Bengals Move On

Cincinnati is partying like its 1991 tonight.

The bugaboo that was winning in the playoffs is no more as the Bengals hold off the Las Vegas Raiders, to seal a 26-19 victory to kickoff Super Wildcard Weekend.

For reference, the first text message was sent December 3, 1992, the Internet was only eight years old, and a good majority of us, including the dynamic duo of Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, had not been born when the Bengals last won a playoff game.

Like a lot of LSU students whose main NFL team failed to make the playoffs this year, I have jumped on the Bengals bandwagon in hopes to see a magical run like there was in 2019 playoffs for LSU led by this duo.

“It felt good. We could have played better on offensive in the second half, so that was disappointing. We played really well in the first half, and made plays when we needed to.” Joe Burrow said in the postgame press conference.

The Bengals scored 20 points in the first half, two touchdowns and two field goals, and only two field goals in the second half.

“The whole second half we knew we needed to put points on the board. We kept kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns, and that was disappointing but we were moving the ball and getting points. Can’t be too mad about it, but obviously could have executed better.”

Burrow completed 24 of 34 passing attempts for 244 yards and two touchdowns. One of those scores has come under fire due to an inadvertent whistle.

On the play in question Burrow escaped the pocket to the right and just before he stepped out of bounds threw a strike to Tyler Boyd in the back of the endzone for a score. Now while the ball was in the air a whistle was blown even though Burrow had thrown the pass before stepping out of bounds. The Raider defenders close to the play seemed to let up, however they were not in position to make a play on the ball had there not been a whistle.

Bengals players and coaches adamantly deny hearing a whistle on the play, and honestly why wouldn’t you.

Raiders fans might think this play is the reason why they lost the football game, but following this they made it a one-score game heading into halftime. Failing to finish drives in the second half is what led to the end of their season. There was an opportunity to tie the game with twelve seconds left, however the Raiders came two-yards short after a game-sealing interception by the Bengals Defense.

Ja’Marr Chase led the team in with nine receptions for 116 yards and picked up 23 yards rushing on three attempts. The duo started the game hot connecting three of four times on the opening drive which led to a touchdown.

“It felt good to get the job done. Glad we got this 31-year streak over with. It’s a blessing.” Chase said postgame.

When asked how Burrow compared to in this game to the 2019 playoff run Ja’Marr joked saying “I wish I had a good enough memory to go back that far. Joe did good today. Passes are always on point. He’s playing tremendous football. He’s not playing any differently then what he has. Just getting smarter as the game goes on.”