Raiders coach hilariously admits he doesn't want to see Bengals QB Joe Burrow any sooner than he has to
We've already seen Macaulay Culkin cosplay as Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow this Halloween, and we now know how scary that is for Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. The play-caller of the upcoming defense Burrow will face had a funny answer when asked about the best costume he's seen on today's holiday. "If […]
We've already seen Macaulay Culkin cosplay as Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow this Halloween, and we now know how scary that is for Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. The play-caller of the upcoming defense Burrow will face had a funny answer when asked about the best costume he's seen on today's holiday.
"If one of them came in dressed as Joe Burrow today, that would be frightening," Graham said. "Like s–t, he's here today."
Nothing screams respect from a coach like fear. Graham and the rest of the NFL knows how good Burrow has been this year as the new leader in QBR and one of the leaders in EPA/play.
Funny enough, Graham's never actually seen Burrow for himself in the flesh.
Graham last coached against the Bengals back in 2020 as the New York Giants DC, but Burrow had already suffered his season-ending knee injury by then. He stayed in New York in 2021 and has been the Raiders DC since 2022.
The good news for Graham, however, is the Bengals' offense is still in a rut despite Burrow playing well. They haven't scored more than two touchdowns on offense since Week 5. The idea of playing Jermaine Burton more often is promising, but more of a projection for how the unit can improve.
Regardless, game-planning against Burrow is as difficult as it gets from a coordinator's perspective. The Raiders are pretty middle-of-the-pack in terms of EPA/dropback and dropback success rate allowed this year, but they also blitz at an extremely high rate. Burrow is notoriously good at facing the blitz and is averaging 9.6 yards per attempt with a 73.2% completion rate this season against it.
Just another reason for Graham to be afraid of Cincinnati's signal-caller.
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