The longest 2 yards become the shortest 98 in Cincinnati

Bengals escape the Ravens, pack up for Buffalo

They called it “illegal touching.” When a ballcarrier headed into the line, or especially toward the goal line, his big buddies weren’t allowed to get behind him and shove him forward, like parents bullrushing their kids into the deep end for their first swim lesson.

It was a penalty in the NFL until 2005, when the authorities made it legal for the tiresome reason that it was too hard to call correctly. If that’s true, let’s outlaw pass interference, roughing the passer, goaltending, the block-charge, the ball and the strike, any number of other sticky wickets.

But in college you could sometimes get away with that, as Reggie Bush did when he pushed Matt Leinart over the line at Notre Dame and kept USC’s national championship hopes alive in that same 2005. Now it’s a staple of the game, an antidote to the agony of the fourth-and-one decision. How do the benefits outweigh the risks? Forget about it. Just line up the battering ram.

This is not what Steppenwolf was decrying when it damned the Pusher Man, but it also has nothing to do with the skill that football demands. The NFL will do anything to promote offense, no matter how medieval.

But sometimes the Pusher Man gets busted. It happened in Cincinnati Sunday night at a particularly acute time for Baltimore, which looked poised to knock off the defending AFC champs in the wild-card round.

Tyler Huntley, the stand-in for Lamar Jackson, gobbled 60 yards in two plays, a 25-yard pass to Mark Andrews and his own 35-yard sprint down the left sideline. Tied 17-17, the Ravens had first-and-goal on the Cincinnati two-yard-line with 12:31 left in the fourth quarter. Their defense was in firm control. Punch this one in, with maybe J.K. Dobbins following Patrick Ricard, the Guinness record-holder for sizeable fullbacks, and who knows?

Instead the Ravens got to third down, still on the two, and settled on the battering ram. They would gather behind Huntley and break down the doors. But the plan asked Huntley, who is listed at 6-foot-1, to go over the top and cover six feet, against heavy resistance.

When Huntley elevated, Andrews and linemen Patrick Mekari and Kevin Zeitler tried to give him a boost. But up top, Cincinnati’s Logan Wilson easily popped the ball loose when Huntley tried to extend his arms. The ball nestled into the hands of pass rusher Sam Hubbard, Cincinnati native and Ohio State veteran. Once he slipped past running back Gus Edwards, who couldn’t be expected to process what was going on, he could have run all the way to the WKRP studios. Instead he went 98 yards, as Andrews gallantly pursued and fell short, and Cincinnati had a 24-17 lead when it was looking at a 17-24 shortfall. That’s where the game ended.

The Bengals needed a franchise moment like this, after running into San Francisco in their first two Super Bowls and then losing to Cooper Kupp’s fourth down fly sweep in their third try last season. Maybe this was their Immaculate Redirection.

It won’t be remembered as fondly in Baltimore, where early playoff losses are getting tiresome. The Ravens are 2-5 in postseason since they won their second Super Bowl.

More questions will involve their languid approach to their final possession, which began with 3:14 left on the Cincinnati 47. They had 12 snaps thereafter and used only two of their three timeouts, and when the clock hit zero, Huntley was being chased into an incompletion on fourth and 20. Zeitler’s holding penalty didn’t help, but the Ravens huddled between most of those plays and acted as if Tom Brady were at the helm, not an undrafted option QB from Utah who has become an effective NFL backup. Coach John Harbaugh later said he didn’t want to leave any time on the clock for Cincinnati, a goal that he reached, much to Cincinnati’s delight.

Getting back to Hubbard, the Bengals were 2-for-2 from their own red zone and 1-for-1 from Baltimore’s. Among those mystified by the strategy was Dobbins, who had already scored one touchdown.

“He (Huntley) should never been in that situation,” Dobbins said. “I didn’t get a single carry. I believe I would have put it in the end zone. It’s the playoffs. Why am I not out there? I’m a playmaker. I should be the guy. I’m tired of holding that back.”

“We felt it was a good time, it just wasn’t executed the right way,” Harbaugh said. “Tyler went over the top, but that’s a ‘burrow’ play — he has to go low on that.”

Imagine how the Ravens felt after snuffing out a lot of Burrow plays. Joe Cool’s longest completion went 19 yards. But questions abound, especially about Lamar Jackson, who missed the final five regular-season games with a knee injury. Perhaps you’ve seen the tape of Jackson struggling to climb the stairs to the Ravens’ home locker room. You figure Art Modell would have sprung for an elevator, at least.

The Ravens have been obtuse, at best, over Jackson’s condition, which moved the former MVP to issue his own medical bulletin. Jackson said he had a Stage 2 tear of the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) and that it was on the verge of Stage 3, which is a complete tear. Harbaugh repeatedly said Jackson would return before the season ended, and also said Jackson was discinlined to play with a knee brace. Michael Vick, the former NFL quarterback who played on bad knees, issued a tweet that suggested Jackson “just wear the brace.”

Meanwhile, Jackson and the Ravens haven’t agreed on a new contract, and they will likely give him a franchise tag, worth $45 million for 2023 and, if necessarily, another one for $54.4 million in 2024. In some reports, Jackson is demanding the same guaranteed money DeShaun Watson got from Cleveland, which is $230 million. He turned down a six-year offer with $133 million guaranteed.

As the Ravens head into post-mortems, the Bengals exhale and prepare for a trip to Buffalo. Both the Bengals and Bills were unsteady favorites Sunday. The Bills got past Miami 34-31, but the Dolphins were down to third-quarterback Skylar Thompson, who didn’t seem to lose his confidence despite two interceptions. And why should he? He’s a seventh-round pick from a Big 12 school (Kansas State), just like the undefeated Brock Purdy.

At the end Miami had fourth-and-one on Buffalo’s 48. What magical play was Mike McDaniel saving for this rendezvous with destiny? Well, we don’t know, because the play clock ran out and Miami suffered a delay-of-game. McDaniel said he thought the Dolphins had converted a third down earlier, and when he learned otherwise he couldn’t get his fourth-down personnel onto the field. Of course, if he hadn’t used his final time out with 4:13 left….

The Dolphins sacked Josh Allen seven times and had three takeaways, including Zach Seiler’s fumble runback for a touchdown. Buffalo broke out to a 17-0 lead, which is becoming as dangerous as the two-goal lead in hockey, and Allen and coach Sean McDermott seemed chastened by all the sloppiness.

Any Buffalo-Cincinnati game from now on will be touched by Damar Hamlin, who visited the Bills’ facility on Saturday. A Buffalo win would mean a guaranteed game ball for Hamlin, especially if Allen carries that football into the end zone for victory, all by himself, with no need for the Pusher Man.