Bengals coach Marvin Lewis came to the defense of WR A.J. Green, who found himself embroiled in a mini-controversy this week. (US Presswire)


WR A.J. Green told WFAN-New York that the Giants defense “has holes in it,” sparking a mini-firestorm among the New York media this week.

The same can't be said inside the Bengals locker room. Green's comments barely registered in Cincinnati. Partially because the comments were fairly benign in context and also because Green's personality has steered so far from controversy since his arrival that nobody would pin trash talk on him.

His answer followed a question that called the Giants secondary out as the weak link of their team. Marvin Lewis believes Green fell into a classic gotcha trap.

“I don't think he had a controversial moment,” Marvin Lewis said. “I think it was a leading question.”

Part of the allure of drafting Green No. 4 overall in 2011 stemmed from his owning zero of the off-field antics Chad Johnson mastered in Cincinnati. Green has stayed squeaky clean in that regard since arriving and, in Lewis' opinion, continued to do so despite the publicity this week.

“That is just A.J. agreeing with what somebody else said to him,” Lewis said. “That's all he did was affirm what someone else said. It's no big deal.”

Sims in the mix: DT Pat Sims was placed on the PUP list in preseason after showing up out of shape and struggling to recover from an injury.

Lewis set fitness standards for Sims to reach and the 327-pound defensive tackle finally found his way on the 53-man roster Friday. LB Roddrick Muckelroy was waived.

Sims started 23 games in his five-year career.

“What Pat can give us is that, he really complements Domata (Peko) and Geno (Atkins) inside,” Lewis said. “He’s got the strength, he’s got the balance of a big man and he’s got athleticism for a big man. For a 327-pound man, he’s got a lot of athleticism.”

Kicks and coverages: The Bengals rank 29th in the NFL in kickoff-return coverage and last week gave up a 105-yard touchdown return to Denver's Trindon Holliday. Last year, the special teams unit ranked in the top ten covering kicks and returned much of the same personnel.

Lately, rookies Dre Kirkpatrick, Vontaze Burfict and Mohamed Sanu have found their way onto the kickoff team, but finding reasons for the struggles doesn't necessarily mean looking introspectively.

“I think we faced a hell of a bunch of good kick returners a bunch of weeks in a row,” special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons said.

During the four-game losing streak, three of the four teams they played had a kickoff returner ranked in the top 10. The other was Denver, which gave Holliday his first shot to return kicks against the Bengals.  

New York's David Wilson ranks 15th.

"I can't put my finger on it," Simmons said. "I studied it hard through the bye. We came up with a couple little things we tried to simplify and make things simpler than what we had been doing. Simpler reads, simpler positions that we were in. Just a matter of getting a couple of these young guys better and a couple of our veteran players need to make more plays.”

Follow Paul Dehner Jr. on Twitter for Bengals updates at @CBSBengals.