Marvin Lewis' illegal challenge leads to Bengals victory vs. Buccaneers

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis' illegal challenge against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers initially looked like a boneheaded move, but it stalled the Buccaneers' drive, leading to a Bengals win.

Doug Farrar | Nov 30, 2014

Marvin Lewis' illegal challenge leads to Bengals victory vs. Buccaneers /

In the waning seconds of Week 13, things did not look good for Marvin Lewis' Cincinnati Bengals. They were leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14-13, but the Bucs had the ball on second down at the Cincinnati 41-yard line and were driving. Then, Tampa Bay QB Josh McCown completed a 21-yard pass to receiver Louis Murphy, and the Bucs looked to be just seconds away from upsetting the Bengals.

• NFL Week 13: Catch up on everything you may have missed

Watch: J.J. Watt catches third career touchdown pass

There was one problem with that play, though -- the Bucs had 12 players on the field. Bill Leavy's officiating crew missed the extra man on the field (not a huge surprise if you've watched Leavy's crew this season), and it looked as if Tampa Bay would get away with one. With the ball at the Cincinnati 20-yard line, it would be a chip shot for kicker Patrick Murray.

Not so fast, though -- Lewis challenged the play, a move that looked to be boneheaded at that time, but turned out to be brilliant. The challenge came within the final two minutes of the half, and since that's the purview of the replay official (who also didn't call for a review at first), it cost the Bengals a timeout, an important penalty given that the Bucs were without one. But Lewis' challenge apparently woke up the replay official, who did review the play again. The call was overturned, forcing the Bucs back near midfield on the (ultimately) correct penalty ruling.

Johnny Manziel or Brian Hoyer? Browns now face a huge decision

Tampa Bay was pushed back to the Cincinnati 46, and after two McCown incompletions and a 13-yard pass to Mike Evans on fourth down, the Bengals took over with one second left in the game. Despite three first-half interceptions from Andy Dalton, the Bengals walked away with the victory and remain on top of the AFC North with an 8-3-1 mark, while the Bucs spoiled a perfect opportunity for a win that would have cheered up their dismal season.

Published Nov 30, 2014

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.