In the box score, the Bengals' 37-27 victory against the Titans will look like a largely irrelevant game between two teams no longer a real factor in the playoff chase (though the Bengals are holding on to the slimmest of hopes).
There will be nothing forgettable about it in the eyes of those who watched the three-hour Benny Hill sketch unfold at Nissan Stadium.
From 366-pound defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat serving up devastating stiff arms, running backs being carried across the goal line, 10 turnovers, 26 penalties, a defensive lineman touchdown reception, franchise records falling every quarter, a would-be touchdown dropped before the goal line, a nine-second touchdown pass and a game that ended with a touchdown and no extra point attempted.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor described it as "strange ... the rhythm was difficult." Tennessee head coach Brian Callahan offered "sloppy."
Call it whatever you want, this game was overflowing with wackiness. Let us count the ways.
A first-half Joe Burrow fumble was recovered by the massive rookie defensive tackle. Rather than taking a few steps and going to the ground, Sweat was ready to rumble. He sloughed off one tackle before Bengals' guard Alex Cappa chased after him. Sweat commenced to unload one of the nastiest stiff arms you'll see from any player, much less somebody pushing toward 400 pounds.
Not only that, he ripped off a 30-yard return sprinting down the sideline.
"When we get the opportunity to touch the ball, it's a dream come true and see what you can do with it," Sweat said. "I've been doing that since I was a little kid."
With Cincinnati in control late in the third quarter, McKinnley Jackson forced a fumble by Tony Pollard. Safety Jordan Battle scooped it up and outran the chasing Titans defense down the sideline, leaving yards of separation as he approached the goal line. Only, Battle did the one thing you can't do if your goal is to avoid immediately going viral on the Internet. He dropped the ball. Battle went to switch hands as he scored, but lost the grip and saw the ball go bounding into the end zone for a touchback.
"I was trying to switch the ball to my left hand," Battle said. "I didn't intentionally try to drop the ball. I know that's what y'all want or y'all think, but that's not what I was trying to do. I was just trying to switch it to my opposite hand."
This marks the second time this year an early celebration took a touchdown off the board. In the opener against the Patriots, tight end Tanner Hudson lifted the ball to celebrate before crossing the goal line and got stripped for a turnover.
"I told him he's paying for my lunch later because we can't have that," Ja'Marr Chase said. "He ran 60 yards to fumble the ball. I ain't going to kill him for that. It's a lesson he learned ... if you on defense just run it in and then showboat after. Steak on Jordan."
The first touchdown of the game for Burrow involved a first-down play from the 6-yard line where he dropped back and held the ball in the pocket for 9.01 seconds, according to NextGen Stats. He avoided one rusher, but waited, waited, waited and waited while receivers were crisscrossing the end zone trying to get open. He eventually hit Chase Brown throwing back across his body for the score.
"(I went) left, right, up, down. And then back," Brown said. "And I got the ball."
It was the second-longest time to throw of Burrow's career only behind a 9.77 seconds throw in San Francisco to convert a third down last season. It was only the third touchdown thrown this year where a quarterback held the ball for at least nine seconds. The other two were the final play of the game: the Washington Commanders' Hail Mary against the Bears and Drake Maye's wild scramble in this same end zone to throw the game-tying touchdown pass against the Titans in Week 9.
"I've learned it over five years to just shut up," Taylor said. "You're thinking to throw it away and get us to the next play but way more times than not when I have thought that something great has happened for the Bengals. That's just part of the Joe Burrow experience. He extends plays as well as anybody in the world and makes teams pay for it. They lose a lot of sleep probably doing their red zone presentations explaining that this is going to happen. He's going to scramble, you got to cover forever. It's just impossible to do."
Yeah, you read that right. Ten.
Tennessee threw four interceptions and lost two fumbles. Three came from quarterback Will Levis to Cam Taylor-Britt, Mike Hilton and finally a pick-six by Geno Stone. That one got Levis benched for Mason Rudolph. He eventually threw a red zone interception to rookie Josh Newton. Levis fumbled on a Trey Hendrickson hit and Maema Njongmeta recovered. The referees didn't originally rule it a recovery, blowing the play dead. It could have gone for a touchdown return, but the whistle awarded the ball to the Bengals after review. Then there was the Battle return and touchback.
Burrow threw an interception on his second pass of the game and also had a deep ball for Chase picked by Daryl Worley. The quarterback fumbled twice trying to create plays, including the ball that was picked up by Sweat.
The 10 combined turnovers were the most in a game since Week 2 of 2007. This was the first game this century featuring both 10 turnovers and 26 penalties.
"Defense did a good job getting the ball out and catching the ones they threw to us," Battle said.
The 14 penalties against the Bengals continued a concerning trend. For the first time in franchise history, they have committed 10-plus penalties in three consecutive games. This doesn't match the track record of Taylor's teams. They led the NFL in fewest penalties against since he took over the team in 2019.
"Penalties are unacceptable on offense," Taylor said. "Way below our standard. We are generally first in the league as a team and on offense. To have as many false starts as we had ... set us back and led to two drives where we didn't score points."
The final miscue involved a delay of game while on the 1-yard line late in the game that was partially due to a malfunctioning headset, but for Burrow, it set off a moment on the sideline where the broadcast caught him in an animated conversation with Taylor venting frustration.
He said after, the moment was merely about the general sloppiness of the day.
"I was just frustrated with the day we had on offense," Burrow said. "It was too sloppy. We had too many penalties. Too many procedural penalties. I had too many turnovers. It was just a frustrating day on offense."
The defensive tackle who owns one of the most famous touchdowns in franchise history for the 98-yard fumble return in the playoffs against the Ravens two years ago, put an exclamation point on his career by catching a 3-yard touchdown pass from Burrow in the first half.
Hubbard has been inserted in goal-line situations this season but has never seen a pass come his way. The Bengals put the play in this week and Hubbard said he put in extra practice on Friday catching passes for Burrow and backup quarterback Jake Browning at practice.
None was as hard as the leaping, contested catch he made for his score. It was the first offensive touchdown by a defensive player for the Bengals since 1968.
"They warned me it would be contested, I would have somebody on me," Hubbard said. "I walked up to the line and was talking to the tackle like, 'Hey, are we cutting off?' Talking about a fake block. I tried to get as free as I can but Joe gave me a great pass so it was really fun."
He popped up after the touchdown, spiked it and offered his signature flex. When the ball went bounding away, Burrow tracked it down because that will be a keeper. Burrow and Hubbard are close friends dating back to their days together at Ohio State and the quarterback wasn't thinking about anything else on that play other than throwing to his buddy.
"I was throwing the ball to Sam," he said bluntly.
Incredibly, Hubbard hurt his knee on the play and was ruled out for the game. He said after it was a PCL issue but he would need to get an MRI to know more on Monday.
"That touchdown right there was special," Hubbard said. "I don't think a Bengals defnsive player has ever scored a receiving touchdown. It was just a really cool moment. Something Zac drew up for me and I'm thankful for him. He's done so much for me in my career. Just thankful."
With the Titans at the 1-yard line, Titans running back Tyjae Spears took the ball directly up the middle and attempted a leap over the linemen for a score. Only, when he did, he ended up caught and held up in the air by Bengals Germaine Pratt and Kris Jenkins like he was Simba in "The Lion King."
Spears stayed up top for three seconds and eventually was thrown down in the back half of the end zone.
The Bengals scored 27 points for the sixth consecutive game. That is a new franchise record. They were previously tied with the 1988 AFC Champion team.
Burrow threw at least three touchdown passes for a sixth consecutive game. That is the most touchdown passes in a six-game span in franchise history. That also gave him 36 touchdown passes for the season, a new Bengals record.
Ja'Marr Chase went over 100 receptions on the year and joined Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, Jerry Rice and Cooper Kupp as the only players in NFL history to post a season with 100 receptions, 1,400 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Seemed like every quarter a new record bit the dust.