The rivalry between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs yielded another excellent game on Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. Cincinnati may have been missing several key players including star quarterback Joe Burrow, defensive tackle D.J. Reader and wide receiver Tee Higgins for much of the game but the Queen City of the West put up an excellent fight against the reigning Super Bowl Champions.
Cincinnati Bengals Dashed Once Again By Poor Officiating
Now I’m going to try to be as rational here without sounding like a bitter fan but there were several instances in the game where Kansas City was given an unnecessary advantage by the officials. I’m just going to list a few examples but I was yelling at my television quite a bit this afternoon.
Highly Suspect Intentional Grounding Flag in the Fourth Quarter
So to start with, there was a critical intentional grounding penalty called late in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jake Browning found himself under pressure and attempted to get the ball out to running back Joe Mixon along the left sideline but he was hit while he threw and the ball ended up a few yards to the right of the Cincinnati receiver.
Upon a long meeting a full minute after the play ended, the officials decided to throw the flag for intentional grounding which cost Cincinnati 10 yards. The ball made it well across the line of scrimmage and the receiver was in the area and even big time Patrick Mahomes fan Tony Romo acknowledged that it was an absolute wrong call.
THE REFS DO IT AGAIN:
Somehow this was called an intentional grounding on the #Bengals when Joe Mixon was CLEARLY RIGHT THERE
😳😳😳
GAME CHANGER. Refs SCREW ANOTHER TEAM.
pic.twitter.com/6sC2IvjHQZ— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 1, 2024
Obvious Offsides No-Call on Second Down Sack
Another major mistake of the officiating crew was missing an apparent offsides call against Kansas City defensive tackle Chris Jones. The tweet below shows that Jones was clearly offsides on a 2nd and 4 play which would have provided Cincinnati with an automatic first down.
THE #CHIEFS WERE CLEARLY OFFSIDES AND THE REFS DO NOT CALL IT.
INSTEAD OF GIVING THE #BENGALS A FIRTS DOWN KC SACKS CINCY HERE FOR A 7 YARD LOSS…
😳😳😳😳
REFS CONTINUE TO CHANGE GAMES.
pic.twitter.com/LNyBykB99J— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 1, 2024
The amount of missed offsides penalties this season is indefensible: there are two officials who stand at the end of the line of scrimmage and literally just stare down the line to check for alignment. It would be fairly obvious that the defensive tackle’s helmet was well across the line of scrimmage.
Expectations on Cincinnati
Now that I’m finished with that tirade, I have to acknowledge some facts that I don’t like to admit. Without Burrow, Cincinnati wasn’t making it anywhere in the playoffs this season. Browning has been a functional backup but a run to the Super Bowl was incredibly unlikely. On top of everything, Cincinnati was probably lucky that their best offensive weapon wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase didn’t get ejected after he got into a fight with Kansas City cornerback L’Jarius Sneed after the two were in a social media battle throughout the week.
Ja’Marr Chase vs. the Chiefs Defense 😤 pic.twitter.com/QfFpqunjJJ
— Cincinnati 💔 (@CincyProblems) December 31, 2023
Ja’Marr Chase on the scuffle with L’jarius Sneed:
“I don’t know what he was doing… that MF wanted to fight” 😤
— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) January 1, 2024
While Cincinnati put in a remarkably clean first half, the offensive line simply gave up in the fourth quarter. Kansas City logged six sacks and most of them were the Cincinnati offensive line not even coming close to getting the job done. Cincinnati needs to continue to upgrade the offensive line in the offseason with the presumed departure of tackle Jonah Williams on the right side of the line.
While it was a brutal loss, Kansas City fans should avoid getting too excited. After the team has lost two out of their last four now, they just managed to beat a Cincinnati team without their best player on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Kansas City can celebrate the fact that they just made the playoffs but chances are they’ll have to settle with being a first round exit.
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