A Rare And Controversial Safety In OT Gave The Dolphins An Upset Win Over The Bengals

A week after destroying the Jets 49-9 to vault themselves into the top tier of the NFL hierarchy, the Cincinnati Bengals came back to earth with a 22-20 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night.

It was not without controversy.

The game ended on a walk-off safety in OT for only the third time in NFL history.

Here's the play. Bengals QB Andy Dalton was tackled into the end zone by Cameron Wake, but the ball is really close to being out of the end zone at the time he was initially hit:

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said after the game, "In my opinion, the ball was out of the end zone and so … I don't know."

The ball would have been placed on the one-inch line if he was ruled out of the end zone.

From this screenshot (via Larry Brown Sports), you can see the ball was right on the goal line, and probably not out of the end zone. But it's really close:

Dalton should be ruled down at his point of furthest forward progress.

It looks like he is backing into the end zone on his own right before he gets hit. So when Wake makes contact, he's slightly behind the goal line.

It's close, but there's probably not enough evidence to overturn it here.