The Cincinnati Bengals kept their postseason hopes alive with a wild 30-24 overtime victory over the Denver Broncos on Saturday night in Cincinnati.
A win is a win, and the Bengals can leave the contest with their postseason hopes remaining alive, but it nearly wasn't that way thanks to some questionable clock management decisions from Coach Zac Taylor at the end of regulation.
After forcing a Bo Nix interception late in regulation, Cincinnati drove the ball deep into Denver territory, which culminated with Bengals running back Chase Brown sliding inside the five-yard line to stay in bounds and chew up the clock when he could have scored to give the Bengals the lead.
Denver had only one timeout remaining at the time of Brown's slide. Cincinnati was forced to use a timeout to stop the clock due to an ankle injury to Brown on the slide, but all the Bengals offense had to do on second down was take a knee, force Denver to use a timeout, then run the clock all the way down on third down before kicking a field goal on fourth with little time remaining.
Instead, Joe Burrow scored a one-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak on second down with 1:29 to play, which not only allowed the Broncos to preserve their final timeout, but also gave Denver ample time to drive down the field for a game-tying score. Denver quarterback Bo Nix hit wide receiver Marvin Mims for a touchdown pass with seconds remaining, and the extra point forced a wild overtime period that eventually culminated in the Bengals win.
Taylor defended his decision making after the game.
“The injury changed everything," Taylor said. "We were going to be able to kick the walk-off field goal with about 10 seconds … we were telling Chase to slide at the one because we figured they were going to let us score there, which he did. Unfortunately, got his ankle so they charged us with the timeout, so then that changes everything.
“Now you’re in a second and goal at the one. You can down it and make sure they use their timeout and then try to score a touchdown from there on third down and maybe kick it on fourth, but you saw our red zone against them. It’s tough all day. Nothing was easy for us .… we just told Joe [Burrow] to run the quarterback sneak and if you score, great. If you don’t, they’ll have to use their timeout and we’ll try something else. And put it on the defense there to get the stop, and unfortunately they scored on the 4th and 1, but the defense rose up in overtime and got it back for us.”
Taylor is correct that the Brown’s injury did change the math quite a bit. Before the play, the Bengals would have been able to kick the go-ahead field goal and leave the Broncos with only about 10 seconds to play. Afterwards, two kneel downs and a made field goal would have left Denver with just under a minute.
Still, it isn't a great answer from Taylor, who should have been just as confident about his team's chances of scoring after running down the clock as he was when he called a QB sneak for Burrow on second down.
Ultimately, the Bengals are still alive for postseason play after improving to 8-8 on the season.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bengals' Zac Taylor Defends Bizarre Clock Management Decisions in Win Over Broncos.
