Joe Burrow being stripped of his superpower yet again leads to Bengals' latest demoralizing loss
It was a simple moment. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's recall of it proved that."[I] threw it to Ja'Marr and he got tackled."The situation was just as simple. The Bengals, down 24-17 on their own 39-yard line, needed one yard on fourth down. Falling short would give the Philadelphia Eagles offense a great chance at […]
It was a simple moment. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's recall of it proved that.
"[I] threw it to Ja'Marr and he got tackled."
The situation was just as simple. The Bengals, down 24-17 on their own 39-yard line, needed one yard on fourth down. Falling short would give the Philadelphia Eagles offense a great chance at scoring for the fourth consecutive drive and make it a two-score game with one quarter to play.
Cincinnati did fall short, and in an all too familiar way.
The play that led to another Bengals loss
Burrow did exactly what he said he did. The play was a quick swing pass to wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who got tackled behind the line of scrimmage almost right after he caught the ball.
Only one yard was needed, but Chase was tasked with gaining at least four while two unblocked defenders stood in his way. He lost two instead.
"They were playing man," Burrow said. "Their guy made a good play. We weren't able to convert there."
Their guy, Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean, did make a good play. That he was able to make that play in the first place is the same old problem for the Bengals in these situations.
In an absolutely critical moment of the afternoon, the Bengals decided to make things easy for the Eagles. Instead of allowing Burrow to make a play himself like he was doing all day with both his legs and his arm, they had him getting the ball out as quick as possible. Even worse, the first option of the play was to throw short of the sticks and the line of scrimmage.
That's tough to do on fourth-and-1, but Zac Taylor and the play-calling braintrust gave it a shot. The bullet struck them in their own foot.
"Felt like we needed to be aggressive there, it didn't work out," Taylor told reporters after the game. "So that's frustrating, and so, again, I put that on myself. Situation where I felt like we need to be aggressive, you're gonna score on that possession given we were down seven, and anytime doesn't go well, obviously, you're thinking long and hard about the decision."
Taylor did say Chase was just one of the options on the play, not the only one, but with how quickly Burrow went to him, it was clear that the call was designed for Chase to pick up the yardage. The decision to be aggressive won't be celebrated if you're handcuffing yourself in the process.
What ensued was expected. The Eagles built on their lead to make it a 10-point deficit. Burrow and Chase tried to rekindle their magic on the next drive with a downfield go ball but the Eagles made another great play to intercept the pass.
The road to a 37-17 loss was on, and everyone can pinpoint to where the avalanche began.
Something similar happened three weeks ago the last time the Bengals played at home. The Bengals ran on three consecutive plays in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens and settled for a 53-yard field goal that Evan McPherson would miss. On a day when Burrow was lighting up the Ravens' secondary, the most important series featured him handing the ball off.
A swing pass behind the line of scrimmage right after the snap is not that different. The Eagles didn't have to defend against Burrow's post-snap wizardry, only react to a play that was much harder for the Bengals to execute than it was for the Eagles to defend.
To make matters worse, the play that preceded it was a failed run call coming out of a timeout. These plays were thought out with time, and they fell embarrassingly short.
If this isn't a microcosm of the Bengals' current inadequacies, nothing is. Burrow can pull rabbits out of hats all day long and operate an offense without a sufficient run game or without a reliable second receiver while Tee Higgins nurses an injury. It all can easily be undone when defenses don't have to worry about him.
Burrow had a spectacular day in precarious situations. The Bengals converted nine of Burrow's 11 drop backs on third down, and most of them were third-and-longs. He put together another signature moment by buying time on third-and-22 and finding tight end Mike Gesicki for the conversion.
How is it more comforting to have Burrow make chicken soup out of chicken s—t than it is when the Bengals need one yard in a gotta-have-it scenario? Because there's more confidence in Burrow making the right decision than there is in Taylor and Co. making the decision for him.
That's how the Bengals stay competitive. Burrow's ability to make plays on his own is his superpower. A failed run and poor design on back-to-back plays are just the latest pieces of evidence that it gets stripped far too often.
Time and time again this proves to be the case, and the Bengals are have deflated to 3-5 and 0-4 at home because of it.
