CINCINNATI, Ohio — When Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 20-18 Cleveland win, Browns players poured onto the field of Paycor Stadium.
Garrett became the NFL’s single-season sack record holder with sack No. 23.
However, there was something about the moment that frustrated Bengals coach Zac Taylor.
The game stopped, but he claimed after the game that he wasn’t told by the officials there were plans to stop the game to celebrate Garrett’s record-breaking moment.
“I was never informed of that,“ Taylor said. ”They didn’t say one word. We meet with them in the 90-minute meeting before the game. They never said one word about that.”
The sack happened with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter with the Bengals trailing, 17-12, and trying to get into the lead.
Taylor wanted some tempo from his offense but claimed the officials didn’t let that happen.
“There’s five minutes left in our season. We’re playing for our lives here,” Taylor said. “And I was never told that we’re going to stop the game, and in a critical moment like that. And the refs just said that they made a decision that they were going to stop the game. And they said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that. We didn’t sub. We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo. And the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything.
“And I’m yelling at (quarterback) Joe (Burrow), ‘Get on the ball.’ We didn’t sub, we’re going and then we couldn’t play. And so again, trying to get an answer was not easy.
“They just said that they made a decision as a crew to stop the game when that happened. I guess it didn’t matter when it happened. They were going to stop the game and let it happen.”
The game clock stopped for 32 seconds to let the Browns celebrate Garrett’s history-making moment.
The Bengals were forced to punt three plays after the sack.
Burrow had a different view of the game stoppage.
“I wasn’t surprised,” he said. “That’s typically how they handle those kinds of situations.”
