In a post-game conference after the Week 18 faceoff between the Browns and the Bengals, Zac Taylor, the Bengals’ head coach, expressed his frustration with the referees.

After Browns’ Myles Garrett set his sack record with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the referees stopped the game to let the Browns celebrate.

“There's five minutes left in our season. We're playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we're gonna stop the game and in a critical moment like that. And the refs just said that they made a decision that they were gonna stop the game. And they said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn't feel that.”

By that point, the Browns led 17-12. The Bengals had made their way to Browns' 45-yard mark, but the break broke their momentum. With Burrow's passes going incomplete, the Bengals had to punt.

"They just said that they made a decision as a crew to stop the game when it happened. … I was never informed of that. They didn't say one word. … In the 90-minute meeting before the game, they never said one word about it. And I’m yelling at Joe, ‘Get on the ball.’ We didn’t sub, we’re going and then we couldn’t play. And so again, trying to get an answer was not easy.”

Soon after, a Joe Burrow pass with 1:29 on the clock ended up a touchdown, but it was in vain. The Browns got into field goal range and ended the game 20-18.

Others in the Bengals were just as frustrated with the situation as Taylor was. Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase told the reporters he was confused about the rules. Chase stated that he didn’t know they (refs) could do that. 

“I never knew you could let the whole team get on your field. That’s like me catching my 10th pass, and the whole team run on the field. We’re gonna get flagged. But congrats to him and everything.”

Despite being unhappy, Zac Taylor had nothing but praise for Myles Garrett

"(Myles Garrett) is the best player on the defensive side of the ball. He's the best player and he wrecks every single play. You've got to account for him, they've got a really good defensive line — they've got a really good defense."

Garrett made his 23rd sack of this season and surpassed the NFL record for most sacks by a player in a season shared between Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. They both made 22 sacks in 2001 and 2021, respectively.

"He's the best at what he does, and you try to mitigate it as much as you can with your play calls, protections and how your quarterback plays."

Written by

Akanksha Biradar

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar