Dexter Lawrence sends message to Bengals after Steelers loss - Bengals Wire

Cincinnati Bengals defensive stalwart Dexter Lawrence isn’t taking the pressure off his locker room in the aftermath of the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Lawrence’s Bengals failed in all three phases at certain points in Week 3, so he made sure to stress that everyone in the locker room needs to be better. 

“We own it,” Dexter Lawrence told Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “We know who we are. We are still champions and going to prepare next week like champions and beat whoever we got to play. I know who we are. I know the men we have in here. I have no doubt we are going to come to practice next week and be locked in and eliminate mistakes and correct the ones we made.”

Message sent, and if the first two weeks of the season are a better indicator than Week 3, it’ll probably be message received, too. 

That's the hope, anyway, because the 30-27 loss in Pittsburgh saw Joe Burrow cough up a key turnover in crunch time, the special teams unit look amateur in tough moments and Lawrence’s defense let a stagnant Pittsburgh offense pop off largely due to poor tackling and bad angles. 

The Bengals have a matter of days to buy into Lawrence’s message after getting punched in the mouth, as a 2-1 Jacksonville Jaguars team heads for Paycor Stadium in Week 4.