The Cincinnati Bengals were trailing the Kansas City Chiefs 23-22 with just under 11 minutes remaining on Sunday, but were moving downfield in KC territory until an untimely unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase helped derail the drive.
The Bengals were faced with a 2nd-and-11 from the Kansas City 34 when quarterback Joe Burrow hit Chase in the right flat, where he was tackled aggressively to the ground by cornerback Trent McDuffie at the Chiefs 30.
Chase was not only angry with McDuffie, but also with head referee Alex Kemp and could be seen directing his ire mostly toward Kemp. Burrow quickly raced over to try to “de-escalate” the situation, but just as Burrow arrived, Kemp threw a penalty flag into the air.
“He was questioning the tackle,” Kemp said via a pool report conducted by Ben Baby of the Pro Football Writers of America. “He thought he was hip-drop tackled on the previous play, and so, he came to me wondering about a hip-drop tackle. That was the beginning line of questioning.”
Penalizing a hip-drop was a point of emphasis from officials heading into this season, because it is considered dangerous.
“We informed him that we did not feel it was a hip-drop tackle,” said Kemp.
At that point, Kemp said he believed Chase went over the line with his language.
“It’s pretty clear cut,” said Kemp. “It’s just simply abusive language toward a game official. That’s all it was, and there was really no interpretation. I’m not going to repeat to you what he said, but there was no interpretation with the language that he used – just abusive language. The simple answer is, profanity used by grown men versus direct, personal abusive language towards a game official. That’s the line. When that line gets crossed, we simply can’t let that happen in pro football.”
Chase said he didn’t want to talk about the penalty.
The 15 yards marked off left the Bengals with 3rd-and-22 from the Kansas City 45 rather than a more manageable 3rd-and-7. The next play was a safe nine-yard pass to tight end Mike Gesicki to get the Bengals back into field goal range, and it worked, because Evan McPherson made a subsequent 53-yarder with 9:28 remaining to give the Bengals a 25-23 lead.
What might have been, however, if the Bengals had wound up converting the 3rd-and-7 and scoring a touchdown, because if they had then Kansas City would have had to score a touchdown at the end to win rather than kick a field goal, which the Chiefs did as time expired to win it 26-25.
Veteran left tackle Orlando Brown said football is an emotionally-charged sport and that he doesn’t blame Chase.
“Emotions are high and those kind of things happen,” said Brown. “Uno (Chase’s nickname for uniform No. 1) is the one of the greatest players in the world what he does. I can’t fault him. Those type of things happen. Those type of mistakes he isn’t making consistently. That’s part of the sport. It’s why he’s so good.”
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said he wasn’t near the play, so he doesn’t know what was said.
“It’s OK to be emotional,” Taylor said. “I can’t see everything that’s said or done, so it’s better that I not comment on it.”
Quarterback Joe Burrow wasn’t sure what transpired.
“I’m not entirely sure what was said or who threw the flag,” said Burrow. “That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
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