The Bengals had planned to run out the clock on the Broncos.
The strategy was in place, and it was a good one. But things don’t always work out the way you plan.
The Cincinnati Bengals had just moved the ball 53 yards in just under a minute and faced a first and goal at the Denver Broncos 6-yard-line with 1:39 left to play. The idea was to run the clock down as far as possible and then either kick the winning field goal or punch in a game-winning touchdown.
Chase Brown went up the middle and probably could have scored pretty easily. Instead, he dropped down at the one, looking to keep the clock running. But when Brown tried to get back up, he didn’t make it far. He dropped to the turf, grabbing his ankle in pain.
By rule, the officials stopped the clock for an injury and charged Cincinnati with a timeout.
“The injury changed everything,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said after the game. “We were going to be able to, I believe, kick the walk-off field goal with about 10 seconds left and it’s no one’s fault. We were telling Chase to slide at the one (yard line) because we figured they were going to let us score there, which he did. He did a great job. Unfortunately, he got his ankle (hurt), so they charged us with a timeout, so that changed everything.”
There was still 1:31 on the clock, and Denver had another timeout left. A run on third down would have taken about 45 seconds off the clock, leaving the Broncos with just over 40 seconds after a Cincinnati score.
“You saw our low red zone against them,” Taylor said.
Cincinnati had been stopped on 4th and short in the red zone twice already on the day.
“It was tough all day. They’re going to play goal line against every personnel you’ve got. Nothing was easy for us, especially with the runs down there, because they are just so overmatched with their personnel down there.
“So, we just ran a quarterback sneak and told Joe to score, and if you score, great. If not, we’ll try something else, and they’ll have to use their timeouts. (We) put it on the defense there to get the stop, and unfortunately, they scored on the fourth-and-one, but then the defense rose up in the overtime and got it back for us.”
It took Denver all of 1:21 to score the tying touchdown and force overtime, which was time they would not otherwise have had. Taylor’s decision to go for the score right away might not have been the right call, but that all became moot when the Bengals scored the winning touchdown with 1:07 left in the extra period.
“There’s a lot going through your mind,” Taylor said. “You’re having to process it, make quick decisions. It was a tough game. There’s a lot we’re going to review over the next several years from this game, I’m sure, that will teach us a lot about how to handle some of these situations. I thought our communication was really good. (There were) some really challenging situations.”
It’s probably not a good sign that Taylor is still learning on the job nearly six years into his stint as the Cincinnati Bengals head coach, but hopefully, these lessons will one day pay off in the ultimate prize.
