Joe Burrow tries to do what the Bengals’ two NFL MVP quarterbacks never did and win a road playoff game Saturday (4:30 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) in Tennessee against the AFC’s top-seeded Titans in what is unfolding as an even-steven statistical matchup.
The Chiefs’ ouster of the Steelers Sunday night in Kansas City set the AFC’s Final Four and earned a home game against Buffalo. Standing between the Bengals and their first AFC title game since 1988 is Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, a former pupil of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, and Derrick Henry, a two-time NFL rushing champion coming off injury and expected to play for the first time since Halloween even though he has yet to be activated from injured reserve after returning to practice a few weeks ago.
It looks to be a duel between two of the top running backs in the game. The Bengals’ Joe Mixon finished as the league’s third-leading rusher with a career-best 1,205 after missing last season’s game against Tennessee with a foot injury that limited him to six games.
The Bengals’ AFC Divisional shot comes 33 years to the day they played Super Bowl XXIII in Miami in a game they lost a 16-13 lead in the final 34 seconds and against a franchise they beat in the 1990 Wild Card Game when the Titans were the Houston Oilers. Boomer Esiason, the ’88 MVP, engineered that one, but lost his only post-season road game the next week in Los Angeles to the Raiders.
Ken Anderson lost his first three playoff games, in Baltimore, Miami and Oakland, before leading the 1981 Bengals to Super Bowl XVI.
Burrow’s second NFL win came against the Titans back on Nov. 1, 2020 at Paul Brown Stadium when he outpitched Tannehill with a passer rating of 106.7 (249 yards, two touchdowns, no picks) to 92.8 (233 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) in a 31-20 victory in a game remembered for the Bengals starting four different offensive linemen because of injury and illness.
But it’s a much different Tennessee defense. That one ended the season ranked 28th in yards allowed while this one is 12th and that includes a No. 2 ranking against the run.
The Bengals offense, tied for seventh in scoring, plays a scoring defense ranked sixth. Cincinnati’s defense, ranked 17th in scoring, plays a Titans offense ranked at No. 15. The Bengals have a stingy run defense, too, ranked fifth, and tees it up against a Tennessee running game that is also ranked fifth despite the loss of Henry.
Turnovers? The Bengals have forced 21 and the Titans 22, but Cincinnati is tied for 16th in the NFL with an even plus-minus differential and Tennessee is tied for 20th at minus-three.
The Bengals’ banged up defensive line becomes a huge focal point in this one against the 6-3, 247-pound Henry, whose 112-yarder last year in Cincinnati came on 18 carries on his way to 2,027 yards.
The tackle spot has been particularly hit. One in the rotation, Josh Tupou (knee) is questionable. His replacement, Mike Daniels (groin) has been ruled out by Taylor after playing just one snap Saturday night. It doesn’t sound good for starting three technique, Larry Ogunjobi (foot) after he was carted off the field in the third quarter with an injury still being evaluated.
Fourth-round pick Tyler Shelvin, who has played in three games and was inactive Saturday, is an option and Taylor indicated they could also look outside the club.
Sticking with the Saturday schedule, the Bengals are off Monday, have extended practices Tuesday and Wednesday and then a brief Thursday morning workout before heading to Nashville Friday.
One of the many legacies left by former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is he wanted his players to know who came before them.
The Pro Bowl list in the team’s main auditorium at Paul Brown Stadium is where tight end C.J. Uzomah saw Rodney Holman’s name and that’s why he wore his No. 82 jersey at his postgame news conference that was just as wild as Saturday night’s 26-19 Wild Card victory over the Raiders.
“I’ve seen Rodney Holman’s name since I’ve been here, for seven years. I did some research and I know he was the last tight end to win a playoff game, went to a Super Bowl with the Bengals,” Uzomah said. “I thought it would be a nice tribute of things to come and kind of pay homage and say this is how it’s going to be. We’re going to run the table and win the whole thing.”
Uzomah’s research began with Holman, along with Bob Trumpy regarded as the Bengals’ best all-round tight ends catching and blocking, making it to three straight Pro Bowls from 1988-1990. That spanned the 1988 Super Bowl trip and ’90’s last playoff win. He may have also gleaned that Holman caught Boomer Esiason’s longest pass of that 41-14 win over the Oilers, a 46-yarder during his two-catch, 51-yard day that also involved six rushers going for 187 yards.
Uzomah played like a Pro Bowler Saturday night in the biggest game of his career. He was a perfect underneath weapon for quarterback Joe Burrow’s patience against the Raiders’ stubborn shells in the secondary.
Uzomah’s six catches for 64 yards marked his best day since his 91-yarder in the Oct. 24 win in Baltimore. His seven-yard touchdown catch on third down, smoked through three defenders, was the 10th play of an opening drive quarterback Joe Burrow said set the tone for a night they would score points the first five times they had the ball.
He also helped hold the Raiders’ feared pass rush, No, 1 in the league generating pressure, to two sacks and five hits.
“I feel like I put it in a good spot. I threw it right out of the break,” Burrow said of the dart he threw for the touchdown, “and C.J. did a good job reading the coverage, and understanding that he doesn’t need to go anywhere, just turn around and he’s going to get the ball.”
Uzomah said he had no choice.
“Right when I broke the huddle and saw the coverage I knew it was coming to me. I knew he was going to throw it. I just had to hang on. Right when I turned I saw his eyes and said, yep, touchdown. Let’s go,” Uzomah said. “Joe threw me a dot. That was an incredible throw.”
Maybe even more incredible is Uzomah’s touchdown celebration. It was even better than burying a time capsule under the two-yard-line, site of linebacker Germaine Pratt’s interception with 12 seconds left.
Photos from the Bengals FaceBook Page…
Uzomah wanted to pay homage to both Saturday night’s Ruler of the Jungle, Ickey Woods and his Shuffle, as well as rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase’s New Orleans’ “The Griddy,” that has become the rage with Chase’s 13 touchdowns.
So he started with “The Shuffle,” and merged it with “The Griddy” It also looked like he threw in a chug at the end to honor his old fellow tight end Tyler Eifert, the last Bengal to score 13 touchdowns.
‘Yo, if I score, I’m going to do the Ickey Shuffle into the Griddy.’ He said, ‘Not if, when,’ “Uzomah said of his talk with a friend. “I was like, ‘All right, bet.’ I probably should’ve practiced for sure because that was not well done. But hey, got in the end zone. Screw it.”
CHASE AGAIN: This is why Chase should be everyone’s NFL Rookie of the Year.
The Raiders came out in that first drive and tried to cover him one-on-one and it just doesn’t work with Burrow because they’re one in the same. Chase abused cornerback Brandon Facyson for three catches for 37 yards and Chase was off to the fifth 100-yard game in Bengals postseason history with nine catches for 116 yards. Only Marvin Jones with 130 in 2013 and Cris Collinsworth with 120 in 1982 had more and Chase had more than Collinsworth (107) and tight end Danny Ross (104) in Super Bowl XVI.
Chase said the coverage was no different than what happened in Las Vegas Nov. 21, when he had just three catches for 32 yards with a long of 17.
“We didn’t take advantage of it the first time,” Chase said. “I have that mentality that I’m unstoppable. I don’t think I can be stopped.”
Burrow and Chase didn’t hit the knockout long punch. The long was 28. But they bloodied the Raiders with lethal jabs. The one that that got the TKO and wobbled Vegas came on the Bengals’ utterly necessary scoring drive after the Raiders had cut the lead to 23-16 with 14:17 left in the game.
Six plays and less than three minutes later the Bengals were staring at third-and-seven from their own 39 and Burrow and Chase might as well have been back on the Bayou. Chase ran a go route down the right side but adjusted because he knew Burrow would be going back shoulder and cornerback Desmond Trufant would be screeching past him.
Nineteen yards. The precious points to put them up two scores came five minutes later on Evan McPherson’s 28-yard field goal with 6:46 left. The 7:31 drive did in the Raiders as much as the points.
Burrow: “Ja’Marr did a great job at the line creating some separation, and I had somewhere to put it on the back shoulder, and we’ve hit those all year, so that was a big play in the game.”
All year?
Chase: “I had a go route. Joe threw it back shoulder to slow me down and I adjusted.”
Asked how many times they had done that, Chase said, “Probably 1,000 plus. We did it in college all the time.”
The decision to take Chase with the fifth pick in the last draft keeps paying dividends in this season’s big moments showcasing the pair’s almost supernatural connection.
“College is where you have one of the most fun times, where you get to meet people for a lifetime,” Chase said. “I met Joe at college and I’ll be (friends with him) for a lifetime. He’s helping me grow, I’m helping him grow. We’re getting each other better, getting the organization better, team better and getting better on our own.”
BATES AT HIS BEST: Bengals free safety Jessie Bates III, one of the linchpins of this team since he was drafted in the second round of the 2018 draft, saved the best performance of his fourth season for his first playoff game. He had six tackles and for the second time in his career had three passes defensed. One was bigger than the next.
Two snaps before Pratt’s interception, Bates nearly had one when he knocked it away from wide receiver Zay Jones in the end zone.
Bates ended the first series of the second half in a Raiders punt when he didn’t give up on a third-and-four Raiders quarterback Derek Carr hit wide receiver Hunter Renfrow over the middle to the sidelines. As Renfrow was about to put it away for a 22-yard gain, Bates reached in at the last second and knocked it away as Renfrow was going out of bounds.
“He stood out a lot to me. He made the big play on Renfrow,” said head coach Zac Taylor, “on the third down where it got overturned, and I think he had a play in the fourth quarter on a tight end. You’re right, I’ll certainly know better when I see the tape, but I definitely felt Jessie’s presence.”
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SAM’S NIGHT: If this game belonged to anybody, it was Cincinnati native Sam Hubbard, Bates’ 2018 draft classmate. The Bengals left end typified the city’s resolve when it comes to their team on a night three of his brothers on the defensive line went down.
It started with tackle Mike Daniels, already playing for the injured Josh Tupou, leaving with a groin injury in the first series. Then in rapid succession early in the second half they lost leading sacker Trey Hendrickson to concussion protocol and three technique Larry Ogunjobi to an ankle injury that got him carted off.
Hubbard ended up playing 92 percent of the snaps, 71 of them, and can’t remember coming out in the second half.
“To me personally, it means the world. Never in my lifetime have we had a playoff win,” 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.”
Hubbard was so exhausted he didn’t even know it was third down from the Bengals 10 with 3:42 left in the game and Carr needing three yards for a first down and the Raiders trailing, 26-16.
But Hubbard had enough of a rush that Carr’s pass to tight end Darren Waller hit his helmet and forced a field goal.
“We had a lot of guys go down on the defensive line. Guys stepped up and just had to grind it out,” Hubbard said. “We were trying to keep (Carr) in the pocket, doubling guys on the back end. Just grinding it out, keeping them out of the end zone, doing whatever we could. Everybody’s fighting, clawing together. I think the love we have with each other as teammates is what allowed us to bow up at the end and in the red zone so many times.”
When Carr wheeled them right back down the field, tackle B.J. Hill slowed the momentum with a sack. Both Hill (81 percent of the snaps) and nose tackle D.J. Reader (66) were immense as the only tackles for much of the second half. And rookie edge Cam Sample slid into tackle at times, which he rarely did this year. His 34 snaps (44 percent) were the third most he took this season.
SLANTS AND SCREENS: Chase was surprised his 15-yard run on a jet sweep came on fourth-and-one. It was a well-designed play that began with Burrow under center and when the Raiders tightened up they sent Chase wide right, one of the three times he carried for 23 yards.
“I haven’t played running back for a long time, but they’re giving me those tosses and getting my speed to the outside. Being hit by linebackers, I know how hits feel again. But it’s cool. Go out there and make a play with the ball in my hands,” Chase said. ” I’m built like a running back. They only do it for the receivers who are built like running backs. So I see myself doing it more.” …
Chalk up two more Bengals records for rookie kicker Evan McPherson, who already has the career record with nine field goals of at least 50. His four field goals broke the Bengals postseason record held by Horst Muhlmann in 1973 and Jim Breech’s iconic three in Super Bowl XXIII. His 14 points broke the record of 12 held by four position players: Woods in the 1988 AFC championship game, running back Stanley Wilson in the 1988 AFC Divisional, Danny Ross in Super Bowl XVI and running back Charles Alexander in the 1981 AFC Divisional …
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Bengals Salute Highlights And History With Roaring Wild Card Win
Naturally, the Bengals would win their first playoff game since Sam Wyche, Boomer Esiason, Ickey Woods and, yes, Rodney Holman, when a relentless linebacker not known for coverage but for turnovers ripped the ball from the nephew of a former Bengals quarterback for an interception with 12 seconds left on fourth down and two yards from overtime.
Willie Lutz is a former Loveland resident, a graduate of Loveland High School, and former sportswriter for Loveland Magazine
by Willie Lutz
Those who endured the 12-minute run from the Bengals, who looked lifeless in Miami, down 23 points on a day many at home hoped to be the final loss on one of the worst seasons of the last decade in Cincinnati, despite eight losses being within one possession.
After a 35-38 overtime loss at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the Cincinnati Bengals secured the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, a pick that should bring a new franchise centerpiece, Joe Burrow. LSU’s Heisman-winning quarterback won the nation’s collective hearts with a dazzling senior season, finishing with 4,715 passing yards, 48 touchdowns, completed 77.9% of passes, and averaged 10.7 yards per attempt. With only 6 interceptions and without a loss on his Tigers’ resume, he represents the nation’s top seed in the College Football Playoff as the nation’s best player.
If the jungle kittens don’t win next Sunday…
If the jungle kittens don’t win next Sunday against Cleveland, they’ll have the worst record of any Bengals team ever, though a win would tie the team with the Jon Kitna-led 2002 team who finished 2-14. That finish put Cincinnati in place to draft Heisman winner Carson Palmer with the top pick in the 2003 NFL Draft.
Certainly, a narrative exists in which the Andy Dalton-led Cincinnati Bengals crush the messy Cleveland Browns in a fitting end to the 2019 season. It’ll likely be Dalton’s last game in a striped helmet and the Browns are about to wrap up one of the most embarrassing seasons of NFL football in recent memory. As we learned on Sunday against the Dolphins, Dalton is here to win; he passed for 396 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and completed 33-of-56 passes, nearly leading the team to the biggest comeback victory in team history.
It’ll likely be Dalton’s last game in a striped helmet and the Browns are about to wrap up one of the most embarrassing seasons of NFL football in recent memory.
Dalton will want to impress the potentially red-hot quarterback market, as many teams seem ready to move a different direction with their passers. Teams like the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are among teams that may make a change at QB in the coming months. Potentially, Dalton could head to one of those teams in a favorable trade for the Bengals, as a move could net the team a second or third-round pick if Andy continues to impress against the Browns.
For Cincinnati, loss to Miami made a few things pretty clear; Joe Burrow is obviously the pick at the top of the draft and that this team needs to add more good players to the roster this offseason.
There is obviously bound to be plenty of pressure from a central Ohio-minded fanbase to go with Burrow’s teammate and practice opponent at Ohio State in DE Chase Young. There probably won’t be as much pressure to draft QB Tua Tagovailoa from Alabama, as the 21-year-old quarterback will enter the league with a cumbersome injury resume.
It’s amazing to hear so many college-aged people rave not about the player, but about the human being.
Having graduated from Ohio State in 2019 and thus meeting a handful of people who are friends or former classmates with Burrow, it’s amazing to hear so many college-aged people rave not about the player, but about the human being. What some knew before but many learned during his incredibly touching Heisman speech, Joe Burrow has the heart of a leader and the poise of a title fighter, essentially the intangibles you’d dream of in a franchise quarterback.
Before the season, I think like many people, I thought Dwyane Haskins had a higher upside and was probably a better player than Joe Burrow; it’s impossible for me to feel that way after everything I’ve seen from the senior passer’s closing season at LSU.
Burrow does everything you’d hope from a young quarterback all before NFL refinement.
Navigating the pocket like a pro and keeping his eyes on a level plane while reading the defense, Burrow does everything you’d hope from a young quarterback all before NFL refinement. In Cincinnati, he’ll have the chance to work with Zac Taylor and Brian Callahan, two coaches with backgrounds as quarterback coaches from their earlier days in the NFL (of course both are under 40, so those earlier days aren’t exactly ancient).
“New Dey” promise
When Cincinnati comes to the blatant conclusion that they’ll take Burrow at the top of the draft and set this franchise on a brand-new trajectory, it’ll finally deliver on the “New Dey” promise that became apart of the team’s marketing pitch following Zac Taylor’s hire. As many know by now, Burrow is an Ohio kid and a willing leader; he’s more personable than Palmer ever was and doesn’t bring any baggage to a lockerroom currently loaded with likable personalities.
If this team drifts from Joe Burrow, they’re making a mistake that the 6’3” passer will certainly find a way to make them regret in years down the road.
If this team drifts from Joe Burrow, they’re making a mistake that the 6’3” passer will certainly find a way to make them regret in years down the road. Sure, Ohio State when got lucky when Justin Fields decided to join the Buckeyes via transfer, filling the gap left by the Burrow departure in 2018, but even they might feel the brunt of that move if they advance to the National Championship game. In the NFL, Burrow will have the chance to make the Bengals pay once every four years, at the most minimal rate.
The pick seems obvious to this sports-watcher, draft Joe Burrow and call it a day; it’ll give your team one of the best chances in its history to construct a contending roster. However, like many others, I think this is all just preaching to a Bengals-based choir, one including Duke Tobin, Troy, and Katie Blackburn.
If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes
Willie Lutz is a former Loveland resident, graduate of Loveland High School, and former sports writer for Loveland Magazine
by Willie Lutz
The beginning of the Zac Taylor era in Cincinnati isn’t bringing the sweeping organizational changes some fans might’ve hoped when the team moved on from Marvin Lewis a little under a year ago. The team is off to a 1-13 start with their new head coach, they might lose the second-best player in franchise history after taking one snap in the team’s last 20 games, and they’re still probably not going to spend in free agency.
Further, they’ve got a lot of their cap tied into older players and don’t have a ton of obvious young talent on the roster to try to extend. Trusting Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap, and Shawn Williams to carry this team for the next decade isn’t going to cut it.
Key draft picks like tackle Cedric Ogbuehi, center Billy Price, and tackle Jake Fischer were trusted to be the future of this team’s line, only for the three to get benched over and over again, with Price trending towards the third in the group to be off the team before the decade flips. We won’t even get a chance to see this year’s 11th-overall pick Jonah Williams play a snap until 2020.
They’ve also had issues with buy-in, as veteran linebacker Preston Brown gained weight throughout the season, eventually getting cut from the team, and starting left tackle Cordy Glenn pretended to be so injured that he couldn’t play, only to be called on his bluff by line coach Jim Turner who eventually found a way to put Glenn on notice with a one-game suspensions.
All of that and I can still say, in the words of Dave Lapham, it’s a great day to be a Bengals fan.
Some of the ugliness of the first few weeks was mitigated and the football started to get more watchable (for lack of a better term).
The sky was falling in Cincinnati through the first eleven games of the season. After the team took its trip to London, did some bye week soul searching, and revaluated what they wanted to do with their offense, some of the ugliness of the first few weeks was mitigated and the football started to get more watchable (for lack of a better term). After clearing the hurdle with their first win of the season by taking the top off a rocky New York Jets squad, this team played a better four quarters of football than the Cleveland Browns when they visited First Energy Stadium two Sundays ago, when the men in stripes took a 19-27 loss in the battle of Ohio, a game where Andy Dalton certainly outplayed Baker Mayfield.
Around the trade deadline, players lamented the thought of any of their teammates heading to other destinations almost as much as their own departures.
Right now, I much rather be the Cincinnati Bengals than the Cleveland Browns, if for no other reason than culture alone. The Bengals’ locker room raves about the internal communication, something that was incredibly important in Zac Taylor’s initial statements about the job. Around the trade deadline, players lamented the thought of any of their teammates heading to other destinations almost as much as their own departures.
Trust me, if you’re the Bengals, you’d rather lose that game by 8 than be on the same boat as the Browns, who are drowning under their own ego clashes after coming into the year with mixed playoff and somehow Super Bowl expectations. No one thought the Bengals would be good, but at least this team doesn’t have a star player asking other quarterbacks to lineup a trade for their talents after games.
When Andy Dalton was benched, the team rallied around Ryan Finley. When Andy Dalton was renamed the starter, the team rallied around Andy with excitement you wouldn’t expect from a winless team who ranked 32nd in the league in just about every statistical category.
Not to mention, this team is really starting to play some good football. Not without their stupid mistakes, of course, but the combination of Joe Mixon getting going in the rushing game and the defense starting to kick some tail, they’ve become a pretty tough team to beat over the last five weeks.
If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes.
If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes.
In sports, there is no worse place to be than in the middle. That’s why the Miami Dolphins are bottoming out, that’s why the Philadelphia 76ers did the process, it’s why the Baltimore Ravens took Lamar Jackson in 2018. You can choose to be average or you can choose to be extraordinary, but extraordinary is always going to take more work. Eventually, franchises are forced to take a hard look in the mirror and decide what they want to be; usually, the answer is a title contender.
Could the Bengals have gone to Zac Taylor and given him a playoff-level roster headed into week one? Sure, but then all you’re doing is betting on Andy Dalton to take you into January, which has resulted in the same thing over and over again, a playoff loss.
Bottoming out for one season to take a franchise-changing player is a tried and true formula, even with varying results.
Bottoming out for one season to take a franchise-changing player is a tried and true formula, even with varying results. While teams are increasingly striking gold atop the draft, there’s still a Ryan Leaf for every Peyton Manning.
However, with what we’ve seen from LSU quarterback Joe Burrow this year, it looks closer to the latter than the former. If Burrow is the next quarterback of the Bengals, he should be thrilled for the opportunity to succeed in Cincinnati. On top, his coach will be Zac Taylor, who spent a large portion of the beginning of his career, including with the 2018 NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams, as a quarterback coach. Further, in the Bengals locker room, there’s a lot of interesting young talent teams around the league would clamor over, even if that’s not resulting in wins at the moment.
Whatever passer winds up in the Bengals backfield next season is going to be in a situation to succeed.
In his first year in Cincinnati, Burrow (or any quarterback the team drafts) will have incredible weapons like John Ross (who’s made a significant leap in limited year-three reps), Tyler Boyd, A.J. Green (we assume), Auden Tate (another guy who made a leap), and Joe Mixon coming out of the backfield.
Clearly heading towards a quarterback selection in the 2020 NFL Draft after Ryan Finley showed as an incapable starting option, whatever passer winds up in the Bengals backfield next season is going to be in a situation to succeed.
