CINCINNATI – While most of the fans' furor was directed at a referee's call Monday, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis defended his own call – one that could have cost his team a touchdown against the Steelers.
Lewis explained why he didn't challenge the refs' call on the field that tight end C.J. Uzomah was out of bounds on a catch at the back of the end zone.
The tight end's knee landed right by the back line, and the officials ruled it was an incomplete pass.
Up in the press box, one of Lewis' staff sent down the message that Uzomah was out of bounds. Replays were inconclusive, but couldn't the replay official screw one up in the Bengals' favor just as easily as he screwed up the Tyler Boyd call in the Steelers' favor?
Why not throw the challenge flag, Coach?
“There was not evidence to overturn,” Lewis said Monday. “You’ve got to have clear evidence.
"First, let’s clear one thing up: the coaches don’t get a view like you guys think they get. That’s such a fallacy of television, of what they get upstairs. They don’t get that and it doesn’t come immediate. We’ve got to go to the next play.
“That’s such a fallacy that TV announcers say time and time again. I heard it again last night during (Mike) Zimmer’s game, and that’s not the way it works. I don’t know why they have that opinion. They don’t have that viewpoint and that ability to toggle back and forth. The person in charge of that has got to make a quick judgment and tell me what he feels and then we’ve got to go from there. They’re not getting all the angles, particularly the ones that come five minutes later.”
To his credit, Lewis made it clear he didn't blame the officiating for the Bengals' loss.
"When we allow two third-down touchdowns, three red-zone touchdowns, that makes the difference in the football game. We don't get a red-zone touchdown. That's a difference from a week ago," he said, referring to the season-opening win at the Jets.
The Bengals host 2-0 Denver in the home opener Sunday.
