Bengals safety George Iloka hasn't received a fine letter

Cincinnati Bengals safety George Iloka told the mothership on Wednesday that he hasn't received a fine from the NFL. The hit in question was a shot that Iloka gave New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham with more than 11 minutes remaining in the first quarter.

"I don't want to see a guy get hurt, but that’s part of the game," Iloka said via Bengals.com. "It was more (a help for us). There were a lot of things said after the Cleveland game as there should the way we came out. Guys came out with a chip on their shoulder. We were angry. (Mad) at ourselves. We wanted to come out there early and set the tone."

The hit came with 11:52 remaining in the first quarter. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis believes that it had an impact on Graham, as he was only targeted three times for the rest of the game. According to a tweet from Coley Harvey, an official told Iloka that the flag probably shouldn't have been thrown.

Generally speaking, players are informed of their fines in advance of it becoming public (usually on Fridays). That said, Iloka could still be fined.

All this boils down to is that the Bengals defense needed to prove something to themselves. They've been beaten so badly for a lot of games this year and the 24-3 loss against Cleveland flipped some hypothetical in them for New Orleans. Whether or not it continues remains to be seen. Incendiary headline writing is mere background noise to this song and dance.

As of this posting, Vontaze Burfict is the only player to have been fined this season, when the league charged $25,000 for ankle-twisting Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen and quarterback Cam Newton.