There were 53 seconds remaining on the season.
Cincinnati, already evicted from the playoffs for a second-straight season, needed something positive to build off of. Lame duck head coach Marvin Lewis started facing adversity with published reports claiming he wasn’t interested in negotiating a new deal after 2017 — Lewis repeatedly denied those charges and eventually signed a two-year deal to remain head coach of the Bengals. And whether or not one existed, there was a perceived disconnect been between ownership and Lewis, from personnel decisions (i.e., the question centering around John Ross), to a difference in vision moving forward.