The rivalry between the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs didn’t need any further heat, yet Tyler Boyd managed to pour out a little fuel this week.

Boyd, back with the Bengals during workouts, talked about the injury he suffered during the AFC title game against those Chiefs last season and how he thinks the outcome might’ve been different if he doesn’t leave the game.

“To this day, I feel like if I would have played the game, I was the key factor,” Boyd said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “We would have won the game. The second quarter, I had two huge catches for 50 yards. I was getting more of the one-on-one matches, and I knew I had the better matchup to win … It kind of eliminated the things we were trying to do. But at the end of the day, we trust every guy, and we just barely fell short … At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and play and they ref. But I feel if I was ready and healthy, we would’ve secured that.”

Before folks recoil in disgust — Boyd’s not totally wrong. Both of his catches went for 20 yards apiece and schematically, it was apparent he was a huge emphasis of the gameplan and rightfully so, given how the Chiefs left him in solo matches while trying to stop others.

Would Boyd playing every snap have actually swung the outcome of the game? Maybe not, but it was apparent very quickly he was a major key to the outcome.

Still, non-Bengals fans won’t love the quotes, which is fine. But it’s a level-headed take from Boyd and just a little extra dash of motivation for the Bengals going into 2023.