Bengals eliminated from playoff contention with loss to Chiefs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One year after Kansas City ended Cincinnati’s season in a dramatic AFC championship game at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs ended the Bengals’ postseason hopes entirely in the exact same place on a cold New Year’s Eve.

Applying relentless pressure on Jake Browning, including four sacks on the final possession as he was trying to rally the Bengals for the tying score, the Chiefs held one of their biggest conference nemeses without a point over their final seven possessions in a 25-17 victory Sunday that clinched their eighth consecutive AFC West title.

The Chiefs will be the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. The Bengals will be sitting it out after next week’s regular-season finale against the playoff-bound Cleveland Browns.

“That was not our goal,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said, “to be out of contention.”

Indeed, it was a bitter finish to a roller-coaster year for Cincinnati that included the loss of franchise quarterback Joe Burrow to a season-ending wrist injury, the revelatory play of Browning in his place, three straight wins that catapulted the Bengals into the playoff mix and consecutive losses to the Steelers and Chiefs that ultimately eliminated them.

“He’s one of the best players on planet Earth,” Taylor said of Burrow, “but that’s just part of life. And you know, you have to be able to deal with it and move on. We’re not the only team that deals with losing players. I’m proud of the way this team continued to fight. Proud of the way Jake stepped in and continued to lead. This team did not lay down for anybody. It has not gone our way the last two weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of what these guys did.”

The Bengals had their chances against Kansas City at the site of their past two AFC title game clashes.