Zac Taylor was unhappy that Myles Garrett broke the NFL’s single-season sacks record against his team. The Bengals head coach appeared more upset that officials briefly paused the game to allow the Browns pass rusher and his teammates celebrate his 23rd sack of the season.
“There’s five minutes left in our season,” Taylor said, via Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports. “We’re playing for our lives here. I was never told that we’re going to stop the game. In a critical moment like that, the refs just said that they made a decision that they were going to stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that.”
The Bengals trailed 17-12 with 5:16 remaining when Garrett got around left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. to get to Joe Burrow for a 5-yard loss. The Browns were celebrating with Garrett as the Bengals tried to run hurry-up, potentially to try to prevent exactly what happened.
“We didn’t sub,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo. The umpire just held the ball, so that we couldn’t do anything. And I’m yelling at Joe, ‘Get on the ball.’ . . . And so again, trying to get an answer was not easy. They just said that they made a decision as a crew to stop the game when that happened. I guess it didn’t matter when it happened.”
Taylor reiterated that officials did not inform him in their pre-game meeting that they would pause the game if Garrett got the record.
The Bengals did take the lead on their next possession but lost on Andre Szmyt’s 49-yard field goal as time expired.
Neither team had anything at stake in the game, with both teams long ago eliminated from postseason contention.
