The Cincinnati Bengals lost a wild 35-34 game to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, and it’s a game that ended in controversy after the officiating crew appeared to miss two blatant penalties on a key two-point attempt in the final minute.
With 38 seconds left to play in the game, Joe Burrow hit Ja’Marr Chase for a 5-yard touchdown that cut Baltimore’s lead down to 35-34. The Bengals could have gone for the tie by kicking an extra point, but instead, head coach Zac Taylor decided he wanted to try and put his team ahead by going for two.
On the two-point play, Burrow tried to hit Tanner Hudson, but the pass fell incomplete. There were no flags thrown on the play, but there probably should have been two. Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki got grabbed by a Ravens defender, which easily could have been called defensive holding. On the same play, Burrow also took a shot to the head by a Ravens defender.
The rules analyst for “Thursday Night Football” is former NFL referee Terry McAulay, and he said the Ravens should have been called for both penalties.
“It was clearly defensive holding before the pass was in flight, that should have been called,” McAulay said. “And that does look like forceful contact to the head of the quarterback. That’s a roughing the passer, it should have been called.”
If both penalties would have been called, the Bengals would have only been able to accept one of them and they would have gotten to retry their two-point attempt from the 1-yard line. There’s obviously no guarantee that they would have made it, but due to the missed penalties, they never got the chance.
Earlier on the drive, the officials also missed another head shot on Burrow.
It was an ugly ending for Clete Blakeman’s officiating crew, which actually did a good job for most of the game.
The failed two-pointer was one of the few lowlights for Burrow. The Bengals quarterback had a huge night, throwing for 428 yards and four touchdowns. Chase also had a historic game with 11 catches for 264 yards and three touchdowns.
Burrow and Chase almost led a miraculous comeback, but the Bengals came up short, and now, they’ll be heading back to Cincinnati with a 4-6 record.
