Bengals Defender Turns Scoop-and-Score Into Touchback After Celebrating Too Early

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Cincinnati Bengals safety Jordan Battle made an unfortunate mistake he will never forget on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.
Late in the third quarter, the Bengals defense forced a fumble out of Titans running back Tony Pollard. Battle was able to scoop the ball clean, and was running towards pay dirt for what should have been the first touchdown of his NFL career.
But just before Battle crossed the plane, he moved the ball, bobbled it, and lost control, ultimately fumbling out of the end zone. That’s right folks—touchback.
Pain 😩
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 15, 2024
Battle fumbled the ball before crossing the goal line ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/oTQRybH6O4
While it’s a brutal mistake from Battle, he at least can rest easy that the Bengals largely had the game in hand, carrying a 31-14 lead at the time of the turnover.
Still, that’s not a replay that Battle and the rest of the Bengals defense is going to enjoy going over this week in film study.
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Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.