Bengals: Joe Burrow kept his word to Tee Higgins and the NFL should be terrified
Last week was the warning, and this week was the confirmation: Tee Higgins is very much back. Higgins led the Cincinnati Bengals in receiving with 110 yards and eight receptions during the team's 24-18 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Only one of his targets fell incomplete, a drastic difference compared to the inefficient outings he had […]
Last week was the warning, and this week was the confirmation: Tee Higgins is very much back.
Higgins led the Cincinnati Bengals in receiving with 110 yards and eight receptions during the team's 24-18 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Only one of his targets fell incomplete, a drastic difference compared to the inefficient outings he had to start the year.
A night like this only happens when the receiver and quarterback are on the same page. Higgins and Joe Burrow were on the same paragraph and line of dialogue for 60 minutes, and it all started before kickoff.
Following the big win, Burrow explained that his plan was to get Higgins involved early and often. The fourth-year receiver has been recovering from a rib fracture, and he looked very much recovered under the lights at Paycor Stadium.
"I told Tee coming into the game, he was feeling good, so I was gonna feed him the ball today," Burrow said during his post-game presser. "And he came up big for us, stepped up big for us. He's going to continue to do that, he always does, I have a lot of faith in that guy."
It would've been one thing to force-feed Higgins regardless of what Buffalo was doing defensively. The plan was executed to near perfection because of how the Bills were treating Higgins and fellow receiver Ja'Marr Chase. Higgins saw plenty of one-on-one looks, specifically on the boundary, and was able to win nearly all of them with accurate throws from Burrow.
Chase's stats would indicate he was on the back burner in this game. He caught four passes for 41 yards, but was just behind Higgins in targets with eight. Buffalo ended up succeeded in limiting Cincinnati's top weapon, but stopping this offense altogether is a futile task when Higgins is causing fits on the other side of the field.
Burrow ended up with 348 yards and two touchdowns, the most yardage he's ever had in a game in which Chase failed to post 50 yards of his own. Higgins being capable of exceeding the century mark is a luxury very few other teams can enjoy.
It's a reminder to the rest of the league: The Bengals have too many playmakers to stop when things are clicking.
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