Burrow, Bengals deliver on potential
Rookie quarterback savors upset of Titans
Maybe coach Zac Taylor was right when he said the Cincinnati Bengals were better than their record.
Entering Sunday, the Bengals had the fourth-worst record in the AFC. Their opponent, the Tennessee Titans, had lost only once this season.
And then Cincinnati grabbed the first statement win of Taylor's head coaching career. The Bengals upset the Titans 3120 at Paul Brown Stadium.
“It just validates everything these guys are working for,” Taylor said. “It doesn't surprise any of the players that this happened, but you need to see in front of your face that you've done it. We've done it, and now we've got to do it again.”
Two weeks ago, the Bengals (2-5-1) blew a 21-0 lead to Indianapolis. After that game, Taylor said the Bengals should have been 4-2.
“We were talking about it all week in practice, we don't feel like a (one-win) football team,” quarterback Joe Burrow said Sunday. “One or two plays go our way over the last few weeks, and we're 6-2 right now or 7-1.”
Before Sunday, the Bengals kept watching close games slip away. In Week 1, Cincinnati was a pass interference call
away from beating the Los Angeles Chargers. In Week 3, the Bengals needed only one more stop at the end of regulation to win in Philadelphia. And against the Colts, Cincinnati became the first NFL team since 2016 to lose a game it had led by 21 points.
The misery continued against Cleveland in Week 7, when the Bengals took a shocking loss after the Browns' Baker Mayfield led a touchdown drive in the waning seconds.
Against the Titans (5-2), however, Cincinnati finally got over the hurdle.
“We made those (winning) plays today,” Burrow said. “It felt good to make them.”
Burrow was in the middle of the upset from the start, beginning on the gameopening drive when he completed a pass to Tee Higgins after narrowly escaping a sack. That led to a field goal.
The Bengals kept coming, and took a 17-7 lead into halftime after holding Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill to 86 passing yards in the first half.
“We knew exactly what they wanted to do,” safety Jessie Bates said. “The wind helped that, as well, where they couldn't really get the ball down the field. Our corners, they're going through some adversity and haven't been playing their best ball. But they step up when it matters.”
To help seal the win in the second half, Burrow led a 12-play, 86-yard touchdown drive that spanned the last four minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth. Burrow completed short passes to Auden Tate, A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd to give the Bengals a 17point lead early in the fourth quarter.
Burrow finished with 249 yards, completing 26 of 37 passes. It wasn't the best statistical performance of Burrow's career, but he delivered a statement win for a team that before Sunday had beaten only Jacksonville.
“We have a chance to rattle off a lot of wins here at the end of the season,” Burrow said. “It starts in Pittsburgh (on Nov, 15), and that's going to be a big game.”
In recent weeks, Burrow has been telling his teammates in the locker room that no opponent could stop the Bengals. Against the Titans, they Bengals finally paired their high-powered offense with a win in a close game.
“I don't think a lot of people expected us to win,” Bates said. “This locker room knows that, and we don't really care, honestly. It's all about us, and we're going to continue what we're building here.”