One play summed up yet another miserable Cincinnati Bengals playoff performance.
With his team trailing by 16 points in the fourth quarter, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton sacked himself. Under some pressure, Dalton stepped up, saw nothing and slid for a 3-yard loss. It was a pitiful play in a terrible 26-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

The Bengals somehow went one-and-done in the playoffs again. That’s four years in a row.
A lot will be said, again, about Dalton. Although the Arizona Cardinals might disagree, a quarterback never wins or loses a game by himself. And CBS' analysts spent a long time near the end of the game and in the postgame show making sure everyone knew it wasn’t Dalton’s fault. But Dalton was not good. He was 18 of 35 for 155 yards. He had reasons. Receiver A.J. Green and tight end Jermaine Gresham were out with injuries. They joined receiver Marvin Jones and tight end Tyler Eifert, who long ago suffered season-ending injuries. And the Bengals’ replacements weren’t good.
But, still, Dalton didn’t make many plays on his own. The Bengals gave him $17 million guaranteed in 2014 as part of a new contract, and they probably expect him to make some plays once in a while. They definitely don’t need him sacking himself in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. Dalton’s contract is basically year-to-year, and one has to wonder how many years the Bengals will ride with him. Especially once his salary increases to $10.5 million in 2016.
Coach Marvin Lewis heads into another long offseason, too. He’s 0-6 in the playoffs, tying Jim Mora for the worst record without a win in NFL playoff history. He has gone 11 seasons as head coach without a playoff win. Like Dalton, that’s not all his fault. But the Bengals didn’t do much to get creative on Sunday. When the Bengals punted on fourth-and-3 from the Colts’ 39-yard line on their first drive, that set the tone.
"It's disappointing, but I don't know any other way,” Lewis said after the game, via Joe Reedy of Fox Sports Ohio.
Part of that makes sense. Making the playoffs four straight seasons is very tough, and Lewis isn’t going to revamp everything he does based on some failures in a one-and-done postseason. But something has to change. What the Bengals are doing is just good enough to result in the same sad ending year after year.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from the NFL's wild-card weekend:
WINNERS
Demarcus Lawrence: Lawrence, the Dallas Cowboys rookie defensive end, is not a household name. He almost was.
With a little more than two minutes remaining in the Cowboys’ playoff game against the Detroit Lions, and Dallas leading 24-20, Lawrence recovered a fumble. Just falling down would have practically assured Dallas of a win, just its second in the playoffs since the end of the 1996 season. But he decided to run. And he was stripped of the ball and the Lions recovered, keeping their hopes alive.*
Have you heard of Marlon McCree? The San Diego Chargers safety picked off a pass that should have wrapped up a win over the New England Patriots in a 2006 AFC divisional playoff game, but he ran with the ball and Patriots receiver Troy Brown stripped him. New England recovered and went on to win, eliminating the 14-2 Chargers from the playoffs.
Lawrence was on his way to being lumped in with McCree, but the Cowboys bailed him out. He recovered the game-sealing fumble in the final seconds on a fourth-down sack, and he stayed down. And, thankfully for him, he didn’t go down in NFL history for the wrong reason.


Denver Broncos: A matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers, assuming running back Le’Veon Bell could play next week, would not have been easy for the Broncos. Not that the Indianapolis Colts will be easy, but it’s probably a little more agreeable to the Broncos.
Also for the Broncos, the Baltimore Ravens might give the top-seeded New England Patriots a better game than the winner of the Bengals-Colts game would have. The Patriots have blown out both of those teams already this season. The Ravens have been a tough opponent for the Patriots through the years. And the Broncos would be pretty big underdogs if they have to go to New England for an AFC championship game.
All in all, the Broncos had to be pretty pleased with that Ravens upset.
Joe Flacco: Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh called Flacco the best quarterback in football after Saturday's win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is ridiculous and what Harbaugh has to say, but Harbaugh couldn’t say it with a straight face if Flacco didn’t keep giving him a reason.
Whether it’s because he’s tremendously clutch or fortunate to repeatedly get hot at the right time that everyone will remember, Flacco has been a much better quarterback in the postseason. Against the Steelers, Flacco had his seventh straight game with at least a 95 quarterback rating. He had a 114 rating in the Ravens’ win. Flacco has never put up a rating of better than 93.6 in any regular season and his career rating is 84.8.
Whatever postseason magic Flacco has, he’ll bring it to New England. The Ravens weren’t a particularly great team this season, with a 1-6 record against winning teams in the regular season, and the win coming back in Week 2. But, like their quarterback, they seem to be able to turn it on in January. Odds are Flacco can’t keep playing at the same level as the game’s best quarterbacks forever in the playoffs, but are you willing to bet against it?


LOSERS

Bruce Arians: Of all the coaches who lost their playoff debuts, Arians might shoulder the least blame of them all.
No plays on his sheet were going to help. Quarterback Ryan Lindley was just helpless. The whole time you had to wonder how bad rookie Logan Thomas is, because he never got a chance as Lindley was flailing away. The Cardinals just had no chance.
That doesn’t mean it should be any easier for Arians. He waited a long time to get a chance to lead his own team into the playoffs. And to have it end in such ignominy, with his team setting an NFL playoff record with just 78 yards, will make for a long offseason. Especially since, had quarterback Carson Palmer stayed healthy, it's probable the Cardinals would have been resting at home this week as the NFC's No. 1 seed.

Referee Pete Morelli and crew: Whether or not you’re in the vast majority that thinks the Detroit Lions were absolutely robbed when the officials picked up a pass interference penalty flag on the Dallas Cowboys after calling it, the fact that 95 percent of the talk surrounding the NFL’s wild-card weekend centers around the officials is pretty bad for the league.
Morelli’s explanation didn’t help much. He admitted the officials should have gotten together before he called the pass interference and then reversed it, which is obvious. That fueled a lot of the outrage. Handling it the way they did led to an army of people on social media finding every still shot available that proved the fix was in, and complaining about every other call against the Lions and non-call against the Cowboys. Yes, everyone saw Dez Bryant come on the field to argue right after the call, and, yes, we’re aware he didn’t draw a penalty.
The NFL probably has a lot more explaining to do on the controversial call. Especially since it wants to be transparent and all.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab