Cincinnati Bengals Coach Zac Taylor Makes Bold Claims In Regards To Chase Brown as a polarizing figure
CINCINNATI – Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown stirred up controversy in fantasy and betting communities on Sunday night when he opted to score on a 30-yard touchdown run with 1:52 left, instead of sliding down to run out the clock.
By scoring, Brown secured a 10-point lead, ensuring a cover for the point spread with the Bengals’ 17-7 win, likely helping many of his fantasy owners clinch victories as well.
However, this decision also gave the New York Giants a glimmer of hope, as they could still potentially score, recover an onside kick, and tie—or even win—the game.
If Brown had chosen to go down short of the end zone, the Bengals would have had quarterback Joe Burrow take three kneel-downs to seal a 10-7 win.
“When there’s a lot of space like that, I’m just wired to finish the play,” Brown said. “But I definitely need to be more aware of the situation and consider sliding to end the game.”
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor disagreed with Brown’s choice.
While he acknowledged that Brown should have slid, he also felt it wasn’t Brown’s responsibility to account for remaining timeouts and the 40-second play clock.
“That’s on me. One hundred percent on me,” Taylor said. “I was too focused on calling the plays to secure that first down and failed to communicate that properly.”
“There was 1:58 on the clock and they had a timeout. I don’t expect our guys to do math in the huddle.”
30 for 30
Chase Brown breaks one to all but ice this one
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 14, 2024
While everything turned out fine when Greg Joseph missed a 45-yard field goal with 55 seconds left, allowing Burrow to kneel out the victory, NFL head coaches always seize the opportunity to impart important lessons.
In Monday’s team meeting, Taylor highlighted a moment from the 2022 Browns-Jets game, where Nick Chubb scored a 12-yard touchdown with 1:55 remaining, rather than going down as the Jets had no timeouts left.
The Jets responded with a 66-yard touchdown pass, closing the gap to 30-24, then recovered an onside kick and ultimately won the game with a 15-yard touchdown pass 22 seconds later.
“You don’t want to leave things to chance,” Taylor noted. “There have been instances in the league over the past ten years where that strategy backfired. Sure, a 17-7 win feels better, but I’d prefer a 10-7 victory where we don’t let anything slip away at the end. So that’s something I need to improve on.”