Burfict felt targeted on late flag vs. Broncos

DENVER - On what proved to be the game-winning drive in overtime for the Denver Broncos on Monday night, Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict was flagged for unnecessary roughness following an 8-yard completion from Brock Osweiler to tight end Virgil Green.

As Green fought up the sideline, Burfict was wrestling him for the ball, trying to strip it. As the play ended, Green found himself on his backside on his own sideline.

"They threw the flag actually late," Burfict said. "Once the dude flopped the ref looked at me and seen it was my number and then threw the flag. I can't control that, just keep playing football. The refs, obviously they have it out for me, but they can't call a bull--- flag like that at the end of the game. He looked at my number and then threw it."

Burfict said he asked referee Ed Hochuli what happened to draw the flag - that no whistle had been blown - but was told the other official deemed the hit late.

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The flag came out, and 15 yards were tacked onto the play. That 23-yard play helped move the Broncos from their own 33 to the Bengals' 44, and eight plays later, Denver made a 37-yard field goal.

"The ref's was late to blow the whistle all night tonight," Burfict said. "I mean, I know it's cold and all, but I'm trying to strip the ball, I'm waiting for the whistle, the whistle's not blown, then, he happens to flop and then they're gonna say that?

"They can't do that at the end of the game, you know what I mean? Because if it was somebody else they wouldn't have called it. But that's alright."

He wasn't the only one in the Bengals' locker room who felt that way.

"That was one of those things where, I mean, they were fighting on the side, fighting trying to get the ball out," defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. "He was still in bounds. He was trying to pull it away from him. And then once 'Tez realized the ball went out of bounds, he let go, and the guy threw his hands up. You see five-five and nine times out of 10 you're going edge on the other side of it."

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, who was on the opposite sideline and acknowledged he'll have to review the film, believed his player's account at the outset.

"He's trying to tackle a guy and they are struggling; a lot of those things don't get called and they let it go," Lewis said. "Both sides are pushing. I don't think he does anything besides push the guy as he goes out of bounds; it happens all the time. We'll see what happened on tape."