NFL Nation

          Bengals to 'bury' 2015? Steelers not letting Vontaze Burfict forget

          CINCINNATI -- Marvin Lewis has big plans for his team when it returns to Paul Brown Stadium for the start of voluntary offseason workouts on April 18.

          At the top of his list? Making sure every one of his Cincinnati Bengals flushes out any remaining vestiges of the 2015 season.

          As Lewis told NFL Network's Albert Breer earlier this week, by the time his players make it back to town, they better have put last season's bizarre playoff finish in the deepest, darkest corner of their minds. He feels there's no reason for 2015 to come up while he's trying to get them ready for much greater success in 2016.

          But completely dismissing last season will be easier said than done.

          Just look at what happened Wednesday, one day after Lewis told Breer "we have to move on."

          Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict, one of the key actors in the emotional roller coaster the Bengals and their fans experienced late in January's wild-card playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, got into it on Twitter with Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams. Earlier in the day, Williams brought up the playoff game in an interview with ESPN. Part of a day that included appearances on SportsCenter and NFL Live, Williams was busy while in Bristol, Connecticut.

          "I don't think there was any doubt in my mind if [Antonio Brown] was not interfered on or hit the way he was hit, however you want to label it -- there's no doubt we go on and give the Broncos hell," said Williams, who did not appear in the wild-card playoff game due to an injury.

          Williams was referencing the play with 22 seconds left when Burfict delivered a hit to Brown's helmet after the receiver had come down without the ball on an overthrown incompletion. Brown suffered a concussion on the play. Following Burfict's ensuing 15-yard penalty and another 15-yarder for a separate incident on the same play by Bengals cornerback Adam Jones, the Steelers were moved into position for a 35-yard field goal. They made it and won the game.

          A week later, Brown was still experiencing the effects of the concussion and didn't play in the Steelers' divisional-round loss at Denver.

          Burfict, who had what initially appeared to be the game-icing interception with about 1:40 left in the playoff contest, received a three-game suspension in the aftermath of his hit. He'll rejoin the Bengals in Week 4 this fall. It was to that point Williams quipped in another tweet that he'd be looking forward to getting tackled by Burfict following his "vacation."

          So much for burying 2015.

          Here's more of what Lewis said earlier this week about leaving the past where he feels it belongs.

          "We're going to learn to answer the question and press on. Everyone keeps bringing it up. We have to move on," Lewis said to NFL Network. "It's done and gone. April 18, it gets buried. It gets exorcised. And then we have to move on and we've got to put our heads down and do everything we can to earn our way back into the playoffs."

          No doubt, that's the way it should be. But these Bengals will be asked about last season's playoff loss all throughout the spring and summer. They'll be asked about it again at least three times this season if they're fortunate: once before the two Bengals-Steelers games, and one more time when the playoffs begin.

          By then, perhaps they will have finally done something to change their recent woeful postseason narrative.