Recent roster decision doomed Bengals in overtime loss to rival Ravens

The Cincinnati Bengals made a somewhat surprising roster decision in the week leading up to their Week 5 matchup with the Baltimore Ravens as the team waived second-year punter Brad Robbins in favor of undrafted rookie Ryan Rehkow.

Robbins was sidelined to start the season, and in the meantime, Rehkow established himself as a very promising punter. He led the league in several statistical punting categories heading into Week 5, and his stellar punting continued against the Ravens.

However, Rehkow is still a rookie, and thus inexperienced by definition. He doesn't have a ton of experience punting professionally, or say, receiving and holding the snap for a game-winning field goal attempt.

Rookie punter Ryan Rehkow made a critical mistake in overtime

Unfortunately, that's the position he found himself in late in overtime of the battle between the Bengals and Baltimore. Faced with a fourth-and-seven with the score knotted at 38, the Bengals opted to attempt a potential game-winning field goal, which was shanked by kicker Evan McPherson. The Ravens went on to covert their own attempt and win the game, 41-38.

At first it just looked like a rough kick, but upon further review, it appears as though Rehkow actually mishandled the snap and that could have contributed to the outcome of the kick.

That's obviously a very costly error. But again, that's the risk you run by putting a rookie in such a situation. Plus, the outcome of the contest can't be pinned on a single play. Cincinnati's defense was unable to get stops when they needed to, and coach Zac Taylor decided to play extremely conservatively when the Bengals got the ball in overtime following a fumble by Lamar Jackson.

Despite the fact that Joe Burrow was cooking all afternoon, the Bengals decided to run the ball on three straight plays and then attempt the kick. Perhaps they should have tried a more aggressive approach in that situation.

There's plenty of blame to go around after Cincinnati's fourth loss in the first five games of the season, and Rehkow is certainly going to be on the receiving end of a lot of it. But, he's been solid all season, and one mistake shouldn't completely define him, no matter how costly it was.