At some point Saturday night in this surreal game played in December draped in September temperatures with January implications and a February payoff, the theater of the absurd simply became theater and passed into Bengals lore.
Joe Burrow, their man-for-all-seasons quarterback, always looking cool in a black ice jacket, took quick stock of a 30-24 walk-off-overtime victory over the Broncos that had more endings than New Year's Eve and kept them in the playoff hunt heading into next weekend's regular-season finale.
"It seems like we've had six of these this year," Burrow said.
It turns out that for the 2024 Bengals, it was just another wild day at the office.
After all, for the second time this year, they saw a win disappear in the final seconds on a fourth-and-long converted out of sheer desperation. For the second time this season, they missed a walk-off winning overtime field goal. For the fifth time, they saw a lead or tie zapped in the final 1:49.
And for the eighth straight game, the Ballad of Burrow added to his NFL record of consecutive games of at least 250 yards passing and three touchdown passes. Except this time, that third touchdown pass won it.
Only after Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix tied it with a 25-yard-fourth-and-one touchdown heave with eight seconds left in regulation and Bengals kicker Cade York hit the left upright on the would-be 33-yard walk-off-field-goal with 2:43 left in OT.
And, after a 23-second three-and-out by a Bengals defense that went from beleaguered to bodacious in overtime.
"Get the ball back to Joe. He's going to win the game for us. That's what I thought," said safety Geno Stone. "That's all we had to do and you saw what he did. We'd been here before. We just played man coverage (on that last series). We thought our guys were better than theirs and we just played man. We went back on the field. It is what it is."
What it is, is that Burrow continues to have a year for the ages. As resilient as his locker room, Burrow bounced back up from a season-high seven sacks from Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph's NFL leaders and frustrated the old Bengals assistant by completing 80% of his 49 passes for 412 yards.
Like all ballads, there is no shortage of drama. The 31-yard bomb to wide receiver Tee Higgins that set up the three-yard winner to Higgins for Burrow's NFL-leading 42nd touchdown pass allowed Burrow to break his own Bengals yardage record with a league-leading 4,641 yards.
Another lyric?
The winning touchdown snapped a tie with the 1988 AFC champion Bengals for a club-record 454 points in 16 games, officially certifying it as the greatest offensive season in franchise history.
It was quite an economical night for Burrow and NFL Triple Crown receiving leader Ja’Marr Chase in a game Chase broke T.J. Houshmandzadeh's club record for catches in a season and now has 117 to lead the league.
They also teamed up on one of the most famous Griddys ever. After Burrow put the Bengals ahead with 1:29 left in regulation on a one-yard sneak, he stood in the end zone wondering what to do until he saw Chase with puzzled open arms.
"I just started hitting it. I don't know. We locked eyes, and I just started doing it," Burrow said. "He said it didn't look bad, so I'll take it."
Pretty good, Chase said. He'd never seen Burrow do it on camera before. It turns out they not only locked eyes, but the Bengals record book.
As social media celebrated Burrow around the league, his locker room kept pace.
"Greatest of all-time," said left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who played with rookie Lamar Jackson and won a Super Bowl with Patrick Mahomes. "We may not see anything like this. This guy with the ball, like Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Tom Brady. Whoever you want to put on that list, man. One of the most special players and characters of our generation. I'm just thankful to be able to suit up with him every Saturday or Sunday. Thursday, Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday."
Burrow has had his share of drives. Maybe not in championship games like Elway's 98-yard sojourn, but he coaxed a field goal in overtime of an AFC title game. And, like Montana's 93-yarder to break Bengaldom's heart, and Mahomes' 13-play march that ate most of overtime to win the last Super Bowl, this one kept his team alive when everybody in the yard knew what he was doing.
"I don't know how anybody can stand on the field and watch Joe Burrow and not say he's the best player in the world," said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. "You can transfer that argument to Ja'Marr Chase as well and you can argue those two to death. But the clearest thing I can say is I would not trade Joe Burrow for any player in the universe. To me, that's MVP to me."
Burrow got the ball back one last time with 2:20 left. He had already churned out two ice-cold game-winning drives on this night and damned if he didn't do it again generating 63 yards in 73 seconds. Nearly half the yards came on that 31-yard go ball to Higgins.
"There's just so many situations you learn from over the course of the season. This season, we've been in this situation a lot," Taylor said. "We were in it against Baltimore a couple of times … We were beating them on slants. Same thing against Baltimore.
"You go to the well too many times and Marlon (Humphrey) gets us on the last one and you learn a lesson there. All right, we've run slants. Now, we've got to take a shot and run by them. That's what Tee won on, I'm pretty sure. We called that play a million times in this game."
But the next play, the winner from three yards out with 67 seconds left, was another reminder of one that got away. Taylor said the quick out to Higgins at the pylon was the play Burrow and Chase ran from six yards out to catch the Steelers here in the 2022 opener with four seconds left. But when the PAT was blocked, the Bengals lost it in overtime.
This time, as they said to a man, a close game finally went their way after going 1-7 in one-score games this year.
It had the same feel of that Steeler game. The Bengals ran 94 plays that day, the second most in their history. On Saturday night, a guy like Brown Jr., toughed through 90 snaps after missing six of the last seven games with a fibula issue, the fifth most plays in Bengals history in a much different overtime.
"Some pain," Brown admitted. "But you don't want to miss these games."
A much different finish.
"This just felt different. Our team has some momentum right now," Taylor said. "We've learned from other games this season and guys just stepped up and made these plays tonight. There were moments where you probably could have said to yourself, 'Here we go again.' It's a similar issue that just happened, but our guys — whatever unit picked up the other unit that had maybe fallen a little bit and we were able to go win the game."
"Here we go again."
That's exactly what vet slot cornerback Mike Hilton thought. But it wasn't because the defense did what they needed to do.
"I think we're finally coming together," said defensive tackle B.J. Hill of a defense that has come up with 12 turnovers in the four-game winning streak after having 12 all year.
It wasn't here-we-go-again because Burrow wouldn't let it. (Remember the scrambling 19-yarder on third-and-15 way back in the third quarter on the drive that gave them the 17-10 lead?)
He beat the best secondary in the league with a page out of the book of one of baseball's golden oldies. Wee Willie Keeler 'Hit 'em where they ain't," and that's what Burrow did, hitting Higgins for 11 catches and 131 yards, Chase for nine catches and 102 more yards, and tight end Mike Gesicki tied a career-high with 10 catches for 86 yards.
"I just throw it where the defense tells me to," Burrow said. "If they're going to double Ja'Marr, I'm going to throw it to Tee. If Ja'Marr is going to get a one-on-one, I'm going to throw it to him. I think he had over 100 yards, so it wasn't like we weren't throwing it at him. Everybody stepped up big."
Wide receiver Andrei Iosivas’ three catches for 59 yards were so big, he got a game ball. They could have given him one just for the 16-yarder down the middle that jump-started the last drive on the first snap.
Don't look now, but Gesicki has 57 catches, fourth-most by a Bengals tight end and the most since Jermaine Gresham had 62 catches 10 years ago.
"Mike was great today. He made contested plays in big spots," Burrow said. "Just watching the tape all week, I knew it was going to be a big Mike game, and he stepped up big for us."
Yes, that seven-overtime game for LSU had been something in 2018. But this is the pros.
"That one was pretty crazy, but this one was one of the crazier ones I've been a part of in the NFL," Burrow said. "It feels like we've had a couple of those this year and it's nice to come out on top of one."
And how did he feel after one of the great moments in Bengaldom he could put on the shelf next to the AFC title, the 525-yard game and the five touchdowns this year against the Ravens in a Paycor classic?
"Tired," said Burrow on their day they exhausted the what-ifs.
