Going as a couple is always the right decision

Sometime early in the third quarter of Thursday night’s great game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens, I started to think it just wasn’t the Ravens’ night. The game was similar to many of Baltimore’s other losses in recent years: poor defensive play, a lethargic offense, a series of unnecessary penalties. In addition, star safety Kyle Hamilton left with a sprained ankle and Lamar Jackson stretched out his apparently injured throwing hand on the sidelines. At this point it was 21-7 in the Bengals’ favor and it seemed like things were only going to get worse.

But good teams have their own luck, and a fumble by the Bengals in Ravens territory sparked a touchdown drive with another “Lamar Jackson does something amazing against Cincinnati” play and also sparked an attack that saw the Ravens at Every hit you score continues for the rest of the game. If the Ravens hadn’t had a few busted coverages from their extremely potent defense, they might have been able to pull away from the game in much the same way the Bengals had threatened to do early on. But this is the AFC North, where things will definitely get lopsided and close.

This leads us to the Bengals’ final drive. With a deficit of 35:28, Joe Burrow marches down the field, scores, and then head coach Zac Taylor calls for two goals. They have decided that they will now win or lose in regular time. They don’t understand. The play certainly could have been called a facemask or defensive play, but the whistles were silent. The game ends 35-34. The Ravens win and continue the good vibes of a team with Super Bowl aspirations, while the Bengals lose and continue the bad vibes of a team that is capable but not quite good enough. At the end of the game, the question naturally arises: Should Taylor have gone for two?

Football is primarily a father’s sport. It’s always been that way. And like your father, football loves its routines and doesn’t enjoy having to change. Football likes his green Salvation Army cardigan. Football likes the big armchair at the end of the living room. Football loves its after-work beer. And it better be his brand, the brand that has been drinking football since he was a boy. No matter how many sons of analytics or daughters with advanced scientific knowledge come to tell it another way, football likes the old ways.

Old habits would say that in the situation they found themselves in after the final touchdown, the Bengals should have taken the PAT and played for overtime. But going for two in a game-winning situation like this is always the right thing to do, and all big teams know that. Harbaugh, who sometimes frustrates me with his conservatism, understands this more than anyone. If Isaiah Likely’s toe had been an inch further in that game against the Chiefs, he would have gone for two and the win. You have one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league – of course you choose two. People only question you when you don’t understand, and that’s not a good reason not to do the right thing. The Bengals did the right thing by going for two on Thursday, but were unlucky because, despite all of Burrow’s heroics, they are a bad team with a disappointing coach who, other than that decision, left something to be desired on both counts Play against the Ravens this season.

Another thing I believe in is not to impose bailout penalties in crucial situations. It’s football. Not everything can or should be called. The Bengals put the chips on the table and lost. This is sport, whether you play it safe or not. And you might as well do it dangerously – dangerously and rightly.