Ja'Marr Chase, Zac Taylor irked that officials allowed game delay for Myles Garrett, Browns to celebrate sack record

Myles Garrett made NFL history on Sunday with his 23rd sack of the season, breaking the league's coveted record for most sacks in a single season.

When it happened, game officials allowed a stoppage in play of roughly a minute for Garrett to celebrate with his Browns teammates. The delay occurred at a critical juncture late in the fourth quarter of the game between Garrett's Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals that Cleveland won, 20-18.

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For this, Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor was not pleased. Neither was All-Pro receiver Ja'Marr Chase. Taylor told reporters in his postgame news conference that the delay interfered with the Bengals' hurry-up offense as they attempted to rally from a 17-12 deficit in the game's final five minutes. The sack put the Bengals at second-and-16 near midfield.

Taylor: 'The umpire just held the ball'

“There’s five minutes left in our season," Taylor said. "We’re playing for our lives here, and I was never told that we’re gonna stop the game. And in a critical moment like that. And the refs just said that they made a decision that they were gonna stop the game. And 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, and the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn’t do anything.”

During the game, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was on the receiving end of Garrett's sack, raised both arms in frustration after the play as officials held on to the game ball instead of placing it for the next play. Garrett, meanwhile, was swarmed by his teammates to celebrate the achievement.

Why did officials allow game to be delayed?

Taylor told reporters that he approached officials to try to get an answer for why gameplay was paused to allow the Browns to celebrate.

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"Trying to get an answer was not easy," Taylor said. "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.

"I was never informed of that. They didn't say one word."

Ja'Marr Chase: Where's the flag?

Chase, meanwhile, wanted to know why officials didn't throw a flag for the celebration as players left the Cleveland bench to congratulate Garrett on the field.

"I don’t think they could do that," Chase said. "I never knew you could let the whole team get on your field — that’s like me catching my 10th pass and the whole team running on the field. People get flagged. You can’t do that.

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"Congrats to him and everything. But they’ve gotta call a flag on that play."

When informed that Taylor said that officials had planned all along to stop play to allow a celebration, Chase said that he expects the same treatment for any of his career achievements.

"Well," Chase said. "They better stop the game when I do something on my back end."

What should officials have done?

Few individual records in football carry as much weight as the single-season sack record. It's a monumental achievement worthy of celebration.

At the same time, there's plenty of time and opportunity for the Browns to celebrate. And the Bengals have a legitimate gripe about the game not being allowed to play out by the normal rules of gameplay.