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Before Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Bengals’ 20-9 loss to the Washington Football Team on Sunday, the rookie quarterback had been sacked 32 times.
After the game, Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor spoke to the media about Burrow’s injury and defended his offensive line when asked if enough was done to protect his rookie quarterback, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
All we can do is make progress as the season goes. We gave up a lot of pressure in the beginning of the season. In these last couple weeks, our guys have done a great job of keeping people off Joe. He’s had a great pocket; he did not have a sack in the first half. The hit, as I saw it, wasn’t with the ball in his hand. People keep talking about the offensive line without seemingly watching the film for the last four weeks. Again, those guys have done a good job. It’s been a revolving door of players. They have been doing a great job.
Taylor is right in the sense that his offensive line has dealt with numerous injuries. And, outside of last week’s loss to Pittsburgh, there were signs the protection for Burrow was better.
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In a win over Tennessee three weeks ago, Burrow was not sacked once. It was the first time this season he had not been sacked.
In the loss to Washington, Burrow did a nice job of getting rid of the football against one of the league’s better defensive lines. In just over two quarters of play, he was not sacked.
One major emphasis for the Bengals in 2021 should be surrounding Burrow with reinforcements along the offensive line. Now 2-7-1 on the season, Cincinnati should have its pick of one of the draft’s better offensive line prospects.
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