Bengals Guard Dalton Risner Voices Regret About Game-Sealing Play on Otherwise Great Day

A little more than a year ago, Cincinnati Bengals guard Dalton Risner bared his soul and blared his regret after missing a block that resulted in Joe Burrow suffering a toe injury that required surgery.

That was Week 2.

Monday afternoon, Risner was standing in front of the cameras, owning his regret once again after missing a block that led to a Burrow sack and lost fumble that served as the dagger in a 30-27 loss at Pittsburgh.

The disastrous play came at the end of a solid day for Risner and the offensive line as a whole, with them allowing just four quarterback hits and no sacks through the first 55 snaps of the game.

“It really doesn't matter if you have a clean day the whole day,” Risner said. “I could tell you guys that I had a really good game up until that point, up until the last play of the game, but you gotta be at your best when your best is required.

“That last football play, that last snap that we had, I wasn't at my best unfortunately, and it sucks,” he added. “It hurts. It stings in a lot of ways. All you can do from that is get better, make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Bengals Were Going Deep When Risner Allowed Burrow Sack, Fumble

Burrow had just hit Ja’Marr Chase for a 13-yard gain that gave the Bengals a first down at the Pittsburgh 38, which is just inside of Evan McPherson’s field goal range.

There were only 53 seconds remaining, but the Bengals weren’t thinking about getting closer for a field goal to go to overtime. They were trying to win the game with a touchdown, and they weren’t worried about bleeding clock.

Burrow was trying to hit a deep post to Tee Higgins.

“We got quarters (coverage), and we're throwing a post to Tee,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “It's a matchup we like, and our guys protected unbelievably the entire game. So I don't pin that on those guys. It was just unfortunate it happened that way.

“But I thought the guys up front gave us everything we wanted the entirety of the game,” Taylor continued. “Really proud of how they played, and sometimes when you face a good defensive line, that's what's going to happen. They got us on one play there, and unfortunately it turned out bad for us.”

Harmon got a quick win against Risner and wrapped up Burrow, who tried to avoid a sack that would have taken the team back out of field goal range. But in his attempt to throw the ball way, Burrow lost control of it, and the Steelers recovered the fumble, notching their only sack and only turnover of the game on the final play.

“Yeah, we did a lot of great things as an offense,” Risner said. “I had a great game up until the last football play. But I could care less because at the end of the day, you want to win these games. I'd rather have a bad game and win the game.”

Risner was PFF’s fourth-highest graded Bengals player in Sunday’s game behind wide receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase and Burrow.

His 82.7 grade was his second highest since joining Bengals and third highest of his entire career behind an 84.2 against the Raiders in his NFL debut in Week 1 of 2019.

Still, it’s play No. 55 that outweighs plays 1-54 for Risner.

“You guys saw me last year through the ups and downs, and this was a bad play that I will remember for a long time,” he said. “And I'm not going to make excuses about it. I'm not going to try to make it sound better.

“I gave up a sack and, and it resulted in being a fumble and resulted in the game being over,” he added. “So, that sucks. It's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm going to swallow it and be a man about it, go back to the drawing board, continue to work.”

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