Archdeacon: On most emotional day of his career, Higgins has best game ever

The Bengals big-target wide receiver has struggled with hamstring issues this season and two days before that meeting he’d missed part of the game against the Cleveland Browns with an ankle injury.

“You never know when a guy doesn’t finish the (previous) game,” Bengals heads coach Zac Taylor said of that preliminary personnel decision. “But it was early in the week and he sent me a pretty clear message that he saw the personnel on the screen and said, ‘No, I’m playing.’”

Higgins was adamant about his intent, not just because of his competitive nature and the back-against-the-wall situation of his team — the Bengals had to keep winning to keep their slim playoff hopes alive — but because Saturday could well end up being his last home game in a Cincinnati uniform.

Unable to work out a contract extension with the club last offseason, he was secured with a franchise tag. Next season he’ll be on the free agent market and one of the most sought-after players available.

Admired by his teammates, beloved by the fans whose chants of “Teeeee!” fill Paycor Stadium every time he makes a catch and critical to the Bengals’ fortunes — especially against a good team like Denver that boasted a cover-like-a-glove cornerback in Pat Surtain II, who would be on Ja’Marr Chase most of the day — Higgins was resolute that he was playing:

“When I (saw)the list of personnel and I wasn’t in, I was like ‘Oh HELL no!’”

Taylor was sitting quietly in the back of the meeting when Higgins immediately texted him,

“I said, ‘I’m good to go. I’m playing,’” Higgins recalled Saturday night. “And he was like, ‘OK, I’ll take you at your word.’”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

And Higgins’ word proved golden.

On the most emotional day of his five-year NFL career, he had his best game ever as a pro.

He’s the big reason the Bengals topped Denver 30-24 in overtime and stayed alive in the playoff hunt going into the season finale next weekend in Pittsburgh.

The 6-foot-4 receiver caught 11 of Joe Burrow’s passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner with 1:07 left in overtime.

After starting the season in a stunning, unexpected swoon — losing eight of their first 12 games — the Bengals have won four games in a row and evened their record at 8-8.

Before beating Denver, which came into Paycor at 9-6, Cincinnati was 0-7 against teams with a winning record this season.

After Saturday’s game several players talked about the team showing its “grit” and “resilience” the past four games and especially against the Broncos.

Although he ended up the hero, Higgins could have been the goat.

With the game tied 17-17, he caught a 7-yard pass from Burrow near the Denver 43 with 5:13 left. That’s when Surtain knocked the ball loose and recovered Higgins’ fumble.

“Man, that hurt my pride right there,” Higgins explained later. “I came back to the sideline telling everybody, ‘That’s my fault!...That’s my fault!’

“It could have cost us the game, but our defense stepped up big time and was able to get a stop.”

In overtime, another Bengals miscue put victory in doubt.

Cade York — who’s taken over the kicking duties with Evan McPherson out with an injury — was brought in to kick the game winning 33-yard field goal with 2:49 left, but his attempt hit the left upright and ricocheted away.

Again, the Bengals’ defense — so often maligned this season — rose up to hold Denver to a three and out.

And that’s when Burrow — who had the crowd chanting “MVP” and his teammates and some coaches echoing that sentiment in the postgame locker room — went to work.

After a 16-yard pass to Andrei Iosivas and a Khalil Herbert 13-yard run, Burrow connected with Higgins on a deep route down the left sideline for 31 yards and then the winning 3-yard TD pass just beyond the front left pylon in the end zone.

“Tee came up big — he was unbelievable today,” Burrow said afterward. “He elevates us to a different level when he’s playing like that.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

‘He’s a warrior’

After 908 receiving yards on 67 catches as a rookie in 2020, Higgins had a 1,091 yards the following year and 1,029 in 2022.

Last season, hamstring issues contributed to his lowest production — 42 catches, 656 yards, five touchdowns — and this year he missed five more games with injuries.

With one regular season game left, he has 69 catches for 858 yards.

Put under the franchise tag this year, he signed a one-year contract — worth $21.8 million — in June.

The team also is dealing with an extension for Chase, who currently leads the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches. Saturday, he broke T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s franchise record for catches (112) in a season.

With nine receptions for 102 yards against Denver, Chase has 117 catches this season.

After the game, Chase talked about how the team is better with both he and Higgins on the field.

“You’ve got to play one of us in man (coverage) if your doubling the other,” Chase said. “And whoever gets the single coverage is gonna win it.”

Higgins has been a stellar sidepiece to the marque show of Chase and Burrow, who completed 39 of 49 passes for 412 yards and three TDs Saturday and leads the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes.

He doesn’t publicly complain, tries to play through injury — “He’s a warrior,” Taylor said — and goes out of his way to praise his teammates. Saturday he saluted tight end Mike Gesicki, who had 10 catches, and Iosivas, who had 59 yards in receptions and had a 50-yard TD jaunt called back because of an illegal shift by Gesicki.

With Surtain often bottling up Chase whom he covered on 43 of 56 plays, Higgins was able to often dominate Bronco corner Riley Moss, a second-year pro giving up three inches and almost 30 pounds.

With 74 seconds left in overtime, Burrow connected with Higgins deep down the sideline.

“I’m not gonna lie, I ran five go routes before that and I was like, ‘This (expletive) better throw me one of them,” Higgins laughed. “(Joe) gave me a chance at the end of the day and I was able to make a play on the ball.”

And that set up the winning TD toss on the next play.

Uncertain future

Afterward, Higgins, Chase and Taylor all campaigned for Burrow being the league’s MVP this season.

“With this win right here, I think it just got him into first place in the race,” Chase said.

Taylor was more emphatic:

“I don’t know how anybody can stand on the field and watch Joe Burrow and not say he is the best player in the world. The clearest thing I can say is that I would not trade Joe Burrow for any player in the universe. To me, that’s MVP.”

Yet, with all the things he was dealing with — the injuries, the contract, the emotions that this could be his last home game as a Bengal — Higgins became the story of the game with a career performance on what, at one time early in the week, looked like it might be a dark day for him.

“It’s a surreal feeling,” he said. “I hope it’s not, but it could be my last game in stripes here. This game meant a lot more to me coming into it. Just walking into the stadium, that’s what I was thinking.”

He said the emotions especially hit him when he caught the game winner, and the crowd roared “Teeeee!” once again.

“Man, a shout out to Cincy!” he said as he stood at his locker afterward. “I grew so many relationships within this building and outside the building, in the city.

“I know it’s business, so if that’s where life takes me, God’s got me, and I’ll just follow his lead. If this was it, well I’m going out with a bang.”

He managed a bit of a laugh, just enough that you saw the premolar on the upper right side of his mouth had a shining diamond embedded in it.

What could have been a dark day, now sparkled.