"F**king idiot", "You piece of s**t" - Joseph Ossai gets no mercy on social media after his error costs Bengals Super Bowl berth

Sometimes it comes down to one play to swing an NFL game, and Joseph Ossai will be keenly aware of it after today. With 14 seconds remaining in the AFC championship game, the Kansas City Chiefs had a third-and-4. Time was running out for them to get into field-goal range, needing at least another 10 to 15 yards to give kicker Harrison Butker a realistic chance.

Patrick Mahomes took off on his sprained ankle to get the first down. But that in itself would not have been enough to get into field-goal range. That was when Joseph Ossai unwittingly stepped up to give them a Super Bowl berth all gift-wrapped. Despite the Chiefs quarterback having clearly left the field, Ossai made no effort to slow his own momentum as he barrelled into Mahomes.

Both crashed into the Cincinnati sideline, with the Bengals player looking to be in some pain. But whatever he felt physically, more mental trauma was to follow. He was flagged for unnecessary roughness as he had clearly fouled the Kansas City quarterback out of bounds. It resulted in a 15-yard penalty and brought the Chiefs well within field-goal range.

With eight seconds left on the clock and the score tied at 20-20, the Kansas City Chiefs could now attempt a field goal. They duly did and converted and won the game 23-20 to go to the Super Bowl.

Joseph Ossai looked crestfallen on the sidelines. But social media was in no mood to cut him some slack. Here is a sampling of some of the responses on Twitter.

Many come to the defense of Joseph Ossai after unbearable social media trolling

While Joseph Ossai clearly got hammered on social media for his mistake, he did not deserve the amount of vitriol that came his way. No one does. Thankfully, there were some people on social media who came to his aid.

Before it disappears into history, one must remember that Ossai had five tackles combined and two assisted tackles in today's game. If someone had stopped Patrick Mahomes from leaving the pocket, he probably would not have needed to run so hard to take the quarterback down.

There were many great plays on both sides of the field in this ballgame. Reducing all of it down to one play and beating a man when he is down is not what any true NFL fan should aspire to.