Myles Garrett made NFL history on Sunday with his 23rd sack of the season.breaking the coveted league record for most sacks in a single season.
When this happened, game officials allowed Garrett to stop the game for about a minute to celebrate with his Browns teammates. The delay occurred at a critical moment late in the fourth quarter of the game between the Garretts Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals, which Cleveland won 20-18..
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This did not sit well with Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor. So is All-Pro receiver Ja'Marr Chase. Taylor told reporters at a postgame press conference that the delay hampered the Bengals' offensive rush as they tried to rally from a 17-12 deficit in the final five minutes of the game. The sack left the Bengals on second-and-16 from center field.
Taylor: The referee was just holding the ball
“There are five minutes left in the season,” Taylor said. “We play for our lives here and I was never told that we would stop the game. And at such a critical moment. And the referees simply said that they had decided to stop the game. And they said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel it.”
“We didn’t replace. We're trying to have the ball, go and play with tempo, and the referee just held the ball so we couldn't do anything.”
During the game, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who received a sack from Garrett, raised both hands in frustration after the play as the officials held the game ball instead of putting it down for the next play. Meanwhile, Garrett was surrounded by teammates to celebrate the achievement.
Why did officials allow the game to be postponed?
Taylor told reporters he reached out to officials to try to get an answer as to why the game was paused to allow the Browns to celebrate.
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“Trying to get an answer hasn’t been easy,” Taylor said. “They simply said that as a team they made the decision to stop the game when it happened. I guess it didn't matter when it happened. They were going to stop the game and let it happen.”
“I was not informed about this. They didn't say a word.”
Ja'Marr Chase: Where's the flag?
Meanwhile, Chase wanted to know why officials didn't throw out the flag in celebration as players left the Cleveland bench to congratulate Garrett on taking the field.
“I don’t think they could do it,” Chase said. “I never thought it would be possible to let the whole team go onto their field – it would be like if I caught my 10th pass and the whole team was running down the field. People are tagged. You can't do that.
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“Congratulations to him and all that. But they have to raise the flag at this performance.”
When informed that Taylor had said officials had planned from the start to stop the game to celebrate, Chase said he expected the same treatment for any of his career accomplishments.
“Well,” Chase said. “They better stop the game when I do something on my server.”
What should the officials have done?
Few individual records in football carry as much weight as the single-season sack record. This is a monumental achievement worthy of celebration.
At the same time, the Browns have plenty of time and opportunity to celebrate. And the Bengals have a legitimate gripe that the game can't be played under normal game rules.
