A.J. Green vows to stay focused amid Marvin Lewis situation; not sure teammates handled it as well

Sunday was a circus.

The report that Marvin Lewis was going to be gone after the 2017 season came out before the Bengals played terribly against the Vikings.

It didn’t stop there as mixed reports from players of whether players heard the news before the game, and whether Lewis acknowledged the news started coming out.

Now that the dust has settled a little, A.J. Green told Katherine Terrell of ESPN that he wasn’t sure the Lewis reports didn’t play a roll in the Bengals dismal performance.

"It doesn't matter to me, that's just the person I am," Green said. "I'm pretty sure it matters to some other guys, having that come out before the game and not having him address that, which is his decision, but I know some guys probably didn't take it as well, him not addressing it before the game...

"We all have social media, we all know what's going on. I'm pretty sure some guys felt some kind of way about the situation, but at the end of the day we're professionals and we have to play this game of football that we get paid for."

Green makes a few valid points. It can not be easy as a player to hear before a game in a lost season that your coach isn’t planning on coming back next season.

It is something that can easily take the wind out of a player’s sail right before he is supposed to go out there and play for this guy.

Of course the fact these players mostly get paid quite handsomely to go out there and play makes Sunday’s performance inexcusable, and Green drives that point home.

"It's hard to ignore the noise when you're losing," Green said. "It's tough. ... We get paid to play the game of football. We don't get played to choose when we want to play well, (no matter) what's going on. That's my mindset. I can't speak for everybody else, but I'm going to give everything I've got for the last two weeks."

It is weird to hear Green speak so candidly and openly about the realness of the situation in front of these players. It seems like a vast majority of the time players give a generic answer to the hard questions like these.

Some people may see this as Green throwing some of his teammates under the bus, but it seems more like the frustration of this season boiling over. He never mentions anyone by name, or even whether he thinks it is offensive or defensive.

It sounds like he is tired of excuses, and he is tired of losing. It sounds like he is tired of being apart of the worst offense in football.

When offensive coordinator Bill Lazor shared his thoughts that the Bengals’ offense has had some of the same confidence issues from earlier in the season Green challenged the rest of the offense.

"We've got to let everything go. We can't be afraid to make mistakes. The season is already lost," he said. "We're just playing for pride right now. We've just to go all out for these last two weeks and see what happens. ... Confidence, who cares right now? The season is lost. So we've got to go out there and give it everything we've got."

Some fans may be concerned by Green airing all this out, and he could be angry. I view it more as he cares. He wants this team to be as good as he knows it can be. Quite frankly, I think most fans can relate.