Cooper Neal/Getty Photo Agency
Joe Burrow knows the Cincinnati Bengals can play better.
“It’s only two weeks, obviously not where we want to be, nor close to our standards, But we still have 15 weeks of football,” he said on The Colin Cowherd Podcast . “A lot of football.” Cincinnati seems poised to be the best team in the NFL this season one. After all, it just debuted at the Super Bowl and has many of the same key contributors back, including Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Mixon, and Tee Higgins.
However, the team went 0-2 in two games and lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime by three points Lost to the Dallas Cowboys.
The biggest problem was Burrow’s lack of protection as he was fired seven times in the loss to the Steelers, He was fired six times in the loss to the Cowboys. It’s not going to be easy for a brand new offensive line to start the new season against TJ Watt and Micah Parsons, as the first two games proved.
“I wouldn’t say he’s better in person because I saw him in the movie and knew exactly what he was going to be,” Burrow said of Parsons. “He’s an incredibly tall, strong and quick player. It’s not a dimension; there are a lot of good passers in this league, but not many like him. … They can get him to move around and do a lot of things different from him because he’s so versatile.”
From a Cincinnati perspective, Burrow said the team has contributed to the sack issue both in individual possessions and throughout the game.
Whether it was a penalty kick or an attack on the 1st and 15th forced into a throwing situation due to a deficit on the scoreboard, The Bengals allowed their opponents to type in the pass rush in obvious throwing situations.
To their credit, they overcame double figures in both games once they recovered from a slow start deficit.
Three points behind the comeback, but Cincinnati could easily be 2-0 instead of 0-2 if it wasn’t for the start of the game. It will turn things around in Week 3 against the New York Jets, who will return against the Cleveland Browns.
Luckily for Burrow and Co., they know they can bounce back from back-to-back losses. After all, just last season, when they started playing at their own standards, they overcame a 2-4 losing streak that included two different back-to-back losses just to get to the Super Bowl.
Burrow knows the standards are still there, but they’re not there in 2022.
