“Why the hell would you touch the quarterback?”

Many teammates consoled the Bengals linebacker Joseph Ossai The Chiefs drew a late penalty that put them in position for a field goal that gave Kansas City a Super Bowl berth. One team member in particular was unhappy.

Linebacker Germaine Pratt he was yelling about the lack on the way to the locker room.

“It’s the last series,” Pratt told no one in particular. “What the hell? Why the hell did you touch the quarterback?”

In Ossai’s defense, he was tough. If he had gotten up while chasing Mahomes, giving up all the protection he gives a passer when he turned into a runner, Mahomes could have gone inside and picked up more yards. It’s something we’ve seen quarterbacks do time and time again.

So Ossai continued on. How was it supposed to stop?

The end result was an impulse. Mahomes was eliminated, it was even worse.

It would be naive to think that quarterbacks don’t know how to time the collision at the right time to draw those fouls. It’s a basic reality of the league’s obsession with keeping quarterbacks healthy.

The Bengals need to take the time to explain this to Pratt and anyone else in the locker room who might have a problem with Ossai. He was damned if he didn’t chase Mahomes, and damned if he did.

If the league doesn’t fully commit and treat quarterbacks who become runners as something other than a quarterback, things like this are going to happen.

It’s no one’s fault when he does. Ossai would not rise. And Mahomes, once he felt a blow to his back, wouldn’t try to stand up. While not a flop in the football sense, Mahomes was smart to let the momentum carry him to the ground.

Any smart quarterback would do the same thing in that spot. And if Ossai had stopped running, any smart quarterback wouldn’t be out of bounds.

Benglas linebacker Germaine Pratt: “Why would you touch the quarterback?” appeared at the beginning Speech for football