A late comeback sets up the finish
The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Tennessee Titans 43-36 in overtime in one of the wilder games of Week 8, according to CBS Sports. The result was also a piece of league history: that exact final score had never happened in the NFL's 107 years.
For most of the fourth quarter, that outcome looked unlikely. With under four minutes remaining, the Titans led 36-29. CBS Sports noted that 36-29 had already occurred as a final score, so if the game had ended there it would not have been a first.
Burrow then drove the Bengals 81 yards for a touchdown. The drive ended with an 18-yard pass to Tee Higgins that tied the game with 1:17 left and sent it to overtime.
Overtime and Burrow's numbers
Cincinnati got the ball first in overtime, and Burrow moved it quickly. He completed all four of his passes for 51 yards, then finished the drive with a nine-yard touchdown run to make it 43-36.
Burrow also threw three interceptions, CBS Sports reported. Even so, he finished with 462 passing yards and five touchdown passes. Combined with his rushing touchdown, that made him only the second player in NFL history with at least 450 passing yards, five touchdown passes and a rushing score in one game.
Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase, described by CBS Sports as Burrow's two favorite weapons, each topped 140 receiving yards.
How the unusual score came together
CBS Sports said a first-time final score usually requires something unusual, and this game had it. With the score tied at 21 in the third quarter, the Bengals got a safety to take a 23-21 lead. The Titans answered with a touchdown to go up 28-23.
Cincinnati then scored to retake the lead at 29-28. The Bengals went for two on that touchdown and did not convert. That odd sequence of scores left the game on a path toward the unique final tally. Tennessee later went ahead 36-29 before Burrow's late drive.
Scorigami history and what comes next
The 43-36 result was the 1,098th unique final score in NFL history and the third of the 2026 season. The first two came in Week 1, so the league had gone nearly two months without a new final score, according to CBS Sports.
For the Bengals, it was their first scorigami in four years. Their previous one was a 22-18 win over Bill Belichick's Patriots in 2022. For the Titans, it was their first since a 45-26 win over the Lions in 2020.
CBS Sports noted that scorigamis become rarer as more final scores are used up, so there is no guarantee of another this season. There were four last year, so one more in 2026 would match that total.
