CINCINNATI, Ohio — Bengals corner Eli Apple wasn’t having it.
Apple politely declined multiple interview requests on Monday afternoon while the locker room was open to reporters. His fellow defensive backs sat at their locker watching in amusement as Apple found ways to avoid the media over the course of an hour.
The corner was thrust into the spotlight on Sunday thanks to a brief WWE-style promo from Tyreek Hill about the defensive back.
“I can’t wait to go against Eli Apple, man, I owe you boy, I owe you,” Hill said to the reporters gathered around his locker. “I’m here, the Cheetah is here. That’s it.”
The comments came after the Dolphins closed out a thrilling 21-19 win over Buffalo to remain undefeated. He turned his attention to the Bengals when he was informed by reporters their next game would be on Thursday night in primetime.
“Oh we play on prime time next week? Oh, we play on Amazon Prime? That’s going to be lit right there, I didn’t even know that, for real,” Hill said, with a smile.
Hill’s comments likely stem from last year’s AFC Championship game when Apple tackled him at the goal line as time expired in the first half. The Chiefs were looking to add to a 21-10 lead, but Apple was all over the swing pass to Hill and threw him down as he tried to spin out of the tackle.
“It was really hard, because he followed him across the field on a motion,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said, on Monday. “So he had to bubble kind of behind the linebackers and come downhill. It was a heck of a tackle.”
The Bengals would go on to win 27-24 in overtime, which was their second win in less than a month over the Chiefs.
Hill has since jerseys — he was traded during the offseason to Miami for five draft picks — and lived up to the high expectations through the first three weeks with 21 catches for 317 yards (No. 3 in the NFL) with two touchdowns.
The receiver was effective against the Bengals last season with 13 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown, but he only had one explosive play (on 76 pass routes) in the two losses. For someone that Anarumo said might be the “fastest human on the planet”, that’s a winning formula.
“If he gets anywhere close to you, he’s gone — against the best corners, ” Anarumo said.
The irony about Hill’s comments is that the primary assignment for defending the talented wide receiver will likely go to Apple’s teammate Chidobe Awuzie or at a minimum be split between the two.
While Anarumo spoke glowingly about Apple and his growth on-and-off the field, Awuzie has quietly developed into the team’s lockdown defender.
Next Gen Stats highlighted that development on Monday when the analytics site tweeted out a chart with a list of the NFL coverage leaders through three weeks. According to the site, he ranks No. 1 in the league in EPA (expected points added) when targeted as the nearest defender.
He’s been targeted a league-high 32 times and only allowed 11 receptions and no touchdowns giving him an EPA of -16.7.
“Chido, as smart as he is, as experienced as he is, as strong and as physically gifted, I feel like we did it last year too, so it’s not like it’s anything new to him,” Anarumo said. “Sometimes we went left and right in games. But you know a lot of times it was like, ‘Chido, you got so and so.’ We haven’t decided yet this week.”
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