CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow had plenty of fun on Sunday.
The Bengals star posted one of his most efficient NFL outings a week after his second-worst career game against the Ravens. Cincinnati won 45-21 on Sunday, thanks in large part to Burrow going 25-32 passing through the air for 309 yards and four touchdowns (87.6 ESPN QBR).
It’s hard not to have fun when you perform like that and get to watch the last few drives from the sidelines.
“It was fun. I’m having fun playing football. Not playing football is not fun. Sitting in the locker room rehabbing all day, that’s not why you do it. This is why you do it right here,” Burrow said about the game.
Cincinnati posted its highest point total of the Zac Taylor era and funneled three of those touchdowns through Chase Brown for his first three-touchdown performance in the league.
He takes a little bit of pressure off of Burrow when there are no good options downfield.
“Yeah, really provides us a lot of versatility,” Burrow said about Brown. “We’ve been able to put two backs on the field, because we feel good about Samaje (Perine) and obviously feel good about Chase (Brown). It provides challenges for the defense, how they’re going to take that, how they’re going to play that with their personnel, what coverages they’re going to play with that, because if I was a defense, I wouldn’t feel great about a linebacker covering Chase in space.
“He proved that on his receiving touchdown today. Another guy who just loves to improve, Chase’s first year, I’m not sure he caught a ball in practice. He came out the next year, and he’s catching everything. Really took that to heart and has improved, turning into the player he is now.”
Brown had 109 total yards and the three scores.
Cincinnati’s offense is very tough to stop when he’s playing alongside Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Ja’Marr Chase. Add in the continued improvements along the offensive line, and there is a ton to work with next season. All of the key stars are under contract offensively, as always, it’s the defense that needs to up its pace to catch up.
“Yeah, you just see how it changes how defenses play and all the different things that they’re worried about and all the different looks that we showed. It provides us more versatility, more things we can do, personnel packages, it just really opens it up for us,” Burrow said about a healthy weapon group.
He and the rest of the Bengals play their second-to-last game of the season on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against the Cardinals.
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