Zac Taylor says headsets went out on Bengals’ final offensive play; punt hitting scoreboard was ‘big play in the game’

The Cincinnati Bengals were unable to finish off their comeback against the Dallas Cowboys in the second half. It took the Bengals pretty much three quarters to wake up on offense, but they managed to tie the game with a little over four minutes remaining.

The defense then stopped the Cowboys the next series, but they were able to pin the Bengals inside their own 10-yard line. Cincinnati ran the ball a couple of times before attempting a quick out to Tyler Boyd on third down that was stopped right in its tracks.

Head coach Zac Taylor said following the game that the headsets used to communicate with Joe Burrow on offense went out on that third down.

Taylor followed up by saying they didn’t expect much pressure on that play, which could have resulted in a different play call.

Prior to that, the Bengals were setting up to receive a punt that was going to be the team’s chance to go down the field and potentially tie the game. Dallas’ punter clearly hit the scoreboard with his punt, and we even saw everyone on the field walk back to replay the down.

The refs then said there was no evidence that the punt hit the scoreboard (other than the obvious clues of the punt shooting down yards ahead of time and several players on both sides pointing at the scoreboard. After it was decided, we saw on the broadcast they finally showed the shot of it actually hitting the scoreboard, but it was too late.

Taylor took that call hard as well.

The Bengals ended up starting on the 17-yard line, which considering how their next drive was inside their own 10, it is hard to say that call didn’t favor them slightly. Still, who knows what a re-kick could have resulted in after exhausting the coverage team.

We can’t begin to try and figure out how or if either of those plays would have changed the game. It is an unfortunate thing to have happened. This also isn’t the first time this headset issue has happened to Taylor and his staff.

Still, you have to expect a team with this firepower to put up way more points than 17. One play could have changed everything, but they had upwards of 50 other plays that could have as well, which is what Taylor should really be focusing on.