CINCINNATI — Lou Anarumo said Wednesday that he fully recovered from a bad headache. But no doubt he was feeling a different kind of pain Monday night when he watched his top corner go down with a torn ACL. <\/p>\n
Adding to that misery was the loss of Tre Flowers, who injured his hamstring in the 32-13 debacle in Cleveland. <\/p>\n
Now, it’s up to the Bengals defensive coordinator to figure out what to do with rookies Cam Taylor-Britt and Dax Hill and veteran Eli Apple – assuming he’s healthy – to fill the void in the secondary. <\/p>\n
When Flowers went down Monday, it was the rookie combo of Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt that Anarumo turned to as the corners with Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell as the Browns were primarily running out the clock in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n
“Probably, we’ll have to get him snaps there for sure, as well as safety and other things that he does,” Anarumo said of Hill. “We’ve been doing that some, thank God, we did it last week (before Browns game) as an emergency, not enough. But we’ll have to do more of it again.”<\/p>\n
Anarumo cautioned about reading too much into Hill’s time playing corner Monday night as the Browns were in run mode. <\/p>\n
“Yeah, until it wasn’t. We’ll see, we’ll see how that goes. He’s got a long way to go,” Anarumo said. <\/p>\n
Don’t forget about Allan George, the rookie free agent corner out of Vanderbilt. <\/p>\n
“He had a good preseason,” Anarumo said. “AG made some plays. He’s a conscientious guy that will be in the right spot. If his number’s called, I have confidence he’ll be able to handle it.”<\/p>\n
The other factor to keep in mind is how much Anarumo will choose scheme and personnel to adapt.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it really kind of depends on what’s going on in the game for the opponent,” Anarumo said. “There’s a lot of factors into it. You try to stick to what you’re doing, because you know what you’re doing works, but if it’s a disadvantage for us, we’ll try to help as best we can.”<\/p>\n
This is not how the Bengals wanted to see Hill get more playing time. But sometimes in the NFL, necessity is the father of experience.<\/p>\n
“I’m ready. I’ve always been ready to step in there whenever my number is called, whenever that is or whatever that looks like this week, I’m ready for it,” said Hill. \u201cI had never repped it at all. It\u2019s something I have to practice this week. Literally everything is different with your technique.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPossible starting CB Dax Hill says he's still waiting on specific role. pic.twitter.com\/vOSWl4PGlB<\/a><\/p>\n
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) November 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n