Coming into Saturday’s divisional round game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans, we knew that the matchup between the Bengals’ offensive line and the Titans’ defensive line skewed heavily in Tennessee’s favor. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was the NFL’s most-sacked quarterback this season with 53 takedowns, and the Titans’ killer front, led by Jeffery Simmons and Denico Autry, has been quite the nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.
Burrow was sacked three times in the first quarter of this game, which puts him on pace to tie the single-game record for sacks with 12 (Bert Jones in 1980, Warren Moon in 1985, Donovan McNabb in 2007). Burrow is ahead of the pace when it comes to a single-game sack record in the postseason — Moon has that record with nine for the Houston Oilers against the Kansas City Chiefs in 1994.
.@HaroldLandry was PUMPED after his sack. 🔥
📺: #CINvsTEN on CBS
📱: https://t.co/3uvV4E3BTI pic.twitter.com/SgCK7dONgK— NFL (@NFL) January 22, 2022
I never wanna see Tyler Boyd block Denico Autry again https://t.co/2itoE5zt35
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) January 22, 2022
And as it turns out, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has a very interesting connection in the single-quarter postseason sack record.
The Titans are the first team to record 3 sacks in the 1st quarter of a playoff game since the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX (39) against the Eagles.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, played in that game and accounted for one of those 1st quarter sacks. pic.twitter.com/s0DU30y1Ec
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 22, 2022
You don’t see that every day. A head coach administering a present-day beatdown who was a third responsible for the same as a player?
Well, we have the receipts, as they say. Here’s Vrabel’s sack of McNabb in Super Bowl XXXIX with 3:57 left in the first quarter.
The Bengals had better do something to protect Burrow, or he’ll struggle to exit this game upright, win or lose.