ARLINGTON, Texas _ At the behest of the orchestration surrounding The Simpsons' Monday Night Football telecast here at AT&T Stadium, Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase found himself celebrating the 27-20 win over the Cowboys by smashing a yellow donut into the face of quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow returned the favor and Chase had to conclude, "He got the best of me. He really smeared it."
But that was nothing like what the NFL's Dynamic Duo did to Dallas with 61 seconds left in a tie game. Chase's last catch on a monstrous 14-catch night turned into a 40-yard-run-and-catch for a touchdown against dumbfounded Pro Bowl cornerback DaRon Bland.
A sideline out.
"It doesn't get any simpler than that," said head coach Zac Taylor. "That's a Day One install."
Except Burrow and Chase have been repping it like no one in the league. If Chase says it looked familiar, it is. It's the same play that beat the Saints for touchdown in the last two minutes of a win two years ago in New Orleans.
"Any time they're playing off him like that, eight nine yards, I'm going to throw it him," Burrow said. "He's got the leverage when you give it to him on the inside and he can make a move."
Chase ended the night re-gaining the NFL receiving lead with those season-high 14 catches that gave him 93 and a six-catch lead over Brock Bowers with 177 yards lengthening his lead in receiving yards. Meanwhile, Burrow became the first quarterback since 2018 to have five straight games with at least three touchdown passes.
That's what he got Monday night for an NFL-best 33 to go with 369 yards on a 33 of 43 clinic that allowed him to regain the NFL passing lead.
Chase came into the game already having the most multiple touchdown games in the league this season. The two on Monday give him a career-best and NFL-high 15 this season. He had to laugh when he was asked if he thought about sliding, not scoring, and the Bengals simply run down the clock for the field goal.
"I did," he said, breaking into laughter. "But I wanted to score."
It sounded like he knew he had 15, but he asked what the Bengals record is.
He was told 17.
"OK," he said.
THE BREAK
"Yeah," Burrow said after losing two primetime games by one score within three weeks, "it does feel good to get that break."
The play, which began with two minutes left in a 20-20, summed up the season. It went from heartbreak, when old friend Nick Vigil, a former Bengals draft pick, blocked Ryan Rehkow's punt on fourth and 27 from the Bengals 29.
But the ball not only bounded past the first down marker, the Cowboys committed the cardinal sin and touched it and allowed Bengals rookie linebacker Maema Njongmeta to recover it at the Bengals 43 and give the ball to Burrow and Chase.
It was Njongmeta who allowed Vigil to block the punt.
"I told him he saved his career," said linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither. "But he stayed with it."
And Taylor said that's exactly what his team has done at 5-8.
"They practice, they meet like they're still in it," Taylor said.
SLANTS AND SCREENS
Burrow emerged with a limp after it was over, but waved off the hit on his knee as only "swelling." …
Sackmaster Trey Hendrickson made it three-for-three for the Bengals' NFL leaders with his first sack in a month to give him 12.5, and 1.5-sack lead …
Cade York, filling in for the injured Evan McPherson, made all his kicks, his first two field goals since 2022 and three extra points …