulder) and Craig Robinson (ankle) were limited participants.

Backup quarterback Johnny Manziel (elbow) was a full participant.