The Cincinnati Bengals double down with a historic performance they haven't seen in eight years

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow admitted to making a mistake that caused head coach Zac Taylor to briefly miss air.

But Burrow also shrugged his shoulders.

And why not?

The mistake in question still led to a touchdown – a historic one at that – and a 34-24 road victory for the Carolina Panthers for the Bengals’ first win of the season.

“Maybe not my best decision, but it worked out for us,” Burrow said of his decision to throw a screen to running back Zack Moss with just six seconds left before halftime and the Bengals out of a timeout.

Moss slipped while playing and fell to the ground. Had he been stopped short of the end zone, time would have expired and the Bengals would have escaped with no points and gone into the locker room with a 14-14 tie.

“Hold your breath,” Taylor said of the play. “It’s great when it works.”

Luckily for the Bengals, Moss was able to get back to his feet with one second left and get into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

“I trusted Zack to make that play. I thought he had enough room,” Burrow said.

Taylor said the screen to Moss wasn’t the primary option in the play call, but Burrow chose it.

“He can see it better than we can from the sideline where that was,” Taylor added. “(Burrow) felt like Zack obviously had a chance to get in there. Happy if it works.”

With just six seconds left before halftime, the pass – and Burrow’s decision – had to be made quickly, which is why he took the risk.

“They plan plays for normal situations,” Taylor added. “You don’t make plans when there are six seconds left in the half, which is about the grayest area you can get. Six seconds left and if the ball tips into the air, the clock will run out.”

What made the touchdown particularly significant was that it allowed the Bengals to do something they’ve always strived for but rarely accomplished.

The reason teams retire after winning the first coin toss is so they have a chance to double dip by scoring at the end of the first half and then again on the first possession of the second half.

The Bengals followed Moss’ touchdown reception one second before halftime with an eight-play, 71-yard touchdown drive behind great offensive line play early in the second quarter. Chase Brown’s 1-yard run gave Cincinnati a 28-14 lead.

It is the first time in the Taylor era that the Bengals have scored a touchdown on the final non-knee-down drive of the first half and again on the first possession of the second half.

There were touchdown-field goal combinations, but even those were rare.

And there were instances where the Bengals scored touchdowns on their final drive of the first half and the first drive of the second half, but the opponent had a possession (or two) between them.

There are three such cases.

Last year in Monday night’s game in Jacksonville, the Bengals scored a touchdown on a 2-yard run by Joe Mixon with 1:04 left. The Jaguars had 64 seconds to work before halftime, and they got the ball first in the third quarter and went out of bounds three times.

Then, on the Bengals’ third play of the third quarter, Jake Browning hit Ja’Marr Chase for a 76-yard touchdown and a 21-14 lead.

In the 2022 win at New Orleans, Burrow had a 19-yard run on the team’s final drive of the first half, but the Saints answered with a field goal. New Orleans added another field goal to start the second half, and the Bengals got a 15-yard touchdown pass from Burrow to Chase on their first possession of the third quarter.

Later in 2022, in Week 9 against the same Carolina Panthers, the Bengals scored a touchdown on a Mixon 12-yard reception from Burrow with 0:04 left in the first half. Carolina opened the second half with a touchdown drive, and Cincinnati tied it with a 14-yard touchdown run by Mixon for a 42-7 lead.

And in the 2021 season opener, Chase scored a 50-yard touchdown with 35 seconds left in the first half, and the Bengals opened the second half with an 11-play touchdown drive that Mixon capped with a 2-yard run.

But the Vikings had a legitimate possession before halftime even though they only had 35 seconds. They had all three timeouts and ran six plays.

The Bengals won this game at home 27-24 in overtime.

The last time we saw the Bengals double-dip like they did today was a home game against the Eagles in 2016.

Andy Dalton led a 12-play, 93-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Eifert two seconds before halftime.

Then the Bengals took the second-half kickoff and went 77 yards in eight plays, with Dalton hitting Brandon LaFell for an 8-yard touchdown and a 26-0 lead in a game they won 32-14.

Sunday’s double-dip was initiated by the fact that the Bengals not only won their first game of the season, but also their first coin toss, allowing them to defer and give themselves a chance to do something they eight Hadn’t done it for years.

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The Cincinnati Bengals double down with a historic performance they haven’t seen in eight years

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