Zac Taylor Goes for Throat as Tee Higgins Caps Bengals Situational Masterpiece

After weeks of drilling end-of-game scenarios, Bengals put lesson to work in opener.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) makes a leaping catch over Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Zyon McCollum (27) in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 1 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has the sort of photographic memory where he can instantly recall all the details with just a casual mention of a random play from several years ago.

So it was somewhat humorous that he forgot about the most impressive of the 63 plays his offense ran Sunday in a season-opening 33-27 triumph of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium.

The Buccaneers had cut the deficit to six with 3:19 remaining and needed a stop against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati offense to give Baker Mayfield a chance for a comeback win.

On second and 10 from the Tampa Bay 44, Taylor passed on the conservative approach and had Burrow throw a slant to Tee Higgins, who went airborne to snare his quarterback’s fastball with Buccaneers cornerback Zyon McCollum wrapped around him.

Tee Higgins’ game icing catch through the lens of @TVAustinT. Unreal concentration by 5 to come down with that ball. #Bengals pic.twitter.com/ZcIL0gPVUT

— Yanni Tragellis (@yannitragellis) September 13, 2026

The 18-yard gain gave Cincinnati a first down and essentially sealed the win.

“I’m glad you reminded me of that, because I forgot about that play and meant to bring it up to the team,” Taylor said after a reporter asked him about it in the postgame news conference. “That’s as big time of a catch as you’re ever going to see.”

The drive itself was pretty huge, too.

Fortune Favors the Bold, and Bengals Prove it Late vs. Buccaneers

Cincinnati Bengals running back Samaje Perine (34) runs the ball as quarterback Joe Burrow watches during the Bengals win 27-33 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium on September 13, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Bengals spent the last six weeks working on situational football more than they ever have in Taylor’s previous training camps.

The situation Sunday was to run the four-minute offense to either kick a field goal to make it a two-score game or, better yet, bleed the clock all the way to zeroes and walk off the field a winner without Mayfield ever touching the ball.

“We’ve done that exact drill many times in training camp,” Taylor said. “There are times we got in four-minute mode or three-minute mode against our defense and got heavy and ran the ball, then we are punting with 2:30 left.”

The intention of running so many situational drills was to get the players comfortable with knowing what to expect and what to do.

Instead, Taylor was the one gleaning clues, and he put them into action against Tampa Bay.

With the Buccaneers in a heavy defense expecting the Bengals to run the ball and the clock, Taylor started the drive with back-to-back passes.

The first to Dohnte Meyers, the feelgood story of the offseason, for his first target of the game. Meyers caught the pass, made a guy miss and turned it into an 18-yard gain.

After that, Samaje Perine ran on the field to replace Chase Brown in the backfield, and it looked as though the running game would take over.

Nope.

Burrow threw a short pass to Perine, who made a guy miss and turned it into a 14-yard gain to the Tampa Bay 44.

After a Brown run for no gain, Burrow threw again, hitting Higgins for the wow play of the day.

“We came out with more of an aggressive mindset,” Taylor said. “We did this drill against Chicago (in the joint practice), which I think was really helpful, watching how they did it and watching how we did it.”

Meyers could have tried to get more than 18 on his catch but wisely went down to stay in bounds.

Later in the drive, Brown ripped off a run around right end and could have angled for the first-down marker but instead allowed a defender to take him to the ground, knowing Tapa Bay was out of timeouts.

“Credit to our guys for understanding how we wanted to run the clock there while still getting maximum yardage,” Taylor said. “Situationally, our guys did some things we worked on for a long time. They managed it really well. We finished with a quarterback sneak and a kneel.

“As you can see, I’m really proud,” Taylor added. “We talked about these situations a million times, and these guys nailed it.”

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