A quick look at the Bengals' 20-18 loss to Browns in Sunday's season finale at Paycor Stadium.

Offensive Player of the Game

Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the Bengals' consensus MVP this season, appeared to end his year on the highest of notes when he caught quarterback Joe Burrow’s four-yard touchdown pass with 72 seconds left to give the Bengals an 18-17 lead.

It capped a heavyweight bout of All-Pros in the final five minutes.

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett set the NFL single-season sack record with 4:44 left when his first-down drop of Burrow blew up a potential go-ahead drive that had reached the Cleveland 45.

Then on the Bengals' last drive, Chase, blanked in the second half, danced for three catches for 36 yards that included 11 with a back-bending catch near the right sideline on an ice-cold third-and-two.

The spurt left him with 125 catches for the year.

"Oh, I was two off," said Chase, when told he had eight catches on the day.

He knew that 10 catches would have tied his last year's total of 127. As it was, he hit his goal of eight touchdowns while finishing with 1,412 yards after grabbing 96 more Sunday

Yet his mind was still on the next-to-last drive, which was stopped twice. Once by Garrett's record sack, and then when the refs let the Browns crowd around him on the field, delaying the game.

"That's like me catching my tenth pass while the team is running on the field. They should have been flagged," Chase said. "You can't do that. Congrats to him and all that. We're trying to hurry up, too, and the refs are looking at us like we're doing something wrong."

Defensive Player of the Game

Bengals defensive end Cam Sample had the rude fate to enjoy his first two-sack game in the last game of his fifth NFL season. It turned out to be the same day Garrett got his record sack.

It looked for all the world like they would be the two biggest of a day the Bengals harassed rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders for a season-high six sacks. Sample's first one since October of 2023 (he missed all of 2024 with a torn Achilles) was a sack-strip of Sanders at the Browns 29 to set up the Bengals' 6-0 lead. His second one came with 55 seconds left that put Sanders in a third-and-10 that he converted on the way to the winning field goal.

That was Sanders' 12^th turnover in his seventh start. Ten of them were interceptions. He didn't have a pick Sunday, although the Bengals got their hands on four balls that easily could have been one.

"We knew coming in he was a little loose with the ball," Sample said. "We made that point this week and made it an emphasis. That's something we've really focused on since day one of OTAs and pre-practice every day. Going for the ball and turning it over."

The Bengals came in forcing 10 turnovers since the Thanksgiving win in Baltimore, third most in the league.

Play of the Game

The Browns did Sunday what the Bengals couldn't do and executed the kicking game as rookie kicker Andre Szmyt atoned for his Opening Day miss with a 49-yard field goal at the gun to end a day Bengals kicker Evan McPherson missed two extra points, one of which was blocked.

Szmyt missed a 36-yarder with 2:22 left back on Sept. 7 in Cleveland to give the Bengals a 17-16 win. McPherson had given the Bengals that lead with 2:48 left in the third quarter to begin the best season of his career.

McPherson ended the year with 19 straight field goals using a kicking ball. He had a miss in there from 54 yards, but that was with a quarterback ball that didn't get changed out in time. He also missed his first PAT of the year last week.

Quote of the Day

Garrett on Burrow looking back at him as Burrow ripped off his longest run of the season, nine yards, to pick up a first down. He started out kidding Burrow, a man he admires and respects:

"That was disrespectful. He knew who was chasing him. But credit to him, he's got wheels. Anytime he's healthy, he's a threat to scramble out of the pocket. I was just like, 'Please, someone, just pull him up or stay behind the line, do something, run out of bounds.' But I'm glad to go against a competitor like that."

Touchdown Tee

Wide receiver Tee Higgins made his career-best 11^th touchdown catch of this season a memorable one with a one-hander off a Burrow fade in the left corner of the end zone with 29 seconds left in the first half.

Higgins, who had ten last season despite missing five games with primarily hamstring issues, missed only two this season. Both because of a concussion as he finished with 59 catches for 846 yards.

"Forget the statistics," Higgins said. "I had no muscle injuries this year. That's what came in wanting to do and I was able to do it."

Battle of Myles

Garrett didn't get his record sack until 4:44 left, and, on most days, when it was his only one, the Bengals would take that. But the sack short-circuited a drive in Cleveland territory in a game they needed a touchdown. Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who had two false starts in his effort to stop him, saluted Garrett, as well as Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and his plan.

In a first half they crushed the Browns with 233 yards, the throw-first Bengals dropped back to pass 19 times and ran it 19 times and came out with a 120 yards rushing for the third straight week to go with a total of 429 against the NFL's second-ranked defense.

Plus, in their go-ahead drive, Brown and Co., kept Burrow away from Garrett.

"We had a plan. Coach Taylor did a great job putting us in good positions," said Brown, who usually had help from the backs and tight ends, particularly Drew Sample. "Drew Sample did a great job. For the most part, we did a good job executing. We were effective. Hard to do against that scheme and players."

The sack? If you've seen any of Garrett's 124.5, you've seen them all. Brown had no help on this one. Garrett, who could count only three one-on-ones all day, got one here. He got under Brown with his notorious dip to the outside. And when one of the best pass rushers ever says it's the best get-off he ever had, who would have a chance?

"I was watching the clock. I knew that the next time he gave a count, it was going to be that they were gone," Garrett said. "I was just watching the ball as quickly as I could, and they had a couple other tells that gave me the snap count. As soon as I saw that, it aligned. It's probably the best get-off I've ever had, trying to get that sack, and the rest is history."

Brown: "He did a really good job getting off the ball there. They had an interior game. There was nowhere for Joe to go."

Slants and Screens

After coming back from his turf toe Thanksgiving Night, Burrow was Burrow. In the last three games, he completed 77, 78 and 74% of his passes. In his six games post-injury, he threw for 14 touchdowns with five interceptions. Most importantly, he felt good about it.

"I'm really proud of what I did this year. I came back from an injury faster than any human ever has," said Burrow of his 74-day comeback. "I'm really proud of that. I played some really good football when back. I had one bad game, and you certainly don't want those, but I won't lose my mind over that. I played some really high-level football." …

The Browns, who had 160 yards before that final drive, didn't have to face the Bengals best player on that last-ditch 40-yard journey for the field goal. Cornerback DJ Turner II left with a calf issue the series before …

Zac Taylor wasn't pleased the Browns staged an on-field celebration for Garrett. They were trying to get to the line on second-and-16, but the refs held up the game as the Browns committed an uncalled penalty and rushed the field.

"We meet with them in the 90-minute meeting before the game and they never said one word about that," Taylor said.

"There's five minutes left in our season. We're playing for our lives here. And I was never told we were going to stop the game, and in a critical moment like that. The refs just said they made a decision they were going to stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn't feel that (way). We didn't sub, we were trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo, and the umpire just held the ball so we couldn't do anything." …

It had to be the first time 40-year-old backup quarterback Joe Flacco had been summoned for his legs in the last game of his 18th season. But on a third-and-one, there he was converting an old school sneak as Burrow went to the bench.

"Just a bigger body there. They were really loading up the front, if you saw some of those short yardage plays," Taylor said. "Flacco's obviously a much bigger body." ...