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George Iloka: When something goes wrong, some guys fold up

Bengals safety George Iloka is quickly becoming a fan-favorite for two reasons: 1) his impressive improvement is making him one of the team's better defensive players and 2) his honesty.

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Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Cincinnati Bengals safety George Iloka can sleep comfortably this weekend after resolving Thursday's blowout with one of the team's better performances. With a pass breakup and an impressive +3.1 Pro Football Focus score against the run, Iloka showed up. However, as Iloka points out after the game, some players did what they usually do in primetime games... not show up.

"I think when it's a prime time game we want to win so bad, when one thing goes wrong then some guys fold up and some guys are like (shoot), like damn," safety George Iloka said via the Cincinnati Enquirer. "We put too much emphasis on it. When it's not a prime time game and we get down we're not nervous it's like (alright) let's fight our way back in it."

We could put our finger on a few guys, from the quarterback to the offensive line -- even the defensive line had nothing to over.

Iloka refrained from driving too much criticism towards Andy Dalton's direction, but that's hard.

Iloka admitted he tried to tiptoe through his true feelings, rather than say something he regretted, but there's no holding back the real frustration felt after the Dalton interception on the opening drive.

"It's like damn here we go again," Iloka. "That's just how I feel. He threw a pick early, here we go again. Let's knuckle up it's going to be a dogfight."

Oddly enough, that was our reaction too.