Bengals’ Zac Taylor Upset with Officials for Pausing Game After Myles Garrett Breaks Sack Record

Everyone was super excited after Browns defensive end Myles Garrett broke the single-season sack record on Sunday. Well, everyone except Bengals fans, Bengals players, and their head coach, Zac Taylor.

The moment came in the fourth quarter as the Bengals were hurrying to score a touchdown to steal the game away from their in-state rivals. The game had no real meaning, as both teams had long since been eliminated from playoff contention. But it had meaning for Garrett, who had been stuck on 22 sacks for a few weeks and was running out of opportunities to get that elusive, record-breaking 23rd sack.

However, that opportunity eventually came in the form of a sacked Joe Burrow.

While the commentators and many fans were celebrating Garrett’s achievement, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was frantically trying to get his team to the line to run another play. However, officials told Taylor they were stopping play for a moment.

“There’s five minutes left in our season. We’re playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we’re gonna stop the game in a critical moment like that,” Taylor said. “The refs just said that they made a decision that they were gonna stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that. We didn’t sub. We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo, and the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything.”

Ultimately, no one will have sympathy for Taylor because the game was meaningless. However, he has a point: The official’s decision to pause the game directly interfered with his game plan to win it. What if the Bengals had been playing for a playoff spot? This would have been a huge controversy.

In any event, it seems the officials at least should have advised Taylor before the game about how they intended to handle the situation if Garrett got the sack record. It’s not like they were unaware that he was only one sack away.

The Bengals did not score on that drive, but did get a touchdown on their next possession.

None of it mattered, however, as the Bengals fell to the Browns 20-18.