Twitter reactions to Bengals' Joseph Ossai's soul-crushing penalty in AFC Championship loss
By Kristen Wong
The Kansas City Chiefs took down the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, in Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, but it was clear who was the better team.
The Bengals held all of the momentum in the second half and its offense was firing on all fronts; the Chiefs, on the other hand, were leaning on a ineffectual run game with Patrick Mahomes limping and with two of their top receivers out due to injury.
A Chris Jones sack forced the Bengals to punt late in the fourth quarter, yet given how sterile the Chiefs' offense looked and with the score tied 20-20, the two teams looked ready to square off in overtime.
With eight seconds left to go, Chiefs were still ten yards away from field goal territory following a desperate Mahomes scramble to the sidelines, and then Bengals fans' hearts broke all at once.
Cincinnati edge-rusher Joseph Ossai made a careless mistake in pushing Mahomes after he ran out of bounds. The referees immediately threw the flag for unnecessary roughness, and just like that, the Chiefs were teed up for a potential game-winning 45-yard field goal.
It's a tough pill to swallow since Ossai put together a solid 2022 campaign and recorded five total tackles, two quarterback hits, one tackle for loss, and one pass defended in the championship game.
Bengals DE Joseph Ossai commits a costly end-of-game blunder in AFC Championship
Take a look at how Twitter reacted to Ossai's heartbreaking play:
Joseph Ossai played a hell of a game and was hustling crazy on this play. Terrible way to go out. Hope his guys have his back. pic.twitter.com/xGoT2X8VUQ
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) January 30, 2023
Zac Taylor on Ossai play: “It’s tough. One play. Didn’t come down to that.”
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) January 30, 2023
That video of Joseph Ossai sobbing on the sideline will stick with me as much as anything I saw today. Every single person makes a mistake every single day. Can you imagine that one being yours?
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) January 30, 2023
Joseph Ossai’s an awesome young player who played an excellent game. The #Bengals didn’t lose this game because of him. Get that nonsense out of here.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 30, 2023
Joseph Ossai had the game-winning sack against the Chiefs in the regular season. That’s heartbreaking.
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) January 30, 2023
Hold your head twin @joseph_ossai, you played a hell of a game. One game, one play does not define you. Year 3 gonna be a movie🍿
— Khalid Kareem (@khalid_kareem53) January 30, 2023
Next. 5 Pending Free Agents Who Have Upped Their Stock. dark
Please don't be too hard on Joseph Ossai. One bad play does not a bad player make.