Cincinnati Bengals

Bengals S George Iloka pulled himself from Sunday's win over Ravens

Published Sep. 30, 2015 2:01 p.m. ET

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After Steve Smith's 50-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter of Sunday's 28-24 win over the Ravens, Bengals safety George Iloka had seen enough -- of himself.

Iloka, dealing with a nagging ankle injury from the season opener, felt he was hurting the team by trying to stay on the field. His inability to get to Smith as he raced down the sideline to cut the Bengals' lead to 14-7 was the last straw. 

“I felt like I was hurting the team more than I was helping them at the time, so I took myself out. That’s all I can say about that,” Iloka said via Bengals.com. 

When the Bengals defense took the field next, backup safety Shawn Williams was in while Iloka watched from the sideline. 

“We’re all confident in Shawn," Iloka said. "We have depth, so you can’t be selfish in that situation. So I pulled myself out and told [defensive coordinator] Paul [Guenther] I couldn’t go any more. I don’t want to pull myself out. Like I said, I wasn’t helping the team. I wasn’t playing like myself and I didn’t want to hurt myself any further. I’ve got to get healthy so I can go out there and play like I know I can. With the backups we have and how good they are, it made it a little bit easier. I would have felt bad if I came out and we lost.”

Very rarely do we hear of players taking themselves out of games by their own volition. Iloka is just happy that his team is 3-0 and pulled out the victory against Smith and the Ravens in the fourth quarter. 

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