Bengals’ DE Joseph Ossai, who will be 23 in a few months, stood there and addressed the media as he should. For the first time in his early NFL career, most likely. Not the circumstances he had hoped for, but Ossai was there – in the media scrum and on the field for one of the most important plays – because he performed well.
Late in the AFC Championship Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs, Joseph Ossai made a crucial mistake by pushing Patrick Mahomes on the sideline.
With three seconds remaining, Ossai was penalized for unnecessary roughness, and the 15-yard penalty set up Harrison Butker’s game-winning 45-yard field goal. Ossai was upset after the game, but his teammates supported him and stood next to him as he answered media queries while fighting back tears.
This was the scene at Joseph Ossai’s locker with BJ Hill stepping in to provide support https://t.co/8vn1OOlhOQ pic.twitter.com/nbUnoCkzfp
— Michael Niziolek (@michaelniziolek) January 30, 2023
He made a serious mistake because he was in a position to make a play. It’s a shame that this is how his game will be remembered. Especially because he was in that position after 59 minutes of football. Joe Burrow intercepted two passes aimed for Burrowhead.
On 13 carries, Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine combined for 41 yards. Before Ossai got involved, the Bengals were penalized for eight more fouls. There’s a lot of blame to go around, but Ossai took the lion’s share.
After a late hit on Patrick Mahomes in the final seconds of regulation, Ossai was flagged for unnecessary roughness. The 15-yard penalty moved the Chiefs into field goal range, setting up Harrison Butker’s 45-yard field goal to seal the game 23-20.
That was a difficult penalty call to make since throwing the flag vs. not throwing the flag likely impacted whether or not the game went overtime.
However, the referees threw the flag, which helped Kansas City to win.
Ossai finished with five tackles, a pass defense (his first of the season), and two quarterback hits (his team had five total). Ossai also played 49 percent of the defensive snaps in the game, a feat he achieved only five times in 16 regular-season games.
