Officials missed obvious penalty on Bengals in final two minutes of win over Chiefs

There were many factors that led to the Chiefs’ 34-31 loss to the Bengals on Sunday in Cincinnati, including Ja’Marr Chase’s career game, a touchdown that was called back on a kickoff return for KC and more.

Chiefs fans were not happy with the officials, mainly because of the calls that went against Kansas City. But the Bengals also caught a big break with fewer than two minutes to play.

After stuffing the Bengals on consecutive plays from the Chiefs’ 1-yard line, a few Kansas City defenders noted the Cincinnati left guard flinched before the snap on third down. There was 1 minute, 46 seconds remaining in the game, and had a false start been called, the Bengals would have run a third-and-goal play from the Chiefs’ 6.

Instead, they snapped the ball and Joe Mixon was stopped short of the end zone. The Bengals then decided to go for it on fourth down and there were offsetting penalties. Fourth down was replayed and the Chiefs were penalized again, giving the Bengals a first down at the 1. That set up the game-winning field goal.

How different would things have been if the Bengals had run a third-and-goal play from the 6 instead of keeping the ball on the 1? We’ll never know, of course, because Cincinnati was not penalized for this: