- Mike Mayock Just Uttered the Most Accurate Joe Burrow Description Ever. EVER | The Rich Eisen Show The Rich Eisen Show
- Rich Eisen Reveals His Predictions for Bengals vs Chiefs and 49ers vs Eagles | The Rich Eisen Show The Rich Eisen Show
- ‘What’s More Likely?’ – AFC/NFC Championship Sunday Edition | The Rich Eisen Show The Rich Eisen Show
- Rich Eisen’s “Brilliant” Ranking of the Super Bowl Matchups He Wants to See Most | Rich Eisen Show The Rich Eisen Show
- Bengals RB Joe Mixon on Joe Burrow & the Chance to Go Back to the Super Bowl | The Rich Eisen Show The Rich Eisen Show
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Bengals’ Joe Burrow sets mark with 5th 400-yard game in 3 years
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow collected another record Sunday in his team’s 35-17 win against the Atlanta Falcons.
Burrow became the first player in NFL history to have five games of 400 or more passing yards in the first three years of his career, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Burrow previously held the record with Dan Marino, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Burrow dazzled in one of his best performances of the season. Nearly three months removed from an emergency appendectomy before the start of training camp in July, Burrow torched a depleted Falcons secondary. He was 34-of-42 passing for 481 yards and three touchdowns.
He racked up much of that damage in the first half. The Bengals scored touchdowns on their first four drives. Bengals wide receivers Tyler Boyd and Ja’Marr Chase became the third duo in the last 15 years to each have 100 or more receiving yards in the first half.
During one stretch in the first half, Burrow had 17 straight completions, a streak that ended as the Bengals pushed for one more touchdown before halftime.
The top overall pick of 2020 was effective on the ground, too. He had two carries for 21 yards and a rushing touchdown.
Bengals QB Joe Burrow says Cincinnati ‘not worried’ about 0-2 start; ‘We’re gonna be fine’
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow offered advice for those panicking about the team’s winless start heading into Week 3.
“Let’s all just take a deep breath and relax,” Burrow said Wednesday during his weekly news conference. “We’re gonna be fine. We’re not worried about it.”
Cincinnati’s reign as defending AFC champion has not gone well so far. The Bengals are the first team in the Super Bowl era to lose its first two games despite being at least a 7-point favorite in each contest, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Staying calm despite the early losses was a primary talking point for Burrow and several of the Bengals ahead of this weekend’s game against the New York Jets, who will be starting backup quarterback Joe Flacco.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said during his news conference that Burrow has clarity about the situation. The fourth-year coach added that it’s easy to sense the panic, but he relishes the added pressure for this year’s team to perform well following last year’s Super Bowl appearance.
“We’ve been begging for expectations,” said Taylor, who started his coaching tenure in Cincinnati with a 2-14 season in 2019. “We’ve been begging for high standards, and now they’re here and this is part of it. When you start out slower than what you hoped and what people anticipated, then you’re gonna deal with that. And I love it.”
The Bengals are the lone team in the AFC North without a win after two weeks. The Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens are all 1-1.
Cincinnati’s offense has come under fire after scoring just three touchdowns in the first two games, with all of those drives coming in the second half. Burrow’s mantra of having patience extended to his comfort level with the offensive line after taking 13 sacks in the first two games.
“Those guys are working hard to get it right,” Burrow said. “I can do a lot more to help them, too. And we can do more with playcalling to help them as well. We’re getting this thing right. Nobody’s panicking.”
Burrow said while there is no panic, there is an urgency to avoid an 0-3 start. Since the team’s loss to Dallas, Burrow has referenced the multiple two-game losing skids the Bengals suffered last season, such as one that included an upset loss to the Jets in Week 8.
The top overall pick in the 2020 draft said some of the same issues that have been discussed recently were also talked about last year before the Bengals corrected course, secured their first playoff berth since 2015 and won their first AFC championship since 1989. Burrow said how the team fared last year gives him confidence Cincinnati can do it again.
And when it comes to breathing easily and feeling good about things despite early struggles, Burrow isn’t alone.
“At the end of the day, we know that we have a good football team and that we’re gonna get back on track and we’ll be in good shape,” Taylor said. “And everyone can relax.”
New-look Cincinnati Bengals offensive line says earning trust of Joe Burrow key as sacks, losses pile up
CINCINNATI — One main objective for the winless Cincinnati Bengals is pretty clear following their 0-2 start to the season.
After quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked 13 times total in the first two games, center Ted Karras said the team must make its franchise cornerstone more comfortable in the pocket.
“That’s our biggest goal here moving forward — helping our guy have confidence in us, earning his trust,” Karras said Monday. “I feel like it’s something we haven’t done yet.”
Burrow was sacked six times in a 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday; he was sacked seven times in a season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the 13 total sacks to start the season are tied for the most over that stretch in the past 20 years.
Against Dallas, Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said the Cowboys provided a lot of stunts and twists on which a second pass-rusher was the one who ended up getting a sack or a pressure.
“He looked comfortable moving,” Callahan said of Burrow. “He’s seeing it well. When you end up in those spots where making one guy miss and here comes a second one, that gets a little hard.”
Karras, whom the team signed as its new center this offseason after he spent last season with the New England Patriots, said blocking well and giving Burrow clean pockets is the best way to make him feel comfortable. But Karras echoed Callahan’s point and said that whenever there’s late pressure during a play, it can rattle a quarterback.
“We want him to feel that those hits aren’t gonna come,” Karras said.
Cincinnati’s sack issue comes on the heels of a Super Bowl run in which protecting Burrow was a major issue. The Bengals surrendered 19 sacks in four playoff games in 2021. The Los Angeles Rams, who beat Cincinnati in the Super Bowl, allowed just seven sacks.
Cincinnati has four new starters on the offensive line, with left tackle Jonah Williams the lone holdover from last season. Bengals right tackle La’el Collins, who was previously with the Cowboys before signing with Cincinnati this offseason, said it’s up to the offensive linemen to find chemistry with each other.
“This is our first time playing together, these first two weeks,” Collins said. “I think we will be fine. We will get on the same page and just start doing what we do, and that’s coming out and setting the tone. Lock in on it and own it.”
Not all of Cincinnati’s sack problems fall squarely on the players on the line of scrimmage. Burrow took the blame for several of them in Week 1 against the Steelers.
Callahan chalked the recent struggles up to several factors, ranging from poor communication to good opponents. But that doesn’t mitigate where things stand for the Bengals after two games.
“For us to get where we want to get, ultimately it has to be much better than it has been kind of all the way around,” Callahan said.
Super Bowl 56: Live Updates from Bengals vs. Rams
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the Super Bowl:
The Cincinnati Bengals are minutes away from the first Super Bowl championship in franchise history.
That is if the Bengals can keep Joe Burrow upright.
The Bengals lead the Los Angeles Rams 20-16 through three quarters despite Burrow getting sacked five times in the third alone. It was the first time since at least 2000 that a quarterback has been sacked at least five times in a quarter in the playoffs.
Burrow now has been sacked six times in this game. It’s the fifth time in Burrow’s short career and third time this season he has been sacked at least six times.
The No. 1 pick overall of the 2020 draft now has been sacked a record 18 times this postseason, and he has been sacked 69 times all season.
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Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has become the sixth player to throw for 6,000 yards in a single season.
He joins Drew Brees, who had 6,404 yards in 2011, Peyton Manning with 6,387 in 2013, Eli Manning had 6,152 and Tom Brady 6,113 in 2011 and Dan Marino with 6,085 in 1984. Stafford needed 209 yards to reach 6,000, and he got that with a 16-yard pass to Brycen Hopkins in the third quarter.
Three plays later, the Rams tried their version of the Philly Special with Cooper Kupp throwing to Stafford. But they didn’t connect, and Matt Gay kicked a 41-yard field goal with 6:02 left in the third. That pulled the Rams within 20-16 of the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Cincinnati rookie Evan McPherson has matched Adam Vinatieri for the most field goals in a single NFL postseason.
McPherson made his second of the Super Bowl with a 38-yarder with 10:15 left in the third quarter. That gave the Bengals a 20-13 lead over the Los Angeles Rams as they got points off Matthew Stafford’s second interception.
The rookie the Bengals drafted with the fifth pick out of Florida now has 14 field goals this postseason. That matches the NFL record set by Vinatieri in 2006.
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Super Bowl 56 has turned in favor of the Cincinnati Bengals with two big plays all in the span of the first 22 seconds of the third quarter.
The Bengals scored a touchdown on their first offensive play of the quarter. Joe Burrow moved to his right and then up before throwing deep to Tee Higgins, who caught the ball as Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey fell. Higgins ran to the end zone to finish off the 75-yard TD for a 17-13 lead.
On the Rams’ first play to start the next drive, a pass from Matthew Stafford intended for Ben Skowronek bounced to Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie at the Los Angeles 32.
Evan McPherson hit a field goal to put the Bengals up 20-13.
That interception gives the Bengals eight this postseason, most since the Green Bay Packers had eight in 2010.
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There was about as much hip-hop as a stadium can hold at Super Bowl halftime, with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar splitting a fiery medley of their hits as expected, and a surprise appearance by 50 Cent.
It was a rare Super Bowl halftime show performed in the daylight, but it still had a feeling of a nightclub at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, with a set made up to look like the houses of nearby Compton and South LA.
Dre and Snoop opened the show with “Next Episode” and “California Love.”
50 Cent, not among the announced performers, started his “In Da Club.”
Blige was decked out in silver sparkles and surrounded by backup dancers as she sang a medley of her hits.
Eminem was surrounded by a rock band as he performed “Lose Yourself,” at one point taking a knee in apparent tribute to Colin Kaepernick’s protests.
The set was surrounded by what looked like a lit-up cityscape from above, with classic convertibles and a replica of the sculpture outside the Compton Courthouse.
The crowd had lanyards with LED lights that flashed in coordination with the show’s beats.
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Rams coach Sean McVay isn’t ready to talk about playing the second half of Super Bowl 56 without wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
McVay was asked during his halftime interview about playing without Beckham. The receiver hurt his left leg late in the second quarter, the same leg he tore the ACL in during the 2020 season. McVay didn’t say anything about Beckham’s status, which has been announced as questionable to return.
The Rams coach says they have to make some adjustments and have got to be able to make some plays. McVay said the Rams had some opportunities they didn’t capitalize on.
Los Angeles leads the Bengals 13-10 at halftime. Cincinnati gets the ball first to start the third quarter after winning the coin toss and deferring to the second half.
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The Los Angeles Rams lead the Cincinnati Bengals 13-10 at halftime of Super Bowl 56.
Matthew Stafford has thrown for 165 yards and two touchdowns. He may be without one of his top targets in the second half with Odell Beckham Jr. questionable to return after hurting his left leg with 3:50 left in the second quarter. That’s the same knee Beckham tore his ACL in during the 2020 season. The wide receiver went to the locker room, and he has two catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.
Cooper Kupp has three catches for 40 yards and the Rams’ other TD.
Joe Burrow has thrown for 114 yards for Cincinnati. Running back Joe Mixon threw for the Bengals’ lone TD on a pass to Tee Higgins.
Cincinnati safety Jessie Bates got the game’s first turnover, working his way in front of Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson in the end zone. Stafford rolled out left on third-and-14 and threw deep from around midfield. Officials flagged Cincinnati for unsportsmanlike conduct, not for taunting but for a player wearing a hoodie not in uniform who ran into the end zone to celebrate. That forced Cincinnati to start at its own 10 with 2 minutes left in the half.
Stafford tied for the most interceptions in the regular season with 17. He now has two in the postseason. The only quarterback to have the most interceptions in the regular season and win a Super Bowl was Eli Manning in the 2007 season with the Giants.
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Los Angeles Rams receiver Odell Beckham Jr. suffered an injury to his left leg on a noncontact play with 3:50 remaining in the second quarter.
Beckham was running toward the right side of the field on a crossing route, but it appeared as though his foot got caught in the turf. He dropped a pass thrown by Matthew Stafford and clutched his leg as he fell to the turf.
Beckham was looked at by trainers on the field before being helped off. He was looked at briefly in the medical tent on the Rams’ sideline before heading to the locker room.
Beckham, who was signed by the Rams after being released by Cleveland at midseason, had two receptions for 52 yards. He scored Los Angeles’ first touchdown when he beat Mike Hilton in the right corner of the end zone for a 17-yard score.
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The Cincinnati Bengals have answered the Los Angeles Rams with their first touchdown to pull within 13-10 in the second quarter.
Running back Joe Mixon got the ball and ran to his right before throwing to a wide-open Tee Higgins in the end zone for a 6-yard TD with 5:47 left.
That capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive by the Bengals that chewed up 7:04 off the clock.
After the extra point, Bengals’ fans celebrated loudly chanting “Who Dey!”
Mixon joined some exclusive company as only the fifth non-quarterback to throw a TD pass in the Super Bowl. He joins Trey Burton for Philadelphia against the Patriots in 2018, Antwaan Randle El in 2006 for Pittsburgh against Seattle, Lawrence McCutcheon in 1980 for the then-St. Louis Rams against the Steelers and Dallas’ Robert Newhouse in 1978 versus Denver.
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Matthew Stafford is off to a nearly perfect start, and the Los Angeles Rams have a 13-3 lead over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Stafford capped a 75-yard drive with an 11-yard TD pass to Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp with 12:51 left in the second quarter. None of the Bengals even touched Kupp coming off the line as he was wide open for his 21st TD catch this season, including the playoffs.
That puts him in exclusive company. Jerry Rice had 22 TDs in both 1987 and 1989. Randy Moss has the NFL record with 24 TD catches in 2007.
Stafford is 9 of 10 for 127 yards and two TD passes. His passer rating is perfect at 158.3.
Stafford is just the second quarterback with a perfect passer rating through four drives of the Super Bowl since 2000. Matt Ryan also was perfect for the Falcons against the Patriots in 2017.
A botched snap by the Rams on the extra point led to a flurry with the Bengals recovering the ball.
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The Los Angeles Rams lead Super Bowl 56 and the Cincinnati Bengals 7-3 after the first quarter.
Bengals rookie Evan McPherson kicked a 29-yard field goal with 28 seconds left to keep Cincinnati from going scoreless through the first 15 minutes. The field goal was McPherson’s 13th made field goal this postseason, putting him one off the NFL record of 14 set by Adam Vinatieri in 2006.
Cincinnati had first-and-10 at the Rams 11 after an amazing one-handed catch by Pro Bowl receiver Ja’Marr Chase. The Offensive Rookie of the Year tracked the ball as he ran downfield covered by three-time All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey and caught Joe Burrow’s pass with his right hand for a 46-yard reception.
But the Bengals couldn’t pick up even a yard on three plays before sending McPherson out for the field goal.
This is the third straight Super Bowl where both teams scored in the opening quarter. That had happened twice in the previous 12 Super Bowls.
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Playing a Super Bowl anywhere near Hollywood means the stars will come out, and they certainly have with the hometown Los Angeles Rams trying to win their first championship in 22 years.
Charlize Theron danced in her seat wearing a Rams ballcap, while Jennifer Lopez sat regally in her seat watching.
LeBron James is at SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Lakers having an off day along with Lakers legend Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. Pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 2020 World Series, is on hand watching his high school buddy Matthew Stafford play quarterback for the Rams.
The crowd also includes country singer Kenny Chesney and actors Sean Penn, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Chris Tucker and Kevin Hart.
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The Los Angeles Rams have the first score of Super Bowl 56.
Matthew Stafford capped the Rams’ second drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr. with 6:22 left in the first quarter. Beckham caught the ball over Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton, then the wide receiver celebrated his TD with a quick moonwalk. Beckham signed with Los Angeles on Nov. 11 after being cut by the Cleveland Browns.
Stafford is 4 of 4 for 47 yards and a 155.2 passer rating to start the game.
The Rams only had to go 50 yards in six plays over 3 minutes, 35 seconds because the defense forced the Bengals to turn the ball over on downs to end Cincinnati’s opening possession.
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Make it nine straight Super Bowls where neither team has scored on its opening drive.
The Los Angeles Rams started on offense and finished with 1 yard thanks to a sack by Pro Bowl defensive end Trey Hendrickson of Matthew Stafford.
Cincinnati went for it on fourth-and-1 at midfield, and linebacker Ernest Jones broke up Joe Burrow’s pass to turn the Bengals over on downs.
The Bengals are looking to score their first touchdown in the first half of a Super Bowl after being shut out in the franchise’s two previous Super Bowls. Cincinnati scored only 17 points on the opening drive all season, which tied for second fewest in the NFL. They had scored 10 points in the playoffs.
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The Cincinnati Bengals have won the coin toss and have deferred to put the Los Angeles Rams on offense to start Super Bowl 56.
It just may not be the omen Bengals’ fans want.
The last seven coin-toss winners wound up losing the Super Bowl. The last team to win the coin toss and the Super Bowl? Seattle beat Denver in 2014.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford called tails with Los Angeles technically the visiting team. The coin tossed by Billie Jean King came up heads.
King was on hand for the coin toss as the NFL recognized the 50-year anniversary of Title IX enacted in 1972 as part of the Education Amendments providing equal funding for men and women for the first time at high schools, colleges and universities receiving federal funding.
She was joined by the team captains for the California School for the Deaf Riverside Cubs, members of the high school girls flag league of champions and girls youth tackle football players from the Inglewood Chargers and Watts Rams.
King tweeted out video of her practicing the coin toss before kickoff. King wrote “Pressure is a privilege” and she noted the tip to bend her knees actually helped a lot.
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Quickie Mickey” slowed it down for the Super Bowl.
Mickey Guyton, who told The Associated Press this week that she’d earned the nickname for singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in a tight 1:30, sang it in about 1:50 on Sunday before the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals took the field.
Oddsmakers had put the over/under on the anthem length at 1:35.
“I don’t want to ruin anybody’s sports bets, but let’s just say it’s the Super Bowl, so it most likely won’t be as fast,” the Grammy-nominated country singer told the AP.
She was still faster than the Super Bowl average of around two minutes.
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It’s hot at SoFi Stadium for Super Bowl 56. Just not the hottest ever for this game.
The temperature is 82 ahead of kickoff between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals after having cooled off from 85 a couple hours before kickoff. California has been dealing with a heat wave over the past week with temperatures reaching into the low 90s in the region.
That’s short of the record of 84 set on Jan. 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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Getting into this Super Bowl at the last minute will mean a big hit to the wallet.
StubHub says the get-in price Sunday was $3,800, a jump of 10% from Saturday, and the average price for tickets sold was $6,136. That’s a dip of 8% from Saturday.
The site still had more than 1,400 tickets available Sunday morning.
Fans from California have bought nearly 40% more tickets over the last 24 hours and also nearly 35% of new tickets sold in that span.
The Cincinnati faithful have been busy with buyers from Ohio accounting for 8% of sales.
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Kickoff at Super Bowl 56 is less than an hour away with both teams warming up on the field at SoFi Stadium.
Joe Burrow is leading the Cincinnati Bengals with Matthew Stafford all decked out in the Rams’ modern throwback white jerseys. This is the first Super Bowl berth for each.
Burrow is the fastest to go from No. 1 overall pick to starting in this game.
Stafford had never won a playoff game before this postseason after the Rams traded for him. Stafford comes in with 49,995 yards passing and 323 TD passes. That’s the most ever for a quarterback making his first Super Bowl appearance. Stafford needs only 209 yards passing to become the sixth player to reach 6,000 in a single season.
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The “Who Dey!” fans are making themselves known inside SoFi Stadium.
The concourses are packed with people with Bengals jerseys and they are outnumbering Rams jerseys by almost a 4-to-1 margin. The most popular jersey is that of Joe Burrow’s No. 9.
The Bengals faithful aren’t waiting for kickoff either. They’re walking around breaking into chants of “Who Dey!” inside the house of their opponent.
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Super Bowl 56 could make history at kickoff before either the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals begin the opening drives.
The temperature two hours before kickoff was 85 degrees with the chance for the gauge to go even higher by the time the ball is kicked off. That would make this the hottest Super Bowl ever, topping the record of 84 set on Jan. 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
California has been dealing with a heat wave with eight locations in the region posting record temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s earlier this week.
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More AP Super Bowl coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/super-bowl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow
LOS ANGELES — Joe Burrow knows what the top tier of NFL quarterbacks looks like.
The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers firmly in that category after Rodgers won his fourth Associated Press Most Valuable Player award. Two days before playing in Super Bowl LVI, Burrow cited Rodgers as the benchmark he’s pursuing.
“I’m chasing Aaron Rodgers to try to be the best,” Burrow said during the final day of Super Bowl media interviews. “He’s been doing it for a long time.”
Wearing blue sunglasses and seated in the bleachers of UCLA’s Drake Stadium, Burrow included former Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes in that group of elite players.
Burrow’s Bengals beat Mahomes and Kansas City twice this season — once in Week 17 to clinch the AFC North title and again on Jan. 30 to win the AFC Championship Game and secure Cincinnati’s first Super Bowl trip since 1989.
The Bengals lost to Rodgers and the Packers in overtime on Week 5. Burrow said Rodgers “played great all year” and was deserving after throwing for 37 touchdowns and just four interceptions this year. However, the Bengals’ second-year quarterback is no stranger to accolades. In college, he won the Heisman Trophy before being selected with the first overall pick in the 2020 draft.
He added to that collection on Thursday when he took home the league’s Comeback Player of the Year at the NFL Honors in Los Angeles. After suffering a season-ending knee injury in his rookie season, Burrow didn’t miss any offseason activities and led Cincinnati to its first playoff berth in 2015.
Burrow admitted that he thinks about what a win in the Super Bowl will do for his legacy and people’s perception of him when discussing the best quarterbacks in the NFL. But the former LSU standout seeking to win the game’s highest prize knows that’s not a plan for success.
“I try not to think about that kind of stuff because I think if you go down that road, you start worrying about the wrong things,” Burrow said. “So I’ve tried to stay focused on the job at hand.”
Joe Burrow’s girlfriend celebrates Bengals’ win over Titans
The postseason adventures will continue for the Bengals and their favorite fans.
Following Cincinnati’s stunning divisional-round win Saturday against Tennessee, the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff race, Olivia Holzmacher, the longtime girlfriend of quarterback Joe Burrow, got the celebrations started in Nashville.
“Who dey!” Holzmacher exclaimed in an Instagram Story as she and Morgan Mead, the fiancée of Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson, hit the streets of the Music City.
In a separate post, Mead wrote, “We’re leaving Nashville winner winner chicken dinners!!!!”
The Bengals have been making history throughout the postseason, beginning last week when they snapped a 31-year playoff victory drought after defeating the Raiders in the wild-card round. Saturday’s 19-16 win against the Titans marks the first time the team has won on the road in the postseason.
“We’re here to make some noise, and teams are going to have to pay attention to us,” Burrow said Saturday.
The first-overall pick in 2020, Burrow — who has been linked to Holzmacher since 2017 — completed 28 of 37 passes Saturday for 348 yards with zero touchdowns and one interception. He was also sacked nine times throughout the game.
“That’s a really, really good team. Unbelievable defensive line,” Burrow said. “They had a great plan on defense. Credit to them, we found a way at the end.”
Bengals rookie Evan McPherson kicked a 52-yard field goal as time expired, punching Cincinnati’s ticket to next week’s AFC Championship game.
The Bengals will now face the winner of Sunday’s showdown between the Chiefs and Bills.
Why not the Cincinnati Bengals? With Joe Burrow and a talented roster, a deep NFL playoff run is possible
CINCINNATI — When you find your quarterback, things become possible that weren’t.
The Cincinnati Bengals won a playoff game Saturday. It had been 31 years and nine days since the last time that happened. Only four players on the Bengals’ current roster were even alive yet. There was, at that time, no such thing as a text message. The team they beat to win that game was called the Houston Oilers, and yes, young readers, they do still exist but they’re now called the Tennessee Titans. The Bengals lost the following week to the Los Angeles Raiders, who are now the Las Vegas Raiders and, somewhat poetically, the team the Bengals beat 26-19 Saturday.
That game took place almost six years before the birth of Joseph Lee Burrow, who arrived in Cincinnati via the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, tore his ACL in his rookie season and came back to lead the Bengals to (at least!) the divisional round of the playoffs in his second.
This wasn’t supposed to happen here — not this soon, at least. Good things don’t usually happen to the Bengals, and even if you came into this season liking the young roster they were putting together, you wouldn’t have picked them to be one of the final eight teams left in the 2021 playoffs. But Cincinnati has its quarterback, which means things are possible that weren’t before.
“We’ve got all the faith in the world in Joe, so there’s never any panic on our end,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “Had they been down seven at the end of the game and scored there to tie it, and then we’d have had to kick a field goal to win it, I promise you my heart rate would have been as easy as could be because we trust our players and someone is going to step up and win that game for us. I wasn’t surprised when it happened.”
What’s the impact of someone like Burrow? Well, there were six NFL head coaches fired last week, and Taylor was not among them. Joe Judge of the Giants was. Brian Flores of the Dolphins was. Vic Fangio of the Broncos and David Culley of the Texans were among the fired as well. What do those situations all have in common? Those organizations still don’t know who their long-term answer at quarterback is. The Bears might know — they drafted Justin Fields in the first round last April and have high hopes — but the inability to get consistent production out of the quarterback position during his tenure in Chicago is a big part of the reason Matt Nagy got fired.
Taylor entered this season on shaky ground. He was 6-25-1 during his first two seasons as Bengals coach. With all of the promise this roster had, another two-win or four-win season might — might — have prompted team ownership to move on from him. Taylor said Saturday night that, if he’d been working in any other organization, he likely wouldn’t even have made it to Year 3. And he may be right. (His predecessor lasted 16 years without winning a playoff game, after all.) But it sure didn’t hurt that he had Burrow coming back, and all of the confidence and hope and positivity that come with him. Burrow is the kind of player who makes people money. Taylor and his coaching staff entered this season on thin ice. Now, offensive coordinator Brian Callahan is on the Broncos’ head-coach interview list, and they’re all probably going to get contract extensions.
“Joe’s a great leader,” Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd said. “He came in here with confidence, knowing his ability to come into the league and flourish right away. He embraced that role. And as long as a guy like him comes in and works hard and plays with a chip on his shoulder like the rest of us do, guys are going to fall in behind him. And that’s what happened.”
It didn’t hurt that, with the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft, the Bengals drafted Ja’Marr Chase, who caught 84 passes for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns from Burrow two years ago as they helped lead LSU to a national championship together. Their connection was on brilliant display as Chase set rookie records and propelled the Bengals to their first postseason in six years. There was a point Saturday where it looked as if Burrow wasn’t going to throw the ball to anyone else all night. Chase ended the game with nine catches for 116 yards. Burrow’s two touchdown passes went to Boyd and tight end C.J. Uzomah. There were no hard feelings.
“We started clicking in college,” Chase said. “We have been helping each other get smarter every week and better as the game goes on.”
Thing is, the Bengals didn’t really play all that great Saturday. Five times, they ventured into the red zone against a Raiders defense that allowed touchdowns on more than 81% of opponents’ red zone possessions in the regular season. Three of those times, they came away with field goals. They clung to a seven-point lead in the final minute with Derek Carr leading the Raiders on what looked for all the world like a game-tying touchdown drive against a Cincinnati defense that had been hit hard by injuries during the game.
The largest football crowd in the history of Paul Brown Stadium was all out of fingernails to chew by the time Germaine Pratt intercepted Carr at the goal line on fourth down with 12 seconds left. By the time Burrow took the field for the final knee-down, no one even knew what to do. Dozens of SWAT team members with scary-looking guns formed a ring around the field in case fans decided to charge it. That’s not really a thing in the NFL, and it didn’t happen Saturday, but give Cincinnati a break. Thirty-one years is really a long time. This is a fan base with a lot of scars. It’s not ridiculous to think they might not know how to handle success.
“Never in my lifetime have we had a playoff win” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “I feel like we broke a curse. Really, just looking up in the stands, seeing the city come alive, it’s hard to put into words what it means to everybody in the city, and I’m just really happy to be part of the team that was able to do it. We got a lot more in store.”
It’s time for Bengals fans to recalibrate their expectations. Burrow is the real deal — a fearless player, built for the big moment and determined to keep getting greater. At some point during his rookie season, he decided he was going to need to improve his arm strength to succeed in the NFL, so he and his coaches came up with an offseason plan for how to do that. When he tore his ACL last November, it might have been easy to scrap that plan and focus exclusively on the knee rehab. Burrow decided instead to do both, and he returned this year with improved arm strength.
“There’s definitely more velocity on his ball, and that’s something he emphasized,” Callahan said last week. “He had a program with his strength training, his body mechanics, and as a result he’s been able to throw a little bit faster, a little bit tighter, a little bit farther than a year ago.”
That’s the kind of stuff that makes good players great and helps great players stay great for a long time. The knowledge that there’s always room for improvement and the determination to pursue it. When you draft a quarterback No. 1 overall, you’re hoping he has the kind of stuff inside of him that Burrow has already shown.
“I mean, it’s exciting,” Burrow said of his first career playoff win. “But this was expected. This isn’t like the icing on top of the cake or anything — this is the cake. So we’re moving on.”
Yes, there’s another Bengals playoff game next week, in Tennessee or in Buffalo, and this time they won’t be the betting favorite. But they won’t be a pushover, either. This is a team that beat the Kansas City Chiefs here a couple of weeks ago to clinch the division title. The Bengals went toe-to-toe with the Green Bay Packers in early October and would have won that game too if their otherwise-spectacular rookie kicker had been able to make a field goal that day. They went 2-0 against the Steelers and 2-0 against the Ravens, dominating two division rivals who have used them as punching bags over the years. The Bengals fear no one, and they do not believe this is as far as they can go.
“It used to be, people would laugh when they saw us on the schedule,” Bengals running back Joe Mixon said last week. “Like, ‘Aw, we’re fixin’ to play the Bengals. It’s just a stat week.’ But nobody’s laughing no more.”
There are a lot of reasons for that. Mixon is one. Edge rushers Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson, safety Jessie Bates, Chase, Boyd and Tee Higgins. All big reasons why the Bengals are where they are. But the main reason is the kid they pick first overall in the 2020 draft. Because in Joe Burrow, the Bengals appear to have found that rarest and dearest of NFL commodities — a true franchise quarterback. And when you find that, anything becomes possible.
Cigar smokin’ Joe Burrow is back again as Cincinnati Bengals win AFC North
Somewhere out there, LSU Tigers fans are smiling.
For the first time in six years, the Cincinnati Bengals are playoff bound after securing a 34-31 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. But it’s what happened next that will resonate with supporters of the player formerly known as “Joe Burreaux.”
Bengals quarterback and newly minted AFC North champion Joe Burrow smoked a victory cigar … again.
In 2019, the Bayou’s adopted son was famously photographed enjoying a post-win cigar outside the locker room at Mercedes-Benz Superdome after leading the Tigers to a 42-25 win over the Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
Adding to the sense of nostalgia, Sunday’s celebratory cigar was enjoyed alongside Burrow’s former LSU teammate and current Bengals standout wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase (third slide):
The Burrow-Chase connection has been in full effect all season. Chase had 11 catches for 266 yards — which set the franchise record for a single game — and scored three touchdowns in the Week 17 win.
The Bengals will face the Cleveland Browns on the road in their regular-season finale on Jan. 9.
Joe Burrow believes low COVID-19 totals among Bengals partly due to Cincinnati’s lack of nightlife
CINCINNATI — Being in a small market might not be so bad after all.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said having limited nightlife options in the city has helped the team keep its number of COVID-19 cases down as positive tests have surged around the NFL in recent weeks.
“Fortunately, there’s not a ton to do in Cincinnati,” Burrow said Wednesday. “Nobody is going out to clubs and bars and getting COVID every weekend. But we’ve been healthy.”
The Bengals (8-6) currently have just one player on the reserve/COVID-19 list — starting cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.
Throughout the season, the Bengals have been careful with players experiencing signs of illness, holding them out for precautionary reasons. The NFL sent a leaguewide memo last week announcing stricter COVID-19 protocols as cases spiked and caused logistical problems.
The Cleveland Browns had their game against the Las Vegas Raiders moved from Saturday to Monday, and two other Week 15 games — Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams and Washington-Philadelphia Eagles — were postponed from Sunday to Tuesday.
“We’re still a healthy team, which not a lot of people can say at this point of the season,” Burrow said. “We’ve been lucky as far as injuries and COVID.”
The Bengals are tied for the AFC North lead with the Baltimore Ravens (8-6), and they play this weekend in Cincinnati. A Bengals victory would give them a clean sweep over the Ravens this season.
The lack of attractions in downtown Cincinnati hasn’t been lost on local officials.
Within the past decade, the area between the Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium and the Cincinnati Reds’ Great American Ball Park known as “The Banks” has seen significant development. In March, the city designated areas between both stadiums where open containers of alcohol are allowed on the street. The Andrew J. Brady Music Center, which is adjacent to Paul Brown Stadium, also opened this year.