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NFL Cincinnati Bengals

Illegal Challenge By Marvin Lewis Saves the Cincinnati Bengals In Week 13

By @julieswartz86

Marvin Lewis Illegal Challenge Wins game

David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

The Cincinnati Bengals, who I expected to win handily against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 13, made it very interesting on Sunday, resorting back to their inconsistent ways. Tampa Bay was driving down the field late in the fourth quarter and looked like they were in line for a game-winning field goal, but an illegal challenge by Marvin Lewis with 12 seconds on the clock changed everything.

Knowing that Tampa Bay had 12 men on the field in the previous play, Lewis threw the challenge flag, which we all know is illegal within the final two minutes of the game. The referees acknowledged that and charged the Bengals with a timeout.  However, they then proceeded to review the play, which ultimately got called back, negating the 21-yard gain. This put the Bucs out of field goal range, and they just weren’t able to recover in the final seconds.

Lewis took a risk in throwing that flag, knowing in fact that it was illegal. But it ended up paying off for his team, because if he hadn’t thrown that flag, I doubt that play would have been reviewed. Despite Andy Dalton being less than impressive throughout the game, only throwing for 176 yards and a touchdown, Lewis was able to salvage this game for the Bengals.

The Bengals’ defense played well, holding Josh McCown and the Bucs’ offense in check for the majority of the game. McCown successfully led his offense down the field at the end of the game with a great pass to Louis Murphy to put the Bucs on the Cincinnati 20-yard line, well within field goal range, with 12 seconds left on the clock.  Everyone was thinking Tampa Bay would pull out the win, but coach Lewis pulled a fast one.

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