The Cincinnati Bengals are 4-8 and their playoff hopes are nearly non-existent at this point. This is not the way that Bengals fans were expecting their 2024 season to go considering they had a healthy Joe Burrow back in the lineup and were facing a fourth-place schedule. It felt like this could be a special season for the Bengals.
Sadly, the season has not panned out the way fans thought it would. This is even more disappointing when seeing the kind of numbers that Burrow is putting up on a weekly basis. The former number-one overall pick has been destroying defenses this year, throwing for 3,337 yards, 30 touchdowns, and five interceptions while rushing for 160 yards and another score with his legs.
Very few people would put the Bengals' struggles on Burrow but evidently, Shannon Sharpe of First Take is one of those few people. Sharpe laid into Burrow on Monday morning's show, pointing out that his strip-sack in the Week 2 loss to Kansas City and pick-6 against Baltimore in Week 5 were Burrow's fault.
Sharpe putting the blame on Burrow drove co-host Dan Orlovsky nuts, as the former NFL quarterback was doing all he could to defend Burrow. Orlovsky asked Sharpe what more Burrow could be doing to help this team and that's when Sharpe mentioned the key turnovers above.
Shannon Sharpe blames Joe Burrow for Bengals' 4-8 start
Okay, let's just start by saying that Sharpe is absolutely crazy for this take. Yes, Burrow was responsible for the strip sack and the pick-6 in those games listed above but those losses were not on him in the slightest. The 4-8 record can be put squarely on the defense.
As Orlovsky points out in the segment, the Bengals have lost six games despite scoring at least 25 points and have lost four games despite scoring at least 33 points (and have two losses despite the offense putting up 38 points). Burrow has done his part in these games, it's been the defense that has failed to show up.
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Bengals fans are going to look back at this offense and wonder what could have been if the team had a defense that was average or even just slightly below average. Burrow and the offense can score points in a hurry and have done their best to give their team a chance to win.
I'm not sure how Sharpe can look at this team and think that Burrow is to blame. This is absolutely a wild take and a very wrong one at that.