“We came here to win”

Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor knew his club had to be aggressive Thursday night in Baltimore. The coach came up on fourth down in the first quarter and stuck to his plan. He chose to go for two points and the lead after a late touchdown rather than a game-winning extra point.

The calculation was correct, but Joe Burrow's throw to Tanner Hudson missed and the Bengals lost 35-34. Taylor didn't question his choice.

“We came here to win,” he said on the team’s official website. “We had our chance. We got there, decided on two, and it just didn't work out for us. This team will continue to put us in good positions, there will come a point in the season when that happens. “We will respond to this game in the right way.

In an explosive back-and-forth duel, the Ravens quickly erased a 21-7 lead in the third quarter. Cincinnati's defense allowed Lamar Jackson to split the game like a Thanksgiving bird. Baltimore scored touchdowns on its last four possessions. The inability to get a stop influenced Taylor's decision to go for two. Rather than allow a possible overtime coin toss to decide his team's fate, Taylor left the ball in Burrows' hands.

Taylor said he knew before the touchdown that he would try to take the lead.

“Yes. There's a timing situation that I can't go into detail about, but there's a chance you might get a three-pointer, get the ball back when you were just tied, and then kick a game-winning field goal,” said he. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get the ball again.”

There was no strife from the stars.

“We knew what situation we were in,” Burrow said of the decision to go for two.

“Hell yeah. I agree 100 percent,” Ja’Marr Chase added.

The star wideout had a ridiculous night, hauling in 11 catches for 264 yards and three touchdowns. He was the first player in NFL history to play multiple games with more than 250 receiving yards and more than 2 receiving TDs. Twice the Bengals had one-play drives where Burrow hit Chase for an explosive play. First came a 67-yard catch-and-run, then a 70-yard bomb.

However, Burrow did not target Chase on the final two-point play.

When asked if he was open on two-pointers, the wideout replied: “Yes, I'm always open.”

Early in the game, Burrow shot deep instead of hitting Chase, who appeared to be open, on a fourth-and-2. It was difficult not to target the star receiver, but the Bengals have confidence in their star QB's decision-making.

“There’s always progress,” Taylor said when asked if the 2-point play didn’t go to Chase. Most of our stuff is for Ja'Marr Chase. Again the progression begins, and he was in that progression. I would say [Joe Burrow] makes pretty good decisions. I'm assuming we went there, but we'll have to watch the tapes to see what happened.

The two-point play also included potential penalties that went uncalled, including Burrow touching the facemask. For his part, the QB didn't complain about not getting flags.

“In this situation, for the most part, you don’t get that call,” he said. “I never really got those calls. You don’t expect to get it.”

Taylor deflected his hand on the game's first drive and attempted a chip-shot field goal on fourth down. The Bengals got the flag on this play, extended the drive and scored a TD. The sprint was on. Taylor's team went 2 of 4 on fourth down of the game.

After the shootout loss to the Ravens in Week 5, Cincy knew she had to be aggressive to beat Baltimore. The Bengals' offense played fairly well, but Jackson, the MVP front-runner, made a few more plays.

“Yeah, it’s a tough pill to swallow,” Burrow said. “You feel like you're playing well enough to win and that's not the case. This is frustrating.”

The Bengals lost despite leading by more than 14 points, their second such loss under Taylor – they were 28-1 before Week 10, when they led by more than 14 points in a game.

“We lost the turnover battle 1-0. I think that was great, you know, it was 21-7 at that point when we gave them seven points right off the fumble, they had the big play, and then it kind of went back and forth from there “he said. “[The Ravens] We're just a good football team, but we expected to come here and win. We did everything we could to make this happen. [The loss] doesn't change the fact that I'm proud. I think everyone on the field fought [and] gave us a chance. We are also on the way to becoming a good team and it is shocking that this has happened to us twice. This is it.”

At 4-6, the Bengals are in 9th place in the AFC heading into this weekend's games. The race for a playoff spot isn't over yet, but it's getting dark late in Cincinnati.