Now as the Bengals (3-5) prepare to host the Raiders (2-6) on Sunday, Burrow can only daydream of those days three years ago when he didn’t have to convince people that anything was possible. Cincinnati has a long way to go to prove that again.
“A fun game,” Burrow recalled of the wild card playoff win against Las Vegas. “We played well. Came out on top. The fans were great that day. It was an exciting atmosphere. Fun to be a part of that excitement and energy. I just feel like I want to get back to that moment. Get back to our fans believing in that moment and put ourselves in that position.”
On paper, the matchup is between two struggling teams, but in reality, there is just as much at stake. Burrow believes the Bengals need 10 wins to make the playoffs this year, which would require winning seven of the final nine games.
The margins for error are growing smaller every week, and ESPN Research suggests the Bengals now have only a 27 percent chance of making the playoffs as things stand now. Las Vegas leads the league in turnovers and is one of the teams worse off than Cincinnati in a lot of ways, but the Bengals haven’t been consistent enough in any regard to suggest the seven-point favorites will live up to the betting line predictions.
As much as coach Zac Taylor wishes to downplay the pressure mounting on his team, Burrow said the urgency is “as high as it can be.”
“This is a must-win game,” Burrow said. “We’re 3-5. You go to 3-6, then you’ve got to basically win out to get in. So the urgency is very high every week from here on out.”
Cincinnati then has to turn around on short rest to play Baltimore on the road in a primetime game Thursday.
Burrow believes the playoffs are still an attainable goal because of the talent he’s surrounded by, and their own team history has shown surprise runs are possible. The Bengals were 4-4 at this point in 2022 after a terrible loss at Cleveland, and they rebounded to win 10 straight games to claim a second straight AFC North title and get back to the AFC Championship, where the run finally ended.
An AFC North title isn’t in reach right now with the Pittsburgh Steelers sitting in first at 6-2 and the Ravens following at 5-3, but the Bengals haven’t played the Steelers yet and still have series finales against both Baltimore and Cleveland (2-6).
Burrow said he has somewhat of an awareness of how the playoff picture looks in the AFC, but it’s too bleak to be following closely.
“You pay attention to your division,” Burrow said. “You don’t really pay attention to anything else around it. You watch the games. I couldn’t tell you what everybody’s record is across the AFC. I can tell you the divisional opponents, where they’re sitting at. But I don’t think we can look at that right now. I think what we have to do is focus on what we need to do every single day to try to improve and try to put yourselves in a better position for Sunday.”
Burrow seems to know he’s not getting any outside help before the trade deadline Tuesday. When asked his thoughts on other top teams in the AFC making moves to improve, Burrow nodded at the fact the Bills, Chiefs and Ravens traded for top talent and said it’s not his job to think about that.
The fifth-year quarterback has done just about everything possible to put the Bengals in good positions to win games this year and still only walked off the field smiling three times. According to Pro Football Focus, Burrow is the top-graded passer in the league this season, posting an 88.9 offensive grade and 88.3 passing grade while completing 70.3 percent of his passes for 1,994 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions.
Those numbers have come while missing Tee Higgins for three games, all losses, and trying to make up for a struggling defense. Burrow said he doesn’t think about whether that is wearing on him more than past years, but offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said he does what he can to prevent that from happening.
“It’s certainly our goal to do whatever we can to make the jobs of our players, I don’t want to say easy, but we want to put them in position to have success,” Pitcher said. “The quarterback is no different. … Sometimes game situation is going to dictate that you have to put more on that guy’s plate because there’s less time on the clock. There’s more that needs to be accomplished. The fastest way to accomplish it is to put the ball in your best player’s hands. But I don’t set out saying, ‘Alright, let’s just roll it out there to Joe today, and it’s on him.’ To me, that’s BS. That’s me not doing my job.
“You have to know who your best players are. You have to design it around your best players, but then you also have to take everything into account and do your absolute best to help them have success. I feel like we’ve gone into these games doing that and then you adjust once you’re in the game. And you make decisions. There’s not a single decision that’s been made that hasn’t been what we think is optimal to try to win the game. So, we’re gonna try to help our guys as best we can. Joe is no different.”
Burrow will still try to play Superman as long as he can.
SUNDAY’S GAME
Raiders at Bengals, 1 p.m., FOX, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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