Tee Higgins says the quiet part out loud in questioning Zac Taylor's Bengals play-calling

The Cincinnati Bengals overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens has triggered the Bengals emotionally. 

First Joe Burrow adamantly stated the Bengals aren't championship-level yet. And now Tee Higgins is calling out offensive conservatism that might have affected the Bengals’ chances to get its second-straight win.

“Personally I think we should have gone a little more aggressive on first and second down just to try to get Evan (McPherson) in better field goal range,” Higgins said after the game, via ESPN’s Ben Baby.

It needed to be said. All of the attention was focused on the botched snap on the game-winning field goal attempt. 

But could the Bengals have put themselves in a better position than a 53-yard field goal attempt?

Cincinnati Bengals should have let Joe Burrow lead a game-winning drive

As the Bengals found out, even when you’re in field goal range nothing is guaranteed. Bengals coach Zac Taylor opted to run the ball three straight times after his team recovered a fumble in Ravens territory. 

They got just three yards. Why not let Burrow orchestrate a true game-winning drive? 

Burrow played the best game of the 2024 season, throwing for 392 yards and five touchdowns. You make him one of the highest paid quarterbacks for moments like this. 

And they took the ball out of his hands and that probably affected them winning just as much as the botched snap. 

The last two possessions, Burrow threw an interception and then the Bengals punted so maybe that factored into the decision to play it safe. Certainly starting the possession with less than half the field to go affected it as well. 

Then there’s the fact that you don’t want to risk holding penalties pushing you out of field goal range, bad snaps resulting in an unnecessary loss of yards and of course the chance to give the ball right back on a turnover. 

But with an expensive contract comes a level of trust. 

Burrow is talked about in the same tier as Josh Allen and even Patrick Mahomes. Would Andy Reid have played it safe, or trust Mahomes' decision making to get the offense in a more favorable position? 

Would Allen have had a longer leash to string together a couple of plays to make the field goal attempt a little less daunting? Why wasn’t Burrow afforded that same opportunity?

Taylor should have let Burrow and the offense put the finishing touches on what would have been a great win. Instead he trusted his kicker, albeit a good one at that, from more than 50 yards away. 

Higgins is right, the offense deserved a real chance to ice the game.