In this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory,” powered by KIA, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire discuss how Cincinnati Bengals edge-rusher Joseph Ossai can recover from the penalty that helped propel the Chiefs to Super Bowl LVII.
The other big story in the AFC Championship game was of course Bengals edge-rusher Joseph Ossai, who pushed Patrick Mahomes when he was already out of bounds with seconds left in the game, and the subsequent 15-yard penalty put the Chiefs in position for Harrison Butker to kick the game-winning 45-yard field goal with eight seconds left. When you unfortunately have to wear the goat horns in a case like this, how do you get over it?
Doug: It’s rough. You feel for the human being beyond the game. I will say that Ossai shares the goat horns with referee Ron Torbert and his crew, who missed at least one, and possibly two, holds on Chiefs offensive linemen on that very same play. I know there have been thoughts about rip-move exemptions that would take those penalties away, but do you trust NFL officials to correctly legislate that in the moment? I do not.
Ossai’s penalty (which was legitimate) could have been offset. In that case, you’re breathing a sigh of relief and playing for overtime. But Ossai also had one of the best games of his young career – five tackles, a tackle for loss, two quarterback hits, and a pass defensed. The best thing Ossai can do is to focus on the good, use what happened as fuel for the future, and try to move on.
The real key for the Bengals is to not let this ruin their future prospects. Because single plays like this can exact a heavy emotional toll. I was in the Seahawks’ locker room after Russell Wilson’s interception to Malcolm Butler in Super Bowl 49, and I was in the building a lot in the few years after that. I don’t think that series of Seahawks teams ever recovered from it. You can’t let one bad play define your future, no matter how impossible that seems in the moment.
Luke: I think one of the biggest things is what we already saw Sunday night, with his teammates immediately coming to his side and supporting him. Whether that was Cam Sample on the bench right after, or B.J. Hill in the locker room while Ossai bravely answered for his mistake to the media. This game is played by real human beings with feelings and emotions, who make mistakes just like the rest of us do every day.
The only difference is, our biggest mistakes don’t usually happen in a stadium filled with thousands of people, and they’re not broadcast to millions more live on TV. Kudos to Ossai’s teammates for picking him up in the moment, and I’m sure they will continue to do so throughout the offseason. That’s really the most important thing, and could end up galvanizing the locker room even further for a potential run again next season.
