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ESPN Staff Writer- Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN's NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
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ESPN Staff Writer- Paul Gutierrez joined NFL Nation in 2013 and serves as its Las Vegas Raiders reporter. He has a multi-platform role - writing on ESPN.com, television appearances on NFL Live and SportsCenter, and podcast and radio appearances. Before coming to ESPN, Gutierrez spent three years at CSN Bay Area as a multi-platform reporter, covering the Raiders and Oakland Athletics as well as anchoring the SportsNet Central cable news show. Gutierrez votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame and is also a member of the Professional Football Writers of America and currently serves as the PFWA's Las Vegas chapter president. He is also a member of the California Chicano News Media Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Gutierrez has authored three books: Tommy Davis' Tales from the Dodgers Dugout, 100 Things Raiders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die and If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Raiders Sideline, Locker Room and Press Box with Lincoln Kennedy. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PGutierrezESPN
CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Joe Burrow to bring the team success it hasn't had in a long, long time.
The quarterback is on his way to doing that in Saturday's wild-card game against the Las Vegas Raiders. On third-and-4 near the end of the first half, Burrow scrambled out of the pocket and somehow found Tyler Boyd for a 10-yard touchdown.
Burrow was perilously close to being out of bounds before he released the ball, which prompted a discussion from the officials and seemed to elicit an errant whistle.
According to the NFL rulebook, the play should have been blown dead because of the whistle. Instead, the sequence was allowed to continue and the Bengals took a 20-6 lead on the throw with 1:51 left in the first half.
The Bengals own the NFL's longest drought without a playoff victory. Cincinnati hasn't won a playoff game in 31 years. Burrow is doing his part to change that and produce a historic win.
Everything about this @JoeyB TD throw 🔥🔥🔥#SuperWildCard
— NFL (@NFL) January 15, 2022
📺: #LVvsCIN on NBC
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/8Pf9Nxm3Sv
After Boyd's controversial score, Derek Carr hit Zay Jones for a 14-yard touchdown with 19 seconds to play in the first half, pulling the Raiders to within 20-13 of the Bengals at halftime.
Jones ran a skinny post up the middle of the field and outleaped Bengals cornerback Eli Apple for the acrobatic catch as the two tried to out-wrestle each other for the ball.
MOSSED 💥
— ESPN (@espn) January 15, 2022
Derek Carr finds Zay Jones for the TD 💪
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/0jhowbQMix
It was Carr's first career postseason touchdown pass, as the eighth-year veteran is making his first playoff start. He missed the 2016 playoffs with a broken right leg suffered in the penultimate game of that season.
The score also was a positive sign after the Raiders' woeful red zone performance this season. Las Vegas was 27th in red zone efficiency in the regular season (touchdowns on only 52% of trips), worst of any playoff team.
