Walkoff Thoughts: Joe Burrow's Struggles and Zac Taylor's Decision Making Doom Bengals in Opener Against Steelers

Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati 23-20 on Sunday at Paycor Stadium.

CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow stared straight ahead while sitting at his locker more than an hour after the Bengals lost to the Steelers 23-20 in overtime on Sunday afternoon. 

Outside of talking with the media for six minutes, the 25-year-old sat at his locker, likely replaying every miscue from a game that can only be described as a wild, roller coaster. 

Most of his teammates had showered, gotten dressed and left. He still had his game pants on and the shirt he wore under his jersey and shoulder pads.

Burrow was awful in the first half of Sunday's game. He had four turnovers, including three interceptions. Minkah Fitzpatrick returned the first one for a touchdown. The Steelers ultimately scored 17 of their 23 points on Bengals' turnovers. 

“It’s frustrating, but I had faith that we’d come back," Burrow said after the game. "Obviously I’d like to have some of those back."

He gave the Bengals a chance to win by leading the offense downfield multiple times in the fourth quarter and in overtime, but he struggled for most of the game. 

Most teams aren't going to win when their quarterback has four interceptions. The Bengals were inches away from doing it on Sunday. 

Burrow wasn't the only one at fault. Head coach Zac Taylor had a rough game too. 

He's built a great culture and has gotten better as a playcaller, but continues to struggle to make the right decisions in close games. Many were hoping he'd improve situationally after coaching in so many tight contests in 2021. 

Why didn't he challenge the 12-yard Ja'Marr Chase catch that looked like a touchdown with 2:54 remaining? 

“Part of it was that that’s the hardest place for us to see in the entire field is that spot. I didn’t think there was a chance there was a touchdown there initially," Taylor said after the game. "We got on the ball to run it in quickly. It’s hard with all the craziness in that moment, all the communication."

Looking at multiple angles, it looked like Chase scored. Instead of tying the game or taking the lead, the Bengals lost 3 yards on the next play, called a timeout and then turned the ball on downs after back-to-back incompletions. 

"When you get the ball on the inch [line], you just want to punch it in real quick," Taylor said. "In hindsight, maybe he was in and we could have given ourselves a chance.”

Challenging that play would've completely changed the final three minutes. The Bengals ultimately tied the game with two seconds left, but that could've been the game-winning touchdown if they had gotten points with the challenge. 

That wasn't the only questionable decision by Taylor. The Bengals were forced to punt from the 50-yard line with 1:04 remaining in overtime. They punted with the clock running and 13 seconds left on the game clock, which gave Pittsburgh more time to get the ball downfield and make the game winning field goal. 

"That part was a fine line of wanting to milk [the play clock]. There’s 13 seconds left when we snapped it—that’s not ideal, obviously," Taylor said. "The way this game played out, we wanted to do it a little bit later. But again, it’s a new operation, new people in there and the communication just wasn’t exactly what we wanted.”

Mitch Wilcox was their long snapper after Clark Harris suffered a significant biceps injury. Getting the snap off was important, but why not take a delay of game penalty, give Huber five more yards to work with and milk every second of the clock? 

Were the Bengals worried about a bad snap? Were they caught up in the chaos after Samaje Perine picked up Burrow's fumble and advanced it? 

A tie wouldn't have been ideal, but it's much better than a loss. Those 13 seconds could've made all the difference—especially for a Bengals' defense that had played great during the first 69 minutes of play. 

There were plenty of other mistakes. The offensive line struggled. Not having Tee Higgins certainly hurt the offense, even when they weren't turning the ball over. 

The Bengals had plenty of chances that they didn't take advantage of and it cost them on Sunday.

The Bengals will try to rebound next week in Dallas. 

“It’s not the way we wanted to start the season, but we’re smart enough to know not to react," Taylor said. "When you lose the turnover battle five to nothing, I don’t expect to win many games. We almost did. So you’ve got to find the silver lining there."

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