KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ It couldn’t have been any harder than this for the Bengals, needing to win their final two games to make the playoffs.
Not here on this Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium in the deafening home of the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the hosts a win away from a historic AFC West title.
No Joe Burrow. Their next two best players on offense, wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, were both less than 100%. A key defensive player, nose tackle DJ Reader, was out. Some are dinged. One, left end Sam Hubbard, revealed after the game he needs offseason surgery for what he won’t disclose, but he left the field with five tackles and a fumble recovery.
Still, the Chiefs needed six Harrison Butker field goals to overtake a 17-7 Bengals lead for a 25-17 win that left the Bengals 8-8 and out of the playoffs.
“We asked them all week to fight, to come in here and play in a tough environment and that’s what they did,” said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. “It was an emotional game, physical game. All the things we knew would happen, happened. They got it done in the second half. Our guys left it all out there.”
Chase came into the game with a sprained shoulder that put him out last week in Pittsburgh. He said he was 70% while catching three balls for 41 yards. Higgins re-aggravated his hamstring injury that cost him nearly five games this season on his only catch of the game, a 19-yarder on third-and-seven on their first drive of the game. He missed the rest of the first half but came back to do what he could in the second, which was draw a 30-yard pass interference penalty that was their longest play of a game they were blanked in the second half.
“A testament to the locker room,” Higgins said. “(Chase) made a decision to play and I made a decision to come back in.”
Chase said if this game had been played early in the season, he said he probably wouldn’t have played.
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