Zac Taylor explains big coaching mistake after Broncos win

Near the end of a classic overtime win against the Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown slipped (and injured) instead of scoring a touchdown.

Apparently the idea was for the Bengals to burn through the rest of the game, score at the end of regulation and secure the win.

But that’s far from what happened – without wasting much time, Joe Burrow dove headfirst into the end zone. The Broncos then marched down the field and tied the game, sending it to overtime.

After the game, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor announced that the coaching staff had instructed Brown to slide out. However, the injury timeout changes “everything” for the approach.

Taylor continued that “nothing was easy” for the offense in the red zone against Denver’s defense. While exhausting Denver’s timeouts and the game clock and trying to score on later downs might have worked, they were content to go ahead and just score.

Still, situational game planning has been a recurring problem for the Bengals. That wasn’t the only case on Saturday either – just as bad was kicking a field goal on a third-and-three that ended up missing while taking the ball out of the hands of MVP-caliber Joe Burrow.

This time it worked for the Bengals. But a breakout running back who gets injured while being asked to slide, only for the coaching staff to risk the franchise passer scoring right after, will never escape criticism.