It took 50 years, but it finally happened: For the first time in franchise history, the Cincinnati Bengals scored an offensive touchdown in overtime.
Since NFL overtime was instituted in 1974, the Bengals had played a total 44 OT games going into their Week 17 game against the Broncos and not one time did they score an offensive touchdown, which is almost unfathomable.
The Bengals defense scored an overtime touchdown to win a game back in 1998, but the offense had never done it before this week.
The drought finally ended on Saturday and it ended dramatically when Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins for a walk-off 3-yard touchdown to give the Bengals a 30-24 win over the Denver Broncos.
The victory kept the Bengals’ playoff hopes alive for at least another week and it capped off a wild day for both Burrow and Higgins.
On Burrow’s end, he threw for 412 yards and three touchdown while also tacking on a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. This marked the third time in Burrow’s career that he’s finished with at least 400 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown, which is an NFL record. Burrow had previously done it twice, which had put him in a tie with Aaron Rodgers, Kyler Murray and Peyton Manning for the NFL record, but now, he has the record to himself.
As for Higgins, he caught 11 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns in what could be his penultimate game before hitting free agency in March. With his performance, Higgins became just the fourth player in franchise history to finish with at least 10 receptions, 100 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Higgins also became just the third player this season to hit those numbers, joining Ja’Marr Chase and San Francisco’s JaJuan Jennings.
If you’re wondering how the Bengals went so long without scoring an offensive touchdown in overtime, some of it has to do with NFL rules. From 1974 thru 2011, the overtime format was sudden death, which means the first team that scored won, so there were a lot of games where a team got the ball first and simply kicked a field goal.
The Bengals played 27 overtime games under the NFL’s sudden-death rule and won 15 of those. Of that total, 14 came on game-winning field goals (Former Bengals kicker Jim Breech hit nine of those and currently still holds the NFL record for most overtime field goals without a miss). The only OT win in that span that didn’t come on a field goal came in 1998 when the Bengals got a pick six from Corey Sawyer to beat the Lions.
In 2012, the NFL implemented a new overtime rule with the biggest change being that a field goal would no longer end the game if it came on the opening possession of overtime. If the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown on the opening possession, then the game is over, but if it kicks a field goal, then the second team gets a chance to have the ball.
Before this week, the Bengals had played 17 overtime games under the current regular-season rule, but they still had been unable to score a touchdown. The Bengals have won five games under the current rule with each win coming on a field goal.
The drought is finally over, though, thanks to Burrow. And now, there’s a drought for the Broncos: Denver has lost five straight overtime games, which is the second-longest active streak in the NFL, trailing only the Patriots, who have lost six straight.
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