The Bengals have been playing with an oversized chip on their collective shoulders for a while now.
The team clearly took the league publicizing the ticket sales for the theoretical neutral-site game between the Bills and Chiefs as a slight and used that for motivation to dominate Buffalo in the divisional round.
So as the team heads back to a hostile environment in Kansas City for a second consecutive AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs, head coach Zac Taylor feels like his club has the right attitude to handle whatever happens. And he’ll continue to use the bulletin-board material provided to him.
“They want the toughest road,” Taylor said in an interview with Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “Whatever ammunition I can give them to help them understand that we’re in a tough road, I’ll give it to them because that’s what they respond the best to. With high stakes, I like our team’s chances because of the mindset they have every day they walk into the building.”
Taylor added that the Bengals are playing with a lot of confidence.
“That’s just because they know how prepared they are,” Taylor said. “They know what it takes [t]o follow a routine, get themselves ready for when they walk on the field on Sunday and be at their best.”
The Bengals are technically not underdogs any longer, as they’re now favored over the Chiefs by 1.5 points at most sports books and two points at others. But they’ll likely still use their same underdog mentality when they line up at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.