The Bengals suffered a 30-27 loss to the Texans, losing by a field goal on the final play. After trailing 27-17 with less than four minutes left, Cincinnati mounted a ferocious rally to try and claw back.
Then the Bengals had a chance to take the lead.
On the third point from the Houston 13, wide-open Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd threw a perfect pass into the end zone. The Bengals made a game-tying field goal with 1:33 remaining, and the Texans won the game 1:33 later.
Boyd declined to comment after the game, but no one in the locker room pointed a finger at him.
“We wouldn’t even be there without him,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said via a note from the team. “Obviously you want to settle it, but we were able to get down there and tie it. [We would have] I would have liked to have been able to roll with the punches in that situation and take them down and score a touchdown, but we were able to tie it. ”
It was Boyd’s 64-yard reception to the Houston 7 that put the Bengals in position to tie the game. He had eight catches for 117 yards and replaced injured receiver Tee Higgins in his first 100-yard game of the season.
But that decline will definitely come back to haunt Boyd.
“Yes, it’s a game, [but] It wasn’t because of that play,” coach Zac Taylor said. “Obviously, there were a lot of plays in this game that could have resulted in more points. There were some empty drives there, but… [we] I saw it there often. ”
But Taylor said after the game that he didn’t speak to Boyd because he didn’t have to.
“No. Everybody knows,” Taylor said. “And also, he’s going to do a lot of things.” [of responsibility] The game is over now so I have myself to blame, but we had a lot of chances during the game. There are so many things that the players, the coaches, all of us could have done better to not have been in that position. ”