CINCINNATI — Paul Brown Stadium nearly shook in triumph. The city of Cincinnati might have, too.
Its latest hero, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, merely seemed to shrug after leading his team to its first playoff victory in 31 years, 26-19 over the Raiders on Saturday in an AFC wild-card game.
“It’s exciting for the city, for the state, but we are not going to dwell on that, we are moving forward,” said Burrow, who threw two touchdown passes. “This is expected, this isn’t like the icing on top of the cake, this is the cake. So we are moving on.”
Burrow led an efficient offense that scored on six drives, Evan McPherson became the first rookie to kick four field goals without a miss in a postseason debut, and Germaine Pratt sealed it with a fourth-down interception in the dying seconds.
It was a victory three decades in the making for the Bengals. After going from worst to first in the AFC North with a generally young roster, they ended that embarrassingly long postseason drought that included eight consecutive defeats.
“Who Dey” indeed.
Their next opponent will depend on results in the other two AFC wild-card games this weekend.
Helped by some problematic officiating from Jerome Boger’s crew that might have allowed Burrow’s touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd to count when it shouldn’t have, the Bengals also extended a lengthy postseason drought for Las Vegas. The Raiders, which won their final four games to squeeze into the playoffs, last won in the postseason in the 2002 AFC championship game.
Cincinnati made it 4-for-4 on scoring drives late in the first half, though with some controversy. Burrow rolled right to avoid pressure and threw from close to the sideline. Play continued despite an erroneous whistle by an official, who thought Burrow had stepped out of bounds. Boyd caught the 10-yard pass in the back of the end zone for a 20-6 lead. The play counted, despite protests from the Raiders, who cited the rule that the ball should be returned to the previous spot.
And Las Vegas lost by seven points.
Walt Anderson, the NFL’s senior VP of officiating and a former referee, spoke to a pool reporter about the decision made by Jerome Boger’s crew.
“We confirmed with the referee and the crew that on that play — they got together and talked — they determined that they had a whistle, but that the whistle for them on the field was blown after the receiver caught the ball,” Anderson said. “They did not feel that the whistle was blown before the receiver caught the ball.”
NBC’s telecast replays indicated the whistle was blown early. The network’s officiating analyst, Terry McAulay, believed the play should have been negated and the ball placed back at the Raiders’ 10.