KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Things couldn't have been more difficult for the Bengals, who needed to win their final two games to make the playoffs.
Not here this Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium, the deafening home of the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the hosts, who are just one win away from a historic AFC West title.
No, Joe Burrow. Their next two best offensive players, wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, were both below 100%. A key defensive player, nose tackle DJ Reader, was out. Some are dented. One, lefty Sam Hubbard, announced after the game that he needed offseason surgery for something he didn't want to reveal, but he left the field with five tackles and a fumble recovery.
Still, the Chiefs needed six field goals from Harrison Butker to overtake the Bengals' 17-7 lead and secure a 25-17 victory that catapulted the Bengals out of the playoffs at 8-8.
“We asked them all week to fight, to come here and play in a difficult environment, and they did that,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “It was an emotional, physical game. Everything we knew would happen happened. They did it in the second half. Our boys gave it their all.”
Chase came into the game with a sprained shoulder that sidelined him last week in Pittsburgh. He said he was at 70% when he caught three balls for 41 yards. Higgins aggravated his hamstring injury, which has cost him nearly five games this season, on his only catch of the game, a 19-yarder on third-and-seven on the game's first drive. He missed the rest of the first half but came back in the second half to do what he could, which was to draw a 30-yard pass interference penalty, which was their longest play in a game in which they were faded out in the second half.
“A testament to the locker room,” Higgins said. “(Chase) made the decision to play and I made the decision to get back in.”
Chase said if this game had been played early in the season, he probably wouldn't have played.
TURNING POINT: The Chiefs do what they do. They give up 17.7 points per game. When the Bengals led 17-13 midway through the third quarter and faced a fourth-and-1 at the Chiefs 6, Taylor said he felt the Bengals needed points and didn't make the field goal. Chiefs middle linebacker Willie Gay ran into Bengals running back Joe Mixon on the handoff, losing three yards on the handoff, and the Bengals picked up 50 yards the rest of the way.
That was the Bengals' 31st run after 24 in the first half, the most rushes ever by a Zac Taylor team in the first half, according to Pro Football Network. They ran one more time in their last 19 games. Mixon rushed for 65 yards on 21 carries, coming within 77 yards of his fourth 1,000-yard season.
Taylor said the Bengals knew the Chiefs were forming a goal-line defense and they had the personnel in the game (two tight ends and an extra tackle), but it was the way the Chiefs played that bucked the trend .
“The D-line ran an over-forward with the linebacker in the middle. This is a difficult thing,” Browning said.
SLOPES AND SCREENS: Chase had an emotional day. He didn't know if he could play during the week and called out the Chiefs' secondary a few days ago. He told Taylor before they got on the plane Saturday that he could play, and when he did, he said they had to use him because they knew he wasn't fully operational.
Then, on the same play in the second quarter, he and Chiefs cornerback L'Jarius Sneed were each ejected from the field for 15 yards for tackling and shoving him.
“I don't know what he did. I guess I get under people’s skin,” Chase said. “Just nonsense. I can't handle it. Their entire defense was mad at me. Everyone has seen it. That’s what I like to do.”
“The whole reason I played tonight,” Chase said, “was to put my body on the line for the boys.”…
The Bengals defense came into the game allowing the most explosive plays in the league, and the Chiefs got them. Running back Isaiah Pacheco had runs of 35 and 37 yards and quarterback Patrick Mahomes caught them four passes of at least 23 yards, including one as a 67-yarder to wide receiver Rashee Rice, a week after they allowed two 60-yarders.
“It kept biting us,” slot cornerback Mike Hilton said. “Misunderstanding, someone is doing the wrong job. We know we can fix the problem, we never fixed it and couldn’t recover from it.”….
The Bengals gave up a season-high six sacks, but gave up five in the final 4:50 minutes. Chris Jones, their big pass rusher, didn't get his until the last with 1:19 left…
After converting seven of nine third downs and holding the ball for 19:31 straight in the first half, matching the Chiefs' 4:06, Browning said the Chiefs adjusted by scouting him to address his problems reduce make more double coverage…