Why the Bengals Went For 2 and Why They Threw To Tanner Hudson Instead of Ja'Marr Chase

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor didn’t need much to decide to go for two and the lead with 38 seconds left in the game Thursday night.

And he didn’t need much time to explain the decision either.

“We came here to win,” he said minutes after the missed attempt was the difference in a 35-34 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

“We've got to find a way to close out these games,” Taylor added. “We had our opportunity. We got down there, went for two and it just didn't work out for us.”

The Bengals had a 21-7 lead midway through the third quarter when Chase Brown lost a fumble, giving the Ravens a short field and a jolt.

Baltimore scored touchdowns on its next four possessions, which no doubt played into Taylor’s decision to go for two after Joe Burrow threw his third touchdown of the night to Ja’Marr Chase, an 8-yarder with 38 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one.

The Bengals lined up to go for the two-point conversion but ended up calling timeout before the play clock ran out.

Taylor said there never was any intention to snap the ball in that situation.

“We were just trying to get a free yard there,” he said. “It was a no-snap, no-play situation, trying to get a free play. If they jump, snap it and get a free shot on the two-point conversion.”

After the timeout, the Bengals ran a play that will get second guessed more than the decision to go for two.

On a night when Ja’Marr Chase had 11 catches for 264 yards and three touchdowns, Burrow threw the ball to backup tight end Tanner Hudson, and the pass was incomplete.

“There’s a progression to it,” Taylor said when asked about not throwing to Chase. “Most of our stuff is geared to go to Ja'Marr Chase. But again, the progression starts, and he was in that progression. I think Joe makes pretty good decisions, so I trust where we went there. We've just got to watch the tape.”

Chase was asked if he was open on the two-point attempt.

“Yeah. I’m always open,” he said.

As was the case all night, Burrow was under pressure on the play and didn’t have time to get to Chase in the progression.

“He was on the back side,” Burrow said. “I didn't get to him. I took my first read.”

Burrow took a shot to the head on the play, but the officials, who had already called 14 penalties, didn’t throw a flag.

Also on the play, tight end Mike Gesicki was held coming off the line of scrimmage, and that wasn't called either.

“You’re not going to get those calls in that situation for the most part,” Burrow said.

Earlier on the drive, Baltimore’s Nnamdi Madubuike grabbed Burrow’s facemask on a second-down incompletion. Again, no flag.

“I feel like I’ve never ally gotten those calls, so I don’t really expect that," Burrow said.

Since Taylor became head coach in 2019, the Bengals have attempted just 17 two-point conversions, which is 26th in the league.

Had they stayed on that number and kicked the extra point, the Ravens would have had 38 seconds and two timeouts to get within field goal range for Justin Tucker.

And if they hadn’t, the game would have gone to overtime and the Bengals would have had to win the coin toss and/or stop Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense, something it failed to do on each of the previous four drives.

“Everyone’s gonna talk about the two point, but we had plenty of other opportunities on both sides of the ball to put ourselves in better position,” Burrow said.