Bengals High 5: Five questions with Wallace Gilberry

The last time the Cincinnati Bengals played the Philadelphia Eagles, it was a fairly forgettable game.

The Bengals were 7-6 and fighting to stay alive in the playoff race, but they slept walked through the first half and trailed the Eagles, who had lost eight of their last nine, at the break.

Andy Dalton’s 11-yard touchdown run with 1:10 remaining finally put the Bengals ahead, and two plays later Wallace Gilberry scooped up a Bryce Brown fumble on the second bounce, broke a tackle attempt by Philadelphia quarterback Nicke Foles and rumbled for a 25-yard touchdown to put Cincinnati ahead by 11 on the way to a 34-13 victory.

It was the first touchdown of Gilberry’s career and remains his only one.

After spending four seasons in Cincinnati, Gilberry signed a free agent deal with Detroit in the offseason. But the Lions placed on him on season-ending Injured Reserve in October with a back injury.

Once he was healthy a month later, Gilberry re-signed with the Bengals.

But the team hasn’t won a game since Gilberry’s return and finds itself in need of some outside help to make a sixth consecutive playoff appearance.

Gilberry won’t play Sunday after being ruled out Friday with a calf injury, but he sat down earlier in the week to talk about the past, present and future for this week’s Cincinnati Bengals High 5:

Q: Do you remember what happened the last time you played the Eagles?

A: Nah, man. What happened (laughs). How could I forget. That was one of the most memorable moments of my career. That's the only one, man. The only one. I didn't know they were that hard to come by, you know?

Q: How vividly do you remember the play?

A: It was late in the third quarter. Pat (Sims) and Vontaze (Burfict) helped me out big time. Vontaze stuffed the run and Pat got it out and it was on the ground. I picked it up and just ran for daylight.

Q: Did you save the ball?

A: Oh, yeah. My son has it. I gave him my first NFL touchdown even though he's not a Wallace Gilberry fan. He loves Tom Brady. He's not coming off him.

Q: You won a lot of games here in your first stint with the Bengals, but the team is 0-3 since you returned. How hard is this for you personally to go through a stretch like this?

A: It's challenging. But this game is challenging. You just take the punches and roll with them. True enough, we want to be sitting way better than the situation we're in now. But we've just got to finish the season. It's not over. We've still got a lot to play for. I'm not talking playoffs or anything like that. We have to end this thing on a good note, because it can still get a lot worse. That's the most important thing, to finish on a good note.

Q: Does it make it easier to strive for that when you look at this four-game winless streak and see it's been by a combined 10 points?

A: A loss is a loss. Whether you're losing by 30 or you're losing by three. We just have to figure out ways to score points, to make kicks, to stop guys from scoring on you. We just have to figure it out. That's all it is. We have to figure it out.

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