Joe Burrow waltzed onto the football field this past Saturday afternoon to the wonderful sounds of nonstop booing and vivacious curse words. While they were all used in an attempt to distract and discourage him, he smiled through it all as he led the Cincinnati Bengals to a win over Tennessee Titans.
It wasn’t the prettiest game in the world. In fact, it was downright ugly at times. Although Burrow wasn’t able to light up the scoreboard, a win is a win. Now, for the first time in roughly a million years, okay, 33, the Bengals find themselves in the AFC Championship Game.
It’s time to break out our pad and paper and give him his grade.
What grade should we give Burrow for surviving that sacks onslaught?
Joe Burrow may have signed up to play against the Tennessee Titans, but he had no idea that the 85 Bears were going to show up. There’s a reason why Joe Burrow is nicknamed “Joe Cool,” simply put, he’s calm under pressure and never appears rattled. That said, he was consistently forced to run for his life.
In an effort to buy time, Burrow stepped up in the pocket, ball faked and attempted to ward off defenders that were perpetually trying to take his head off. With nine sacks in the game, the Titans tied the postseason record for the most sacks in a single game, they also became the first team to lose with that many sacks as well.
Despite it all, Burrow consistently pushed the ball down the field, resulting in 348 passing yards. Even more impressive, Burrow completed 28 of his 37 passes. That’s right, Burrow had as many incompletions as the Titans defense had sacks.
Time and time again, Burrow dusted himself off, cleaned the grass off of his helmet, and continued to throw it all over the field. His passing numbers were terrific but we have to tip our caps in the direction of the Titans defense for preventing Burrow from throwing a touchdown all game long for only the second time this season.
In terms of his grade, we were on the verge of handing Burrow an A but then we remembered what took place with the game on the line. With only 20 seconds remaining on the clock and the ball on the Bengals 47-yard line, Burrow connected with receiver Ja’Marr Chase for 19 yards. From there, it was all she wrote as Evan McPherson netted a 52-yard field goal.
You mean to tell us that Burrow was sacked a record amount of times and found a way to connect on 75.6% of his passes to go along with a walk-off win? How can we not give him an A+?