Twitter goes wild after Bengals beat top-seeded Titans and head to AFC Championship

Your Cincinnati Bengals did something the franchise has never done when they defeated the Tennessee Titans. They won their first playoff game on the road, ever.

They also knocked off the No. 1 seed in the AFC on their way to their third appearance in the AFC Championship in franchise history.

This game wasn’t an easy one. The Bengals were up by 10 at one point, only to watch it disappear in a matter of minutes. Not to mention Joe Burrow also taking a beating with nine sacks (and a few more hits the refs allowed on dead plays).

When it mattered most, this Cincinnati defense stepped up and made the plays to make sure this team had a chance to win.

And to top it off, a rookie kicker, who many criticized being selected so early in this year’s NFL Draft, nailed the biggest kick of the new millennium for the Bengals from beyond 50 yards.

Initial hysteria

Kicker Evan McPherson solidified himself as a weapon today. He has directly changed the outcome of many of Cincinnati’s games with his ability to hit from long range. He also had three game-winners in the regular season. Now he adds a nice smooth one to head to the AFC Championship from beyond 50 yards. Safe to say this guy will never have to pay for a drink in Cincinnati the rest of his life. Well, that is as long as he doesn’t mind the drunks shouting “SHOOTER” every time he gets one.

Bengals defense puts clamps on Derrick Henry and passing game

This entire week, media covering this game talked about how a healthy Henry at running back would win this game for the Titans. They sighted the injury of Larry Ogunjobi. No offense meant to Ogunjobi, but fans knew he wasn’t the team's best run defender. That belongs to D.J. Reader, who announced himself to all of those who haven’t noticed how he has killed it all season.

Then there was the defense that picked off Ryan Tannehill three times, which included linebacker Logan Wilson giving Burrow and company a chance at a game-winning drive inside a minute. He intercepted a ball tipped up by cornerback Eli Apple.

Postgame takes from twitter

After the initial reaction, fans head a little more level head to appreciate the situation this team is in. It isn’t every year a team goes from one of the worst in the NFL to one of the final four teams left still playing.

Paul Rudd said it best.

GIFs of the game

Since tonight was such a special one, we are bringing back the GIF section of this post. Many great ones were sent in, and all of them are appreciated. However, for the sake of this post being able to load, we can only go with three. Here were the best.

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