American Football

Bengals Roundtable: Favorite A.J. Green moments

on

Baltimore Ravens v Cincinnati Bengals
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Looking back at some of the best moments A.J. Green had in the Queen City.

With the offseason now here, we’re going to start doing roundtables involving some of the hottest topics involving the Cincinnati Bengals.

First off, we’ve gathered our staff to discuss some of our favorite moments from the A.J. Green era in Cincinnati now that one of the best players in franchise history has decided to call it a career.

Jason Garrison

I have to say my favorite all-time A.J. Green moment isn’t just one single moment, but a collection of moments of Green absolutely dominating the Baltimore Ravens.

For some reason, the Ravens just couldn’t figure out how to cover Green. Green came up huge in big moments against the Ravens over and over again and even prompted Baltimore coach John Harbaugh to say, “One of these days we’ll figure out how to cover A.J. Green. It would be nice if we did that before he retires.”

Anthony Cosenza

I know the game ended as one of the most heartbreaking in Bengals history, but Green’s 25-yard touchdown catch in the 2015 Wild Card game with 1:50 to play had to be my favorite.

It put the Bengals up against their bitter rivals and seemingly tied the game up to rid the team of their postseason demons. The happiness didn’t last long, but the moment was huge and could have become an iconic play in franchise history.

The play just kind of epitomized Green’s career, in both the best and worst senses. He was often the guy to make the huge play in the biggest games, only to see it go in vain because of letdowns from other coaching and/or roster areas.

The Hail Mary catch against the Ravens (also leading to an undesirable end-game result) has to be a close second.

John Sheeran

I want to put the entire 2011 season down. It wasn’t his most productive, but it was arguably the most fun, and that’s what counts here. It set the standard for how insane of a playmaker he was going to be, and what level of success he would bring to the team.

Andy Dalton would literally just chuck passes as far as he could toss ‘em, and A.J. would reel them in. I’m still technically gonna cheat here by combining two moments from the same game. Two absolutely absurd deep receptions against the Buffalo Bills, his fourth-ever NFL game, and second inside Paul Brown Stadium. The way he Moss’d Leodis McKelvin will forever own real estate in my brain.

John Acree

November 10, 2013, in Baltimore: The Bengals go into the fourth quarter against the Ravens trailing by a score of 17-3, and with a 0.8% chance of winning. The Bengals pull within a touchdown with 8:22 left, but an Andy Dalton interception with 1:55 left seemingly ends it.

The Ravens only manage to run 20 seconds off the clock, and Cincinnati gets the ball back at their own 40 with 1:28 remaining. The Bengals move into Baltimore territory with no timeouts remaining before Dalton gets sacked at his own 49. A spike stops the clock at two seconds, and Dalton heaves a Hail Mary that gets tipped into the waiting arms of A.J. Green for the touchdown that sends the game into overtime.

Cincinnati would go on to lose its second straight overtime game, but what a game it was!

Drew Garrison

There are so many to pick from, but the one that comes to mind is the 2016 Hail Mary grab in the end zone to end the first half against the Browns. Defenders draped all over him, all of the traffic in the end zone, and somehow, he found a way to tip that ball to himself and haul it in. I was actually at that game and as I jumped in excitement from the catch, my phone flew out of my pocket and the screen shattered. I didn’t even care.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login