The game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Minnesota Vikings included an astounding announcer jinx by NFL Network’s Chris Rose that has to be seen to be believed.
Rose was on the conversation with former NFL star turned broadcaster Jason McCourty. The two started talking about the Vikings’ recent strong defensive play.
That, of course, came to an end when Rose gave a statistic about how good Minnesota’s defense has been.
“The Vikings with a two-touchdown lead,” Rose declared before the first play of the fourth quarter. “And have a look at this. In 166 minutes, the Vikings defense has not allowed a touchdown. This is the NFL’s longest stretch this season.”
The only issue with Rose bringing it up at that time in the game was that the Bengals were in the red zone. On the very next play, Bengals quarterback Jake Browning found Tee Higgins in the endzone, snapping the streak that Rose had just mentioned.
Rose’s bad timing may be more to blame than anything else, since the Bengals were only 13 yards away from scoring when he broke the streak.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71706146/usa_today_19498140.0.jpg)
It is debatable whether this is a legitimate jinx. What cannot be contested is that this play would precipitate a complete breakdown of the Vikings’ defense for the remainder of the game.
The Bengals would go on to tie the game and force OT on their next two drives.
The game would then be decided in overtime by a game-winning field goal.
The loss is clearly the result of more than Chris Rose’s jinx on the Vikings’ defense. But it’s hard to believe that things went so wrong for the Vikings’ defense so quickly after Rose broke their scoreless streak.
