CINCINNATI -- In case it wasn't clear enough, Bengals running back Joe Mixon reminded everyone how those in Cincinnati feel about coin flips.
Mixon trolled the NFL with a coin-flip touchdown celebration following his score in the first quarter of the 27-16 win on Sunday over the Baltimore Ravens. After Mixon scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, he pulled a coin out of a glove and flipped it in the end zone, followed with an emphatic kick through the air after it landed.
The celebration highlighted the emotions after the NFL approved a resolution Friday that called for a coin flip to decide the site of a potential Cincinnati-Baltimore game under certain conditions.
With Cincinnati's win, the Bengals didn't leave anything to chance.
"The best thing about that whole thing was that we got the [win]," Mixon said after the game.
Mixon fueled the team's locker room celebrations after Cincinnati (12-4) clinched the first back-to-back AFC North championships in franchise history.
He bought about five boxes of cigars that players enjoyed in the locker room. As for the coin he used in his touchdown celebration, he said he bought it off team trainer Caitlyn Wilson for $100 to poke fun at a situation that left Cincinnati fuming.
Had the Ravens defeated the Bengals on Sunday and the two teams finished the regular season matched against each other in the wild-card round of the playoffs, a coin flip was going to decide if that game was going to be in Cincinnati or Baltimore. The scenario was part of a proposal approved by the league to account for the canceled game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals last Monday after Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest.
Three days after Hamlin was hospitalized at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the NFL's competition committee approved a set of potential playoff scenarios to account for the Bills-Bengals cancelation.
Cincinnati's players, coaches and front office were incensed about the possibility of not playing a home game at Paycor Stadium despite winning the AFC North title.
On Thursday, Mixon tweeted out a section of the rulebook that pertained to playoff seeding in the wake of canceled games. Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn sent a memo to all clubs to vote against the proposal that was eventually approved, according to ESPN's Seth Wickersham. And on Friday, Bengals coach Zac Taylor lashed out about the rule changes.
"But it seems like there's positives for a lot of teams and just negatives for us," Taylor said Friday. "So we have the opportunity to play for a coin flip. That can only negatively impact us. We don't have the opportunity to play for a coin flip that will positively impact us."
All the consternation about the rule changes trended toward being moot early Sunday afternoon. One drive after Mixon scored, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow found wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase for a 26-yard touchdown to give Cincinnati a 17-0 lead with 14:06 left in the first half, and Cincinnati took a 24-7 lead into halftime.
The Bengals, like every other team around the NFL, sported black "Love for Damar" T-shirts in support of Hamlin, who has made significant progress but remains in critical condition at UCMC. Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd, who knows Hamlin through their time growing up in Pittsburgh and attending the same college, wore Hamlin's Bills No. 3 jersey during pregame warmups. Boyd said he had his mind set on wearing anything with Hamlin's number on it.
He met with Hamlin in the hospital earlier in the week and said that while the conversation was limited, it was uplifting.
"I didn't even need a response," Boyd said. "As long as his eyes were open, he could move, he could remember, that's all I needed."
The game ended up presenting several challenges for Cincinnati as well. In the third quarter, Bengals starting right guard Alex Cappa was carted to the locker room with a left ankle injury and was eventually declared out. Cincinnati was already without right tackle La'el Collins, who is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee.
In addition to the injuries, the Bengals were unable to pull away from a Ravens team that opted to play third-string quarterback Anthony Brown over backup Tyler Huntley, who dealt with shoulder and wrist injuries throughout the week. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore's starting quarterback, missed his fifth straight game with a left knee injury.
Cincinnati's defense bested Brown. He was 19-of-44 passing for 286 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble in the end zone for a Bengals touchdown after defensive end Trey Hendrickson sacked Brown and knocked the ball loose.
With Cincinnati's offense sputtering after halftime, its defense did enough to ensure the Bengals closed the season by winning 12 of their final 14 games and avoiding the loathed postgame coin flip.
Burrow, who was 25-of-42 passing for 215 yards and 1 touchdown, wasn't thrilled with his performance. But as he smoked his cigar, rapped and danced along to Future and celebrated with his teammates, he relished the feeling after a long and challenging week.
"It's always nice to celebrate with the guys that you work so hard with and to achieve something together," Burrow said. "That's a special feeling that I don't think a lot of people get to experience. I always cherish those moments."