CINCINNATI — For the Bengals and head coach Zac Taylor, there were a lot of things that didn’t go their way in the final 15 minutes of Sunday’s 23-20 overtime loss to the Steelers. <\/p>\n
There were things out of their control, like losing your long snapper for kicks and punts to a injured right biceps making a tackle on punt coverage earlier in the game. <\/p>\n
Then there was the controllable, like taking your time and not letting the game speed up like it did on Ja’Marr Chase’s catch with 2:48 left in regulation that would’ve tied the game and given them the chance to win the game at that point. <\/p>\n
“Just slow down. Slow down. What I could see was a bunch of incomplete hand signals,” Taylor said. “It\u2019s literally the worst field position in football for me to be able to see over there to that far pylon through a bunch of people. So just trying to gauge that we\u2019re not discussing an incomplete pass. We\u2019re discussing a possible touchdown. <\/p>\n
“Slow it down, let us see the call. I can just do a better job of taking the information I\u2019m hearing and giving it to Joe. I was quick to spit out, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s get on the ball and snap a play here to beat their challenge potentially before realizing that\u2019s not the issue. At the time, we still feel good about it. There wasn\u2019t a great replay that we would have seen in the booth that would have told us touchdown. <\/p>\n
“That replay didn\u2019t show up until after the play was snapped. That part wouldn\u2019t have helped us. Of course, there\u2019s always regret when you leave seven points on the field and you don\u2019t score. Again, it\u2019s a unique situation that came up. I got to do a better job managing it the next time it does.”<\/p>\n
Ultimately, of course, they did tie the game with two seconds left but missed the extra point. <\/p>\n
That’s where Zac Taylor looked himself in the mirror and shared his thoughts with the coaching staff on Monday morning. <\/p>\n
“Just letting the play settle on the 1-yard line to Ja\u2019Marr and letting that be a touchdown as opposed to getting no points in four plays,” Taylor said. “That\u2019s one you want back. That one just falls on me, to be quite honest with you. So that\u2019s something to clean up.”<\/p>\n
Taylor could’ve also slowed down on the mad scramble around the Joe Burrow fumble in overtime. The field goal unit was running on the field before they were told no one else could return the fumble other than Burrow himself, not Samaje Perine. The ball was placed at midfield, forcing a punt. <\/p>\n
But instead of milking the clock down and taking seconds away, the punt team snapped with 15 seconds left on the play clock. That gave the Steelers just enough time to get down the field and kick the winning field goal. <\/p>\n
“And then the snap at the end of the game on the punt,” Taylor said. “It\u2019s just an unusual situation, the way that we got the punt team out there. It was a little bit of confusion with where is the ball going to be spotted, what down is it, what should be doing, going for it, kicking a field goal? Oh, we need to be punting? <\/p>\n
“Kind of at the last second. And the clock\u2019s running. We gotta punt. And so you don\u2019t get a chance to sit there on the sidelines and say, \u2018Hey listen guys. Let\u2019s bleed this down.\u2019 You\u2019re communicating onto the field to do that. That\u2019s an area of improvement. It\u2019s kind of an unusual situation. I think someone in here asked me yesterday how much do you work on that situation with your backup long snapper. It\u2019s not very often.”<\/p>\n
\n"Just slow down" Zac Taylor admits the game got away from him a bit on Chase non-TD with 2:48. Biggest game-management lesson learned Sunday. pic.twitter.com\/XcBcBCwEru<\/a><\/p>\n
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) September 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n