Earning Their Stripes

It was everything anyone could have wanted on the first Sunday of 2022 as the Bengals looked to reach another huge milestone for the 2021 season and rode the generation-setting tandem of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase to a stunning 34-31 win over two-time AFC champion Kansas City to secure the AFC North title before a deliriously packed Paul Brown Stadium.

It was the wildest finish ever at PBS. The Bengals couldn’t score on three tries inside the KC 1, tried a fourth down pass, got a holding call on both teams and they passed for it again on fourth down and on the incompletion wide receiver Tyler Boyd drew a flag.

But Burrow went off the field limping on his right leg. Backup Brandon Allen came on, spiked it twice and Evan McPherson kicked them into the playoffs with a 20-yard field goal at the gun.

Burrow put up another 446 yards on 30 of 39 sifting, just four shy of the all-time record for yards in two straight games a week after blitzing the Ravens for 525 yards. Chase broke Chad Johnson’s club record for a game with 266 yards on 10 catches, as well as Jerry Butler’s 42-year-old NFL rookie record of 255, as the Bengals won their first game under Zac Taylor trailing after three quarters.

Chase finished with more yards than Patrick Mahomes (259) had passing.

A week after Tee Higgins strafed the Ravens for a career-high 194 yards, Chase drilled the Chiefs for the all-time rookie record. He danced on the right sidelines for a 35-yard pass with Burrow under terrific pressure on a blitz and then did it again on third-and-27 when Burrow hit him again for 30 more on the right sideline frying cornerback Charvarius Ward.

But it was Burrow’s fourth touchdown pass of the day (giving him the Bengals single-season record with 34) to slot receiver Tyler Boyd that gave them their first lead of the day with 11:44 left on a five-yard arrow as Boyd dragged the back foot down going out of the end zone’s left side. That gave them a 31-28 lead after being down 14 points on three different occasions.

After giving up 28 first-half points, the defense blanked Mahomes until Harrison Butker’s 34-yard field goal tied it with 6:01 left at 31. An all-out blitz led by free safety Jessie Bates III in the red zone forced

It was arguably the Bengals’ biggest regular-season game since Dec. 22, 2014, the next-to-last time they beat a team with double-digit wins. When they knocked off the Broncos that Monday night at PBS, it put them in the playoffs for the fourth straight season with a Wild Card berth.

Burrow went over 300 yards for the sixth time this season, breaking the team record on a day he became the club’s single-season passing leader breaking Andy Dalton’s 2013 record.

The officiating crew, levelled by COVID, had a patchwork unit, tried to keeping up with the two teams that put 52 points in the game’s first 32 minutes.

The Bengals remained being one of the league leaders scoring on the first possession of the second half when Chase again stunned Chiefs. He scored his third touchdown when safety Daniel Sorenson drifted to the middle of the field and Chase kept running down the left side line for a 69-yarder that cut to 28-24.

The quarterbacks were brilliant in that High Noon first half. Mahomes went for 209 yards on 17 of 22 passing for two touchdowns and a 136.4 passer rating. Burrow went click-for-clock with 15 of 21 for 193 yards and two touchdowns on a 131.6 passer rating.