With Joe Burrow looking like his best self, the Bengals level up as contenders

[Arkansas Bengal]

Charlie Goldsmith, Cincinnati Enquirer

Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 6:25 PM CDT·6 min read

 

 

SANTA CLARA –– Back in the offseason, the Cincinnati Bengals’ coaching staff molded a new-look offense that would feature quarterback Joe Burrow’s athleticism in a brand new way.

 

When Burrow strained his calf during the first week of training camp, the Bengals had to put all of those changes on hold. For the entire month of September, the Bengals had to work around a quarterback who physically couldn’t scramble or line up under center. All of the new ideas –– including an emphasized play action game, a more varied rushing attack and new ways to feature wide receiver Tee Higgins –– would have to wait until Burrow was fully healthy again.

 

Coming out of the bye week, a fully-healed Burrow was ready to run the offense that the Bengals envisioned using during the summer. In a 31-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Death Star was fully operational.

 

“Explosiveness and acceleration were a big focus of mine in the offseason,” Burrow said. “I just hadn’t been able to show that too much. It was nice to have that hard work pay off.”

 

Facing one of the five best defenses in the NFL, Burrow completed 28 of his 32 passes for 283 yards with three touchdowns and had one of the best games of his career. He showed an incredible combination of efficiency, aggressiveness, accuracy and confidence that few other quarterbacks can match.

 

The Bengals caught the 49ers off-guard with a new-look scheme that featured under-center snaps and more play action passes, and the Bengals scored on their first two possessions.

 

The 49ers made adjustments at halftime that created more pressure and kept the Bengals’ offense in check in the third quarter. But linebackers Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt picked up the team with interceptions on incredible reads by each of them over the middle of the field. Then, a fake screen touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase in the middle of the fourth quarter put a stamp on the game as the Bengals took a 24-10 lead.

 

 

“Explosiveness and acceleration were a big focus of mine in the offseason. I just hadn’t been able to show that too much (because of the calf injury)," Joe Burrow said of his mobility Sunday. Albert Cesare/The Enquirer

 

When the 49ers responded with a touchdown, running back Joe Mixon bounced to the perimeter for two game-clinching runs, including an 11-yard touchdown where Burrow lined up under center.

 

The entire game ran through Burrow. He nearly set a franchise record with 19-straight completions, and Burrow showed the combination of aggressiveness and creativity that make him one of the best players in the NFL.

 

“When you’re out there playing football, you're just having fun,” Chase said. “That’s something he always used to say that has stuck with me. When you’re having the most fun, you don’t realize what you’re doing. Like I said to him on the field, ‘Welcome back, bro.’ It’s a blessing seeing him play this football again.”

 

Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1) congratulates wide receiver Tyler Boyd after Boyd scored the Bengals' first touchdown in the first quarter. Albert Cesare/The Enquirer

 

Three weeks ago, when the Bengals faced the Arizona Cardinals and Burrow showed that he could scramble again, Burrow made the coaches panic with a play he attempted on the first series of the game. With the Bengals in the red zone, Burrow scrambled. Head coach Zac Taylor and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan both shouted out loud, “Throw it away! Throw it away!”

 

When Burrow scrambled on 3rd and 10 on the Bengals’ opening possession on Sunday, Taylor said that he knew Burrow was going to try to make an aggressive play.

 

Burrow pushed away one defensive lineman, rolled around another and stepped through a third tackle attempt before finding wide receiver Tee Higgins down the field for a first down. It was the type of magic that makes Burrow an MVP candidate, and the play saved a drive that resulted in a touchdown throw to wide receiver Tyler Boyd as the Bengals took a 7-0 lead.

 

“He’s not from this world,” Higgins said. “He makes stuff happen. That 3rd and 10 play, nobody does that.”

 

 

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) catches a pass as San Francisco 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward (7) defends in the first quarter of the NFL game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Oct 29, 2023. (Credit: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer)

 

 

Several of Burrow's completions came on fresh play designs for the Bengals’ offense. Earlier this season, the offense looked stuck when it tried to lean on its signature go balls and back shoulder throws. The shotgun run game looked stale. The offense had to change.

 

On Sunday, the Bengals used fake screens, quarterback draws and more play action throws on the move than the offense had used all year. Burrow had emphatic celebrations after each of his first-down runs. After he didn’t feel like himself for the entire first month of the season due to his calf injury, Burrow finally gets to see the results of what he worked on during the offseason

 

“I worked really hard on that all offseason,” Burrow said. “For four or five weeks, I wasn’t able to really show that. When you see hard work pay off, it’s exciting.”

 

 

Joe Burrow completed 28 of his 32 passes for 283 yards with three touchdowns in arguably one of the best games of his career. Albert Cesare/The Enquirer

 

The Bengals have a track record of making sweeping, season-changing adjustments to the offense over the course of the season. In 2021, the Bengals embraced more empty formations, used more power run concepts and expanded Chase’s role within the offense. Last season, the Bengals abandoned their under center offense in Week 5 and made a run to the AFC title game with a shotgun, RPO-driven attack.

 

This year, coming out of the bye week, the Bengals’ offense looked like a brand new unit right from the jump. More play action passes, more mobility from Burrow and the re-emergence of an under center run game made the Bengals look like one of the best offenses in the NFL.

 

The Bengals have barely lined up under center since Week 2 of last season, and the adjustment helped the Bengals establish a power run game. Mixon had 87 yards on 5.4 yards per carry, and the threat of the Bengals’ rushing attack set up play action passes to Chase and Higgins.

 

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to coach Callahan, coach Taylor and Frank (Pollack),” Bengals center Ted Karras said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game. I think that’s the best front seven in football. We had some new stuff. Joe is feeling great and doing what he does. I’m really happy with the performance.”

 

 

Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon (28) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the NFL game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the San Francisco 49ers at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Oct 29, 2023.

 

Even while the Bengals faced one of the five best defenses in the NFL, the offense looked like a unit that could carry the team on a deep playoff run. With a 4-3 record, the Bengals are back in a familiar place.

 

They have an offense that’s heating up heading into the second half of the season. Burrow looks like himself. And while the structure of the offense looks different, they’ve put another slow start to the season behind them and reestablished themselves as Super Bowl contenders.

 

Now halfway through the regular season, Burrow and the Bengals are both right where they hoped they would be with all of their goals for the season ahead of them.

 

“We know how high our level of football is when we get Joe back to being who he is,” Boyd said. “The sky is the limit.”

 

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/offense-evolves-cincinnati-bengals-level-232547198.html

[I_C_Deadpeople]

From Peter Kings FMIA:

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/fmia/news/fmia-week-8-dramatic-turns-for-burrow-and-bengals-cousins-and-vikings

 

After 40 years covering this game, I’ve come to realize how maddeningly interesting and capricious it is. Take Cincinnati-San Francisco in California Sunday. The game turned on a shake of the shoulder by one of the great players today, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who’s spent the last three games reaffirming his greatness.

Reaffirming is right, because Burrow spent the first month of the season as a liability, not a cornerstone. And on a knock-down, drag-out afternoon, with Joe Montana and old 49er friends celebrating Super Bowls past from a box upstairs, Burrow did something with 13 minutes left that Joe Cool would have done. The great ones make plays like this almost without thinking. That’s part of their brilliance.

Cincinnati was up, 17-10, and trying to put the game away after a Brock Purdy interception gave the Bengals the ball at the Niners’ 17. On first down, Ja’Marr Chase lined up split right with Tyler Boyd a step behind him and just to the right. At the snap, Burrow’s eyes bore a hole through Boyd, just the way coach and play-caller Zac Taylor designed it.

“Just trying to sell the perimeter screen,” Burrow said nonchalantly (does he ever speak in any other tone?) over the phone, an hour after the game.

And as Boyd took a step back, like he was about to catch a laser from Burrow, the QB almost imperceptibly began his throwing motion to Boyd, with corner Charvarius Ward moving forward to shadow the WR. “Yeah,” Burrow said, “I gave a little pump fake.” Very little. Still, the shoulder tic looked like it froze the corner covering Chase, Isaiah Oliver, for a split second while Chase zoomed toward the right corner of the end zone. Burrow lofted a strike to Chase, who must have found it odd to not be skin-to-skin with a corner in the end zone. He caught it unchallenged. Ballgame.

“What was cool,” Burrow said, “is it happened exactly how we practiced it. Our guys did a great job of selling it. It’s no secret we like to throw those kinds of routes to Ja’Marr—it’s a big part of what we do. In that situation, a great call by Zac.”

In that situation, great execution by Burrow. He’s just so confident, so unshakeable. Now that Burrow’s achy calf muscle that erased training camp and made him ineffective for the Bengals’ toothless 1-3 start has faded—faded is right, because it’s not altogether gone—Cincinnati should be serious contenders again. The 31-17 win Sunday and Burrow’s brilliant show (28 of 32, 87.5-percent accuracy, three TDs, no picks) gave him a 111.8 rating in the team’s three-game winning streak.

“It’s tough,” Burrow said, “when you have an injury and you’re playing through it. You obviously can’t do some things that normally you can. But we got through it. We got through it healthy and we’re on the other side now, it feels like. My strength is still coming along. In the offseason, I worked the most on athleticism and explosiveness and so it was tough to not be able to show that over the first couple weeks. I was able to show that today and it’s nice seeing hard work pay off.”

Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, all 4-3, trail 6-2 Baltimore in the AFC North, approaching midseason. Burrow’s return to health could be the decisive factor in who wins the division. “We’re exactly where we need to be,” Burrow said. “And we’re going to keep getting better.” After watching him shred the Niners, it’s hard to doubt him.

[PatternMaster]

 

[Jamie_B]

17 minutes ago, PatternMaster said:

 

 

 

Love those fucking movies.