PITTSBURGH _ If all you saw was the last play of the Bengals’ 30-27 loss here Sunday to the Steelers, that’s all you needed to see.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who kept his team in it the whole day, had the ball punched out of his hands as he dropped back to from pass from the Pittsburgh 38 with 44 seconds left.
“It hurts,” said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who saw his team lose for the first time all year in six preseason and regular-season games. “Because you feel like we have every opportunity to win it and we didn’t do it.”
The Bengals committed two special team’ gaffes in the second half after they had forced the Steeles to punt. Defensive end Cedric Johnson’s roughing the punter penalty when they were leading, 20-17, in the third quarter, and wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams’ fumbled punt when they were leading, 27-24, with 10:52 left in the game, translated to 10 points.
The turnovers revived quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ offense, and he hit tight end Darnell Washington on a 47-yard run-and catch, and running back Jaylen Warren followed it up with a 26-yard run on the way to Chris Boswell’s winning 33-yard field goal with 2:15 left.
“All three phases share in that,” Taylor said. “We had a chance to score on offense, had a chance to get a stop on defense, and we had a couple of plays on special teams that we didn’t make.”