Joe Burrow told the whole world he was back with one throw, and the rest of the NFL should be on notice
Joe Burrow threw a dart for his second touchdown in the Bengals’ win over the Ravens.
The Cincinnati Bengals can truly be a force when Joe Burrow is on his game. We saw that again in the second half of Cincy’s 34-12 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night.
Burrow completed nine of 14 passes for 96 yards and two touchdowns after halftime in Baltimore, but one throw in particular showed Burrow’s classic pre-snap genius and post-snap precision is still very much within him after missing two months with turf toe.
A to Z NFL’s Kyle Crabbs broke down the play for us, from the hidden details, to how Burrow pulled off one of his best highlights in recent memory.
Joe Burrow reminded everyone who he is with his touchdown to Andrei Iosivas
KC: The Ravens chose to fly a little too close to the sun on this one. In a one-score game and the Bengals facing a third-and-9 from the 29-yard line, Baltimore chose to show and ultimately bring pressure against Burrow. The hope in situations like these is that you can create a sack, you can knock the opposing team out of scoring territory. And the Ravens nearly did. Cincinnati shifted running back Samaje Perine from split out wide and into the backfield while placing tight end Drew Sample in the A-gap to Burrow’s left, just behind the center. It was an obvious tell for a loaded up 7-man protection as an answer to Baltimore’s pressure alignment defensively, with linebacker Roquan Smith and safety Kyle Hamilton mugged up in the A-gaps.
So the Ravens checked their blitz. And Burrow, simultaneously, appeared to check the play. Nickelback Marlon Humphrey crept in from overtop of wide receiver Andrei Iosivas from the defensive left and fired as a nickel pressure at the snap. Baltimore chose to bring edge pressure as a response to the Bengals loading Sample and Perine in the backfield to protect the A-gaps. And that meant that Smith, from the A-gap, was charged to drop out and try to run with Iosivas from the slot on a seam. The Bengals hit deep safety Malaki Starks with two vertical threats, with Iosivas as the inside threat and wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley running what would become a deep in as the No. 1 on the outside. The stress from both pulled Starks to split the difference and turn over all inside leverage on the coverage of Iosivas to Smith.
Asking a linebacker to play in phase with a receiver is an ambitious ask in any scenario. But asking Smith to stay attached to one while starting the play mugged up as a pressure threat at the line of scrimmage is a superhuman assignment. Burrow’s ball placement was in stride and the Bengals blew the game open as a result.
JS: This was the throw right here. Burrow was, in his own words, “antsy” during the first half of the game and his usual accuracy and touch weren’t on full display. He had already thrown a touchdown to Tanner Hudson earlier in the third quarter, but this dart to Iosivas is what truly turned heads from every direction.
And still, most of the impressive work happened before the play even began.
Burrow vs. the Ravens has been a constant chess match. Baltimore was one of the best defenses to bottle up the Bengals’ passing game when Mike Macdonald was the defensive coordinator from 2022-23. Since Macdonald was hired as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Burrow has averaged 360.3 yards per game against the Ravens and has thrown 11 touchdowns to just one interception.
He’s a problem for Baltimore to deal with, and once he got his feet back under him late in the game, that problem proved too much to handle.
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