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Zac Taylor calls out referees for stopping play after Myles Garrett broke NFL sack record

Meby: Nick Geddes01/04/26NickGeddesNews

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett broke the single-season sack record Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, sacking Joe Burrow for sack No. 23 of his 2025 season. The officiating crew assigned to the Week 18 game briefly paused the game as Garrett and his teammates celebrated NFL history.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor took issue with that. Speaking after Cleveland’s 20-18 victory, Taylor said he didn’t appreciate the referees’ handling of the situation at a critical time with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

“There’s five minutes left in our season,” Taylor said. “We’re playing for our lives here. I was never told that we’re going to stop the game. In a critical moment like that, the refs just said that they made a decision that they were going to stop the game. They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t feel that.

“We didn’t sub. We’re trying to be on the ball and go and play with tempo. The umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything. And I’m yelling at Joe, ‘Get on the ball.’ … And so again, trying to get an answer was not easy. They just said that they made a decision as a crew to stop the game when that happened. I guess it didn’t matter when it happened, they were gonna stop the game and let it happen.”

Myles Garrett made NFL history vs. Bengals

The Bengals were down 17-12 at the time. They ended up punting on that drive after failing to gain enough yardage for a first down on their next two plays. Taylor said he was not informed before the game that play would be stopped if Garrett broke the record.

“I was never informed of that. They didn’t say one word,” Taylor said. “We meet with them in the 90-minute meeting before the game. They didn’t they never said one word about that.”

Taylor isn’t happy as Cincinnati’s season is over. The Bengals finished a disappointing 6-11. As for the Browns, they finished the 2025 season on a two-game winning streak.

But the story here is Garrett, who put together the best season by a pass rusher in NFL history. As for how he plans to celebrate, pizza and ice cream will do the trick.

“It was everything I expected. It was so tough,” Garrett said after the game. “I knew they would make it difficult. … The feeling couldn’t be better.”