The Cincinnati Bengals fell short on ‘Thursday Night Football’ with a 35-34 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. A back-and-forth second half saw the Bengals keep up thanks to Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase scoring three touchdowns.
The last of their touchdowns came with 38 seconds left to cut the deficit to one point.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor opted to go for the two-point conversion instead of playing for overtime. Burrow looked for tight end Tanner Hudson but Hudson couldn’t pull in the go-ahead conversion.
After viewing multiple replays, the ‘Thursday Night Football’ broadcast team questioned why there were no penalties called on the two-point conversion attempt.
One was for holding Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki, the other for a hit to the helmet on Burrow after he released the ball.
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‘That’s defensive holding right there that they should’ve called,’ color analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on the broadcast in reference to the Gesicki contact.
‘Wow, that’s another one,’ he said after a replay of the hit to Burrow.
Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay agreed with Herbstreit.
‘It was clearly defensive holding before the pass was in flight, that should’ve been called,’ McAulay said on the broadcast. ‘And that does look like forceable contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s roughing the passer and should’ve been called.’
‘Too many games end this way,’ play-by-play announcer Al Michaels said. ‘You miss calls, the whole thing, it’s so frustrating to the fans. So frustrating.’
‘A lot of people are going to be talking about those non-calls there on the two-point conversion,’ Herbstreit said. ‘Doesn’t mean that they would’ve ended up winning the game but they would’ve definitely had another opportunity.’