The Bengals were at the Ravens two-yard line and had a chance to either tie or take the lead, but Cincinnati left with zero points.
Head coach Zac Taylor can take the majority of the blame for the Bengals coming up empty in the goal-to-go situation after a 15-play, 73-yard drive that took out 8:04 off the clock.
The Bengals surprisingly didn’t run the ball with Joe Mixon in their four plays at the Baltimore two-yard line, despite the running back leading the NFL in touches inside the 10-yard line. Instead, Joe Burrow dropped back and threw an incomplete pass to Hayden Hurst.
Then Taylor went wild in his play calling. He called a “Philly Special” with Tyler Boyd as the passer, but the Ravens snuffed it out, and Marcus Peters sacked the wide receiver for 12 yards. Burrow would gain those yards back with a completion to Ja’Marr Chase.
The galaxy-brain decision-making didn’t stop there, though. On fourth-and-2, Burrow attempted to throw a shovel pass to Stanley Morgan, but Baltimore had it covered, and the play didn’t have a chance.
The decision to go for it on fourth down was a sound one by Taylor, according to various analytical models. But those numbers don’t tell you to run tricky plays modern defenses are well-equipped to handle. Teams like the Kansas City Chiefs make that shovel pass look so easy, but it’s obvious that a combination of personnel and coaching is what makes those trick plays work.
Unfortunately, for Cincinnati, it didn’t have that combination on that drive.
