Taking over at the Bengals’ 45-yard line, Burrow drove the Bengals deep into Kansas City territory, with McPherson — who made all four of his field goal attempts against both Las Vegas and Tennessee in the previous rounds — drilling his fourth long and true, sending his teammates spilling onto the field.
Sunday’s game unfolded as if adhering to the basic template from the teams’ Week 17 meeting, with Mahomes flaunting his magnificent, improvisational and unstoppable version of football in the first half before the Bengals rediscovered their compass.
And just as in that earlier game, Kansas City amassed a first-half lead that it eventually ceded. In the early-January meeting, Kansas City led by 14 points before succumbing, 34-31. On Sunday, Kansas City headed into halftime leading, 21-10, on three Mahomes touchdown passes. The margin could have been — should have been? — wider if not for both a curious play call and excellent tackling by Bengals cornerback Eli Apple.
With five seconds left in the first half, no time outs and the ball at the Cincinnati 1-yard line, Coach Andy Reid, eschewing the close field-goal attempt, tried to blowtorch the Bengals out of commission. Mahomes flipped a pass to Tyreek Hill at the 5-yard line, and Apple — after committing the pass-interference penalty that gave Kansas City the ball by the goal line — preserved the 11-point deficit by standing him up.
It was the first of six consecutive defensive stops by the Bengals, who converted the third into McPherson’s second field goal, and the fourth into the touchdown that evened the score at 21-21.
In desperate times, Burrow knows he can turn to the Bengals’ best receiver — his old pal from Louisiana State — and with 14 seconds left in the third quarter he zipped a nifty back-shoulder toss to Ja’Marr Chase. Trent Taylor wiggled free off the line to catch the 2-point conversion.
Last week, Burrow proclaimed his disgust with what he called the “underdog narrative” surrounding the Bengals, demanding the team be taken seriously. Already he had changed the team’s slogan, to “It Is Us” from “Why Not Us?”, and his teammates agreed.