Bengals and Joe Burrow are in a rut, how long until they get back on track?

It was another dismal day for Cincinnati in 2023, as Joe Burrow’s Bengals mustered just 3 points in a game for the second time this season as they fell to the Tennessee Titans 27-3 on Sunday.

Burrow himself amassed only 165 yards in the game from 20 completions, as his team fell to 1-3, after previously losing 24-3 to the Cleveland Browns in Week One and 27-24 to the Baltimore Ravens in Week Two.

We’re talking about a team billed as one of the favourites to win the Super Bowl this year. Now, just four weeks into the new season, it’s time to seriously worry.

What is going wrong in Cincinnati?

Can you imagine giving your QB the best-paid deal in NFL history this offseason, only for him and his offensive weapons to stink through the first four weeks of the year? What an awful start to 2023 it has been for Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

At the moment, you could make the argument that the Bengals have the worst offense in the NFL. Even the Arizona Cardinals, who traded for an unproven QB just days before the start of the season, are performing much better going forward.

They’re the first team since the 2019 New York Jets to go four games without an offensive TD before halftime, and have just three total through four games.

Who is to blame?

Much was made of Burrow’s injury issues towards the back end of the offseason, and the impact it has had has been evident in his play ever since. The man cannot drive a football downfield because of the pain to his plant leg, which is destroying his ability to put anything on the ball.

Burrow stayed in the game late against the Titans, when the game was well-and-truly already long gone, which seemed a questionable decision by coach Zac Taylor, given he took more punishment and massively risked re-injury.

And for me, it’s the coaching staff around Burrow who should be taking the blame for the poor start. His injury has given teams the blueprint defensively to decimate the shaky Cincinnati O-Line and get to the QB; all they need to do is put pressure and send massive amounts of blitz pressure at Burrow, knowing he can’t drive the ball downfield with velocity given the injury.

The Bengals coaching strategy has failed to match it through four weeks, and Burrow just can’t escape pressure the same way as he could in 2022 at the moment.

The term “escaping” pressure isn’t entirely accurate. It’s more about the different ways quarterbacks manage pressure in order to find a way to win a down. Patrick Mahomes does it through managing the pocket, escaping out when needed, and throwing off platform. Josh Allen climbs the pocket, and is willing to take off with his legs when an ideal pass isn’t open. Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson use their unnatural speed and athleticism to beat pressure for big gains.

Burrow deals with pressure through toughness and ludicrous processing speed. He’s never had an elite protection unit in front of him, but he’s always mitigated the damage a pass rush can do by firing the ball into tight, aggressive windows because he trusts his receivers. But his injury is limiting his skillset, and it is having a negative impact on everything else around the Bengals offense. 

We’ve become accustomed to Burrow lighting up the league, so it’s sad to see him set one of the worst records for a quarterback in NFL history. It’s time for him to heal so that it doesn’t lead to anything worse going forward.