Tag: Joe Burrow

Bengals’ free-agency risks could mean seats are getting hot in Cincy

Is it time to watch hot seats in Cincinnati?

The Cincinnati Bengals made more rare acts of desperation to start Week 11 by going after Xavien Howard at cornerback and Leonard Fournette at running back in free agency.

Don’t scoff at the word rare either — the recent trade for Khalil Herbert was rare too, as just the third player acquired via trade at the deadline in 50-plus years for the franchise.

And it’s probably not as cut and dry as simple need, either. Sure, the Bengals need more help at running back after Herbert and Chase Brown fumbled last week. And yes, Cam Taylor-Britt has been a big disappointment at corner and the loss of Dax Hill weighs heavy on the depth chart.

But something else might be amiss, too.

The hot seat might just be that hot in Cincinnati.

One doesn’t have to watch a Joe Burrow press conference long to know the franchise quarterback isn’t happy. One doesn’t have to watch a game long to know the team hasn’t been constructed and/or coached up properly. It’s failing the MVP-level quarterback outing, Ja’Marr Chase’s OPOTY outing, and, frankly, Trey Hendrickson’s DPOTY outing.

That creates heat. The direct blame should probably go all the way to the top and hit director of player personnel Duke Tobin (i.e., the GM they won’t call a GM) the most. Whether it’s the fault of the brass above him for limiting what he can do or not, he’s failing to replace talent like Jessie Bates that they let walk out the door.

And the coaching staff isn’t much better. If Lou Anarumo can’t craft a league-average defense with what he’s got, his seat should be scorching. If defensive assistants can’t get a first-rounder like Myles Murphy on the field, heat. If offensive assistants can’t get wideouts not named Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins up to speed, heat. If Zac Taylor can’t find a way to motivate his guys and win games with an MVP passer, heat.

We’ve seen a steady drip-feed of modernization from the franchise since the Burrow era started. Maybe this is just a continuation of that (although they failed to sign Howard and went with a different running back).

But even this is the latest small sign that the heat is on in Cincinnati. The logical conclusion to a failed season in the middle of an elite quarterback’s prime is change. How high up the ladder remains to be seen, but it’s not unreasonable to think hot-seat watch should be underway.

If things continue this poorly and Burrow isn’t happy, maybe the next modernization is a massive coaching staff shakeup earlier than anyone would dare predict.

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Raiders’ Maxx Crosby fined for late hit on Bengals QB Joe Burrow

The NFL makes a move to protect Joe Burrow.

The late hit on Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow by Las Vegas Raiders star Maxx Crosby has resulted in a fine.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFL hit Crosby with an $11,255 fine due to unnecessary roughness for hitting Burrow after a whistle. The foul occurred during Cincinnati’s Week 9, 41-24 win over the Raiders.

The fine comes just a few days after a controversial end to the Bengals’ Week 10 game, which featured missed flags on late hits to Burrow and multiple unflagged infractions on a key two-point attempt by Cincinnati.

While a small fine, it’s progress from a league that needs to do a better job of protecting players like Burrow — who had thoughts of his own about late hits recently.

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Joe Burrow’s Bengals OL needs to actually defend him

Defenders are going to keep taking cheap shots on Joe Burrow until his line does something about it.

No, this isn’t about the pass-blocking struggles of the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line in front of Joe Burrow.

It’s about the complete lack of fire from an offensive line that watches its quarterback get mauled — even after whistles — and just trots back to the next huddle for another play.

Anyone observing Cincinnati’s Week 10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens saw Burrow getting abused on most snaps. On some snaps, there were unflagged late hits, and there were multiple instances of hits to his helmet and facemask, including on the unflagged penalties on the game-deciding two-point conversion.

And it’s going to keep happening until Burrow’s line actually does something about it.

Thursday night was merely the start of a trend. One late hit, three steps after the throw, has Burrow dealing with an injury called a “bruise” by Zac Taylor:

 

And one of the unflagged, multiple hits to the helmet:

 

Go back one week, too, to where Las Vegas Raiders defender Maxx Crosby kept hitting Burrow after plays while the offensive line did nothing, via Chris Maathuis of CBS:

 

Onlookers and even Burrow’s teammates can argue until they’re blue in the face that maybe they just didn’t see these things happen in real-time. But if fans are seeing this over the last two games, it’s hard to imagine it hasn’t been pointed out on the sidelines.

Right now, the Bengals look like a team without any fire whatsoever. Maybe some of that stems from the front office’s failing Burrow when it comes to roster building. That’s a much longer conversation for a different time.

But there’s no excuse for the offensive line to be failing Burrow like this. Everybody knows he’s propping up a middling roster right now after another season-ending injury. The least he could get in return is some fire from the guys around him while he plays at an MVP level.

Nobody is saying go do this, as seen by the Chargers a few weeks ago:

 

But…maybe it needs to happen, too.

The Ravens won’t be the last, either. Again, if we’re seeing it, so are future opponents in the film room. If future opponents see they can get away with these little extra things over the course of four quarters without reprisal, they’ll try it, too.

Andrew Whitworth used to get ejected in Cincinnati back in the day when defenders took extra shots on his quarterback. Until this current team finds that type of fight, the type of energy it had during the Super Bowl run but has suddenly lost, they’ll keep losing close games and Burrow will continue to take high-risk shots that add up over the course of 17 games.

This might seem silly to some. But, excuses aside, it feels like a little thing that says a lot about this current crop of Bengals right now.

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Steelers fans react to AFC North showdown in Week 10

In Week 10, the Ravens a staged comeback to beat the Bengals in Week 10, leaving Steelers fans disappointed with divisional implications.

In the AFC North, true classics never fade away—the rivalry games simply grow more dynamic. This was evident in the second meeting between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals in Week 10 on Thursday Night Football.

Steelers fans, who may have been rooting for Cincinnati to help further Pittsburgh’s lead in the divisional race over the Ravens, were likely disappointed by what can only be described as a miraculous comeback by Baltimore.

With 13:21 remaining in the third quarter, Bengals QB Joe Burrow threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to his WR1, Ja’Marr Chase, putting Cincinnati up 21-7. However, Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey forced Bengals RB Chase Brown to fumble the football with less than seven minutes left in the third quarter, setting the stage for a terrifying Baltimore comeback.

Four second-half Ravens touchdowns gave the team a 35-28 lead with less than two minutes remaining. A failed two-point conversion ultimately spelled the Bengals’ fate, securing a 35-34 Ravens victory in Week 10. While disappointing to say the least, here are some of the best Steelers fans’ reactions to this outstanding game.

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Marlon Humphrey voices frustration with Ravens’ pass defense after win over Bengals

Marlon Humphrey voices frustration with Ravens’ pass defense after win over Bengals

The Baltimore Ravens entered Week 10, allowing the most passing yards in the league, and things only got worse against the Cincinnati Bengals. Quarterback Joe Burrow threw for 428 yards and four touchdowns, with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase catching 11 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns against the Ravens’ secondary.

Luckily for Baltimore, the offense led by MVP frontrunner Lamar Jackson has been good enough to overcome the poor play of the defense in most games this season, but that does not mean that these issues are not a threat to keep the team from reaching their ultimate goal of a Super Bowl.

Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey did not mince words about the secondary’s performance following the thrilling 35-34 victory over the Bengals.

“These wins are getting harder to enjoy based off of what we’re doing in the pass defense,” Humphrey said. “It’s not cool to win a game, and you look up and a team has 300 passing [yards on you] every week. It’d be different if we didn’t have [any] guys that could play. I haven’t once heard anybody say, ‘We don’t have the guys; we don’t have the players; we don’t have the skill.’ We’re not doing it in practice. It’s clear that it’s something from … When we do that last preparation to the game, what is happening in that span? We’ve got to figure it out. It’s pretty simple.”

It is hard to imagine Baltimore’s defense becoming a top unit this far into the season, but as Humphrey said, they have the players to be a much better unit than they have been over the first 10 weeks. Rookie defensive coordinator Zach Orr has been heavily scrutinized in his first season, taking the reigns from now-Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald, who was the mastermind of one of the best defenses in franchise history last season with most of the same players. With several extra days before their next game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Orr and the rest of the coaching staff need to hammer down the basics to hopefully begin turning things around on defense.

Joe Burrow numbers help magnify Bengals’ sweep by Ravens

These numbers from Joe Burrow are ridiculous…and so is getting swept by the Ravens.

The Cincinnati Bengals were dealt a season-sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night, a pair of losses that most certainly is not the fault of the offense.

Quarterback Joe Burrow had another strong day in Week 10, going 34-of-56 for 428 yards and four touchdowns. In Week 5, Burrow went 30-of-39 for 392 yards with five touchdowns and an interception. In total, that’s 820 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception in two games against the Ravens. Yet the Bengals went 0-2 against Baltimore this year.

Then there’s this: there have only been two instances in which a quarterback had at least 300 yards on at least 30 completions, 4+ touchdowns, multiple touchdown passes of at least 40 yards and one or fewer interceptions and still lost (H/T OptaStats). Those two instances were, you guessed it, Joe Burrow in Week 5 and Joe Burrow in Week 10 of this season.

The Bengals’ defense has taken a lot of heat this season. That heat is only going to rise after Thursday, a game in which the Bengals once led 21-7 and lost 35-34 after missing what would have been a game-winning two-point conversion. Burrow is doing everything he can to win football games. He is second in passing yards per game (267.2) and tied for second with 2.4 passing touchdowns per game.

Yet the Bengals are 4-6. Plenty of questions with seven games left.

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Zac Taylor provides important Joe Burrow update after Week 10

An update on Joe Burrow after the beating he took against the Ravens.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow gave fans quite a scare during his team’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.

There, Burrow popped off for 428 yards and four touchdowns, but also seemed to take a massive hit on every other play, if not more often.

At one point, after a late-hit that went unflagged despite the defender taking three steps and levelling him, Burrow was seen on the sidelines struggling to pick up his helmet with his non-throwing hand, a theme of the broadcast until it ended.

While meeting with reporters on Friday, though, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said that Burrow is simply bruised and nothing more.

With how vague Taylor has been about injuries over the years, fans are justified in being nervous about the injury report next week. But for now, it appears to be good news on the Burrow front and they have an extended break to rest up before Week 11.

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Joe Burrow breaks silence on late hits, facemasks vs. Ravens

Bengals QB Joe Burrow faced questions about late hits and facemasks after Week 10.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, as most fans know by now, isn’t one of those passers always looking at referees for a flag.

But maybe he should be.

Burrow was mauled during Thursday night’s Week 10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, suffering at least one late hit that should’ve drawn a flag. He also suffered two could-be facemask penalties on the final drive, including on the two-point attempt, to the point even Skip Bayless was raging after the fact.

Asked about this stuff after the game, though, Burrow said he understands that officials aren’t usually calling facemask penalties in those clutch situations.

“You’re not getting that call in that situation, for the most part,” Burrow said, according to Fox 19’s Joe Danneman.

And on the topic of late hits, via Danneman: “I’ve never really gotten those calls. You don’t expect to get those.”

Fair enough, but maybe he should. And Bengals fans would probably argue after Thursday night that Burrow should complain a little more, like similar elite quarterbacks, and that the facemask flags should probably fly if it’s so obvious.

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Top photos from the Ravens 35-34 win over the Bengals on Thursday Night Football

Top photos from the Ravens 35-34 win over the Bengals on Thursday Night Football

Underused pass catcher Tylan Wallace had three catches for 115 yards (38.3 avg) and one touchdown, including an 84-yard catch and run that resulted in Lamar Jackson’s longest touchdown pass of his career, as Baltimore held on for a 35-34 win at home on Thursday night. Bengals star Ja’Marr Chase almost spoiled the Purple Rising party, as the former LSU star logged 11 catches on 17 targets for 264 yards (26.4 average) and three touchdowns, with a long of 70 yards for a touchdown.

In another near-perfect performance, Jackson was 25-33 passing for 290 yards (8.8 avg), four touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 141.4 rating. His AFC North rival, Joe Burrow, did his part for the Bengals, hanging in the pocket as he went 34-56 passing for 428 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

The Ravens defense allowed 470 yards, as Cincinnati was 8-16 on third downs.   Baltimore was sloppy on the night, with 11 penalties for 81 yards.

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Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Lamar Jackson monster stats in Bengals-Ravens 2024 season series

Stunning stats put up by superstars in Ravens-Bengals games in 2024

The Baltimore Ravens outscored the Cincinnati Bengals 76-72 in sweeping the season series in 2024.

The games provided quite the showcase for the teams’ stars.

  • Joe Burrow: 61-of-95 passing, 820 yards, nine touchdowns.
  • Ja’Marr Chase: 21 receptions, 457 receiving yards, six touchdowns
  • Lamar Jackson:  51-of-74 passing,   638 yards, eight touchdowns, 88 rushing yards

The Ravens accounted for 909 yards of total offense in the sweep. The Bengals had 912 yards.

The Bengals lost two fumbles, one in each game. Jackson threw one pick in the game in October.