Of course this happens to the Bengals.
The biggest sequence from the Cincinnati Bengals Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots came right before halftime.
The Bengals were down 7-0 but in scoring range. Joe Burrow hit Tanner Hudson in stride on third down. It looked like he was going to score, but then a defender stripped the ball. The Patriots recovered and made it a 10-0 lead going into the break.
The play before Hudson’s fumble, Mike Gesicki caught a touchdown that was overturned.
However, Dan Lapham explained on his podcast In the Trenches that the league came out and said the call should not have been overturned.
“Speaking of the tight ends, I mean back-to-back plays [at the end of the half] Gesicki, he goes airborne, 6’6 against [a] 6’1 [defender]. And, you know, you got to give credit to the DB staying after it. You know, kind of trying to punch it out of there and all that. [Gesicki] goes to the ground and eventually loses control.
“They say, you know, no touchdown. They overrule it. But the league has come out today and said, “It was a touchdown. You should not have overruled that thing.” And then the very next play, Hudson has a touchdown, and he’s celebrating early, puts the ball out there, and they they knock it away. I mean, as a quarterback, you’re playing quarterback, and you throw a perfect ball and it doesn’t work out, and then you throw a perfect ball [to] Hudson, what are you thinking as a quarterback? Like, oh my God, what’s going on?”
That was a 10-point swing in a game where the Bengals played from behind most of the game. Had it been tied after the first half who knows how that could have impacted play-calling later in the fourth quarter when they had to abandon a running game that was catching fire.
The loss is still a loss, but it makes you wonder what could have been.
