1. Just the pain of the Bengals going conservative right when they got on the fringe of field goal range in both the end of the fourth quarter and overtime. It still doesn’t make sense to me why Zac Taylor called plays that took the ball out of Joe Burrow’s hands. Let your best player determine the outcome of the game. Spoiler alert; despite a big leg, it’s not Evan McPherson.
2. Speaking of Joe Burrow, he had another solid performance Sunday. But on his first interception, his arm strength, or lack thereof, showed when he underthrew Auden Tate and was picked by Green Bay’s Adrian Amos. His arm strength was there on the touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase at the end of the first half, so it’s just a matter of it being there consistently.
3. The touchdown to Chase was Burrow’s best throw of the day. Burrow’s second-best throw of the day? His 21-yard completion to Chase in overtime that should have led to a game-winning field goal. Burrow threw an absolute perfect back-shoulder on third down, a prime example of his downfield passing progression in his second season.
4. Burrow’s second interception, on the first play of overtime, was egregiously bad. But what you may have missed while saying whatever curse words you said was that Burrow made the tackle on Packers linebacker DeVondre Campbell. Whether or not you think Burrow should have even attempted to make the tackle after being intercepted, it was a great effort play that eventually led to another Green Bay missed field goal. Imagine if the Bengals had gone on to win the game because of Burrow preventing a longer interception return?
5. Another great effort/hustle play? Vonn Bell chasing down Packers running back Aaron Jones on his 57-yard run after the Bengals tied the game at 22 late in the fourth quarter. He missed the initial tackle behind the line of scrimmage, but to hustle all the way down the field and make a potential touchdown-saving tackle that ultimately led to Mason Crosby’s first missed field goal… you really have to like the effort and character of this football team, and these effort plays should not go unnoticed.
6. Speaking of effort, Ja’Marr Chase hauled in the pass he juggled in the third quarter originally with one hand. Not only that, he swooped it underhanded with his right hand, controlled it and then had the presence of mind to get up, thinking he wasn’t touched, and run all the way for a touchdown. What an athlete he is.
7. In addition to Taylor taking the ball out of Burrow’s hands, what was also frustrating was Tee Higgins dropping two critical passes. His drop on the game-winning drive was momentum-killing, but he also dropped a pass on the play before the fourth down conversion called back via a holding penalty. If he catches those two drops, who knows how the game turns out.
8. The wind that took Evan McPherson’s second field goal attempt to the left was also present on his extra point attempt following Chase’s touchdown. He made the extra point, so that shows that if Taylor hadn’t taken the ball out of Burrow’s hands in overtime, the Bengals could have given McPherson a field goal attempt around the same distance as an extra point.
9. Speaking of deciding to run the ball on 3rd&5 in the fourth quarter and in overtime, watching the game again revealed to me how much effort it takes sometimes for Bengals running backs to rack up yardage. I mentioned in my postgame column how Chase effortlessly takes the top off of opposing defenses. If only the running backs could do that too to really make this Bengals offense hard to stop.
10. On one play in the game, Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd literally stomped on the stomach of Packers cornerback Kevin King while running after the catch. It was a full-on stomp. When was the last time you saw a Bengals player do that? Usually it’s a player on the opposing team doing it to the Bengals if anything.
11. We’re on to Detroit.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 