The Bengals are struggling with the little things in the clutch.
A lot went wrong for the Cincinnati Bengals (4-7) as they fell behind the Los Angeles Chargers (7-3) by a score of 24-6.
But then they started storming back to tie the game at 27 and almost pulled ahead. Unfortunately, they came up empty despite a fresh set of downs with 1:12 left.
Tony Pike thinks that time mismanagement was a big reason the Bengals ended up punting to the Chargers on the drive. Los Angeles, of course, would then go down the field to score the go-ahead touchdown.
In the video below, Pike points out that, after Joe Burrow couldn’t connect with Ja’Marr Chase on first down, the Bengals took Chase out on second down and then rushed to get a play off.
Pike notes that the Bengals were still in their huddle with only 12 seconds on the play clock and then says, “They get set up with one second on the play clock!”
Instead, the former QB says, they should’ve called timeout, put Chase back in with “the season on the line”, and let Burrow decide what personnel he wants to use.
Here is my commercial break, breakdown, of what I viewed as the biggest play of the season… and how the Bengals dropped the ball in such a big way pic.twitter.com/35Trbgd86A
— Tony Pike (@tony_pike15) November 18, 2024
What do you think? Should Zac Taylor be blamed for mismanaging the end of the game?
