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The final road game of the season for first-year head coach Zac Taylor’s team, the Cincinnati Bengals packed up and boarded a plane south to battle the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
Trailing 35-12 with 11:12 left in the fourth quarter, the Bengals miraculously rallied with the final 23 points of regulation to force overtime. As close of a shave as possible, quarterback Andy Dalton (TCU) found tight end Tyler Eifert (Notre Dame) for a 25-yard score as time expired.
NO QUIT pic.twitter.com/APx4tBMjjV
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 22, 2019
Dalton would run in the two-point conversion on the next play to force the extra session. Despite entering the bonus 10 minutes with all the momentum on their side, Cincinnati would come up just short, 38-35, as Dolphins kicker Jason Sanders (New Mexico) knocked through a 37-yard field goal on the last play of overtime.
For the win ?#CINvsMIA #FinsUp pic.twitter.com/eIW3WnOhjh
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) December 22, 2019
With the loss, the Bengals fell to 1-14 and have now clinched the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft in Paradise, Nevada.
It’s official: The #Bengals are now on the clock. They lock in the No. 1 pick.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 22, 2019
Fresh off his Heisman Trophy victory, most experts expect LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow to be the first player off the board. Leading the Tigers to the No. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, he has thrown for 4,715 yards, 48 touchdowns and just six interceptions while completing 77.9% of his passes.
Fittingly, Burrow moved to The Plains, Ohio – about two-and-a-half hours northeast of Cincinnati – as a nine-year-old and began his collegiate career for Urban Meyer at Ohio State.
His father, Jim, played collegiately for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and professionally in the NFL and Canadian Football League. Retiring from coaching following the 2018 season, the elder Burrow spent 14 years as Frank Solich’s defensive coordinator with the Ohio Bobcats, including his final two years as an associate head coach.
Serving as a CFP semifinal, LSU will face the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.
A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Teddy Rydquist has been contributing to Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition since 2019. In addition to his work here, he has covered the Michigan Wolverines for GBMWolverine and Wolverine Digest. He can be found on Twitter @TeddyRydquist.
