Zac Taylor Calls Out Cleveland Browns After Myles Garrett’s Record-Setting Sack In Bizarre Rant [VIDEO]
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor took issue with the NFL referees and the Cleveland Browns regarding Myles Garrett’s record-setting sack on Sunday.
With just over five minutes remaining in Sunday’s regular-season finale, Myles Garrett sacked Joe Burrow to break the single-season sacks record. Garrett sits alone in the record books with 23, breaking the record previously shared by Michael Strahan and TJ Watt (22.5).
The Browns (5-12) upset the Bengals (6-11) by a final score of 20-18, finishing the season on a two-game winning streak. In his post-game interview, Zac Taylor shared his frustrations with the refs stopping the game after Garrett’s big play (via Russell Heltman of Sports Illustated):
“We’re playing for our lives here. And I was never told that we’re going to stop the game, and in a critical moment like that, and the refs just said that they decided that they were going to stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that. We didn’t sub. We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo. And the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything.
“And I’m yelling at Joe, get on the ball. We didn’t sub, we’re going, and then we couldn’t play. And so again, trying to get an answer was not easy. They just said that they decided as a crew to stop the game when that happened. I guess it didn’t matter when it happened. It’s just they were gonna stop the game and let it happen.”
#Bengals HC Zac Taylor was not happy that the refs stopped the game after Myles Garrett’s record-breaking sack. He said he was never told they would do that beforehand.
“We’re playing for our lives here. … In a critical moment like that… we were trying to be on the ball and… https://t.co/6FsTBHZu3u pic.twitter.com/xbc8r7tHJG
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 4, 2026
One could understand Zac Taylor’s frustrations. And maybe the officials wouldn’t have stopped play if the game had playoff implications. But with both teams long eliminated from postseason contention, it’s also understandable that the refs chose to let the Browns celebrate Garrett’s big day accordingly.
