Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett made history on Sunday when he finally broke the NFL’s single-season sack record. After being stuck on 22 sacks on the year for several weeks, Garrett brought down Bengals QB Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter of the Browns’ season finale. The record-setting sack pushed him ahead of Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt, and the Browns sideline celebrated accordingly.
One person who was not celebrating was Bengals coach Zac Taylor. As the game was paused to acknowledge Garrett’s breaking of the record, Taylor was pushing his team to get on the ball and run their next play, but the refs told him they’d be holding things up for a moment.
“There’s five minutes left in our season. We’re playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we’re gonna stop the game in a critical moment like that,” Taylor said. “The refs just said that they made a decision that they were gonna stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that. 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.”
#Bengals HC Zac Taylor on the refs stopping play after Myles Garrett broke the NFL sack record:
— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) January 4, 2026
“There’s five minutes left in our season. We’re playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we’re gonna stop the game — and in a critical moment like that. And the refs just… pic.twitter.com/S6ZgJ2ogUK
On one hand, Taylor has a point here. Garrett’s record-setting play came with five minutes left in a game the Bengals were trailing by a touchdown. It was Cincinnati’s ball, and therefore should have been their right to dictate the pace of play. If the Browns wanted to spend time celebrating Garrett’s sack, the Bengals should have had the option to run a play right by them.
At the same time, this was a meaningless game by every measure except for draft position, pride, and Garrett setting the record. If there was a playoff spot or even seeding at stake, the officials might have made a different decision, and if Taylor wanted the game to matter, the Bengals needed to win more games down the stretch. Still, you can at the very least understand why Taylor wasn’t pleased with the game being stopped while his team should have been in control of the clock.
Either way, Garrett now holds the record. Meanwhile, the Bengals failed to score on that drive, and while they would get a touchdown on their next possession, they ultimately lost to the Browns 20–18.
Next year can’t come soon enough.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bengals’ Zac Taylor Wasn't Happy With What Refs Did After Myles Garrett’s Record Sack.
