Bengals coach fumes over referees' decision to stop play after Myles Garrett's record-breaking sack

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Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was not happy when NFL officials stopped play to mark Myles Garrett's historic 23rd sack of the season in the team's 20-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. 

Taylor fumed at the stoppage, which came late in the fourth quarter with just over five minutes remaining, saying after the game that he was never told game officials planned to stop play if Garrett were to hit the mark to become the NFL’s single-season sack leader. 

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) sacks Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) during the fourth quarter at Paycor Stadium. The play set a new NFL single-season sack record by Garrett.  (Joseph Maiorana/Imagn Images)

"There’s five minutes left in our season. We’re playing for our lives out here, and I was never told that we’re going to stop the game and in a critical moment like that," he told reporters after the game.  "And the refs just said that they made a decision that they were going to stop the game, and they said that they tried to do it as quickly as possible — I didn’t feel that." 

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The Bengals had already been officially eliminated last month after a 24-0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 15. Still, Taylor said the team was playing to win.

 "We didn’t sub. We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo, and the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything. And I’m yelling at Joe [Burrow] to get on the ball. We didn’t sub, we’re going and then we couldn’t play."

Taylor said that in the meeting with refs before kickoff, he was "never informed" of their plans. 

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