Joe Burrow isn’t ready to toss out the Bengals’ under-center offense just because it stumbled in Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Cincinnati spent the offseason trying to clean up the wrinkles in that look, and Burrow made it clear the team isn’t walking away from it now. The Bengals quarterback said the issue isn’t the concept itself - it’s execution.
“We obviously have to be better at it,” Burrow said. “We’re still going to stick with it and keep getting reps invested in that.
I think it’s very valuable, so we have to be able to do it. But we need to do better.”
The way the Jaguars game played out made the situation tougher. Cincinnati couldn’t get the run game going, then found itself chasing points while the defense wasn’t going to keep Jacksonville down often enough, especially with Cam Little able to drill the kind of long field goals that might normally have turned into punts.
Once the Bengals were in that spot, Burrow and the offense had to take over. If the ground game had been working, there would have been more of the under-center package on display.
That same need to keep the offense moving could open the door for a different Bengals pass-catcher this week. The team may be without two of its top three options on Sunday, and possibly all three, which means there should be targets available. That gives Young a chance to carve out a bigger role with a strong showing.
“We came off of two losses, and we really need to get that rebound. If we don’t have those big guys out there, we still need to be able to perform.
So, being out there, having one of the best quarterbacks, we need to be able to perform on his level,” Young said. “That’s what I was hoping when I was coming into this league.
I know that we got guys. It’s a long season, so there was always going to be a possibility there.
So I’m happy that it’s coming sooner rather than later.”
Young knows what the moment calls for, and Sunday against the Dolphins will be a useful test of how he and Burrow fit together before the bye week.
On the other side of the ball, the Bengals still have a familiar problem in the middle of the field. Tight ends have given them trouble, and the tackling hasn’t helped.
Cincinnati did make upgrades on defense, but the linebacker spot was left to two second-year players to make a major leap, and Jordan Battle was installed as the starting safety. Battle missed on at least two big plays that turned into 3rd-and-long conversions.
The issue isn’t only coverage. The Bengals aren’t finishing tackles there, either.
Around the league, Burrow’s Sunday performance was enough to knock him out of the top 10 in the Week 5 QB rankings, which the ranking noted was fair. It was a strong outing overall aside from a couple of throws, but the late red-zone interception was a tough mistake to overlook.
There’s also trouble brewing in Pittsburgh, where things are starting to unravel a bit. That makes Week 3’s loss sting even more, especially with Aarond Rodgers and TJ Watt both having outbursts during the game. The bigger issue there is the lack of discipline from some veterans.
Baltimore also made a move, acquiring a veteran center who figures to matter moving forward. Cam Jurgens was described as a response to the need to handle interior rushers that are common in the AFC North, including Dexter Lawrence.
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Joe Burrow Gave Bengals Fans A Laugh They Really Needed
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Bengals Loss Still Revealed One Encouraging Change On Defense
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Jonathan Allen stood out as the most disruptive piece of the group, leading the defense in pressures and earning the top defensive grade in the game. For a Bengals defense looking for steadier impact up front, that kind of production offered a glimpse of what the unit can look like when the line is winning individual matchups, even if the overall scoreboard outcome still went the wrong way. [Read more 🡒]