Why was Joe Burrow so hesitant to let….
Why was Joe Burrow so hesitant to let it rip in Bengals’ loss to Patriots?
Time for Joe Burrow to step out of the phone booth, right? With the game hanging in the balance, it was time to don the Superman cape and remind the sell-out, orange-clad fan base why his triumphant return from injury could make all the difference in returning to the NFL’s contending class.
Only, with Ja’Marr Chase and Andrei Iosivas streaking down the sideline in one-on-one coverage versus double moves, Burrow didn’t sink into a clean pocket and unleash the latest iteration of his legend at Paycor Stadium.
He checked it down. For 5 yards.
They punted, and Burrow never touched the ball again.
Remember “F-it, Ja’Marr’s down there somewhere”? This 2021 quote from Burrow became an offensive motto; it sold thousands of shirts and served as the ethos of one of the most exciting offenses in football.
Sunday, it morphed into, “F-it, check it down.”
This one final play provided a microcosm of an issue that followed a careful Cincinnati passing game nearly all day as it slogged to 10 points in the loss against the New England Patriots.
How is that possible? Was it the wrist? Was Burrow seeing ghosts after a few nasty, early sacks off the right side? Were the Patriots’ disguises fooling him?
The Bengals and Burrow sifted through those questions Monday while assessing how Burrow shifted from just plain scary to just playing scared.
“There’s no one thing,” said offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher, who commended the disguises put forth by the Patriots defense as one of the factors. “I don’t characterize his performance by any type of hesitancy — maybe on a couple of plays. Overall, we’ve just got to be better.”
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Bengals take losses on many levels in ugly opening weekend
There’s no question about that.
Burrow finished 21-of-29, but only six passes were thrown more than 7 air yards down the field. The surprising aspect was how many of those came when needing more on third downs.
Burrow dropped back on third-and-long (5-plus yards to go) seven times. These are supposed to be his money downs where the franchise quarterback shines.
Only two of the seven plays were successful — not all his fault — but Burrow continually looked quick to bail out to throw short of the sticks rather than wait for a better option to develop.
Just one of the six throws made it out beyond the sticks, and that was due to Burrow scrambling into wide-open space and holding the ball to the sideline before hitting Iosivas for a 12-yard first down.
That’s not who he’s been over the years, as anyone who has experienced his games can attest.
Burrow on third down and 5-10 yards
2021
55.10%
44.80%
40.00%
2022
44.10%
45.80%
40.40%
2023 (W5-11)
57.10%
34.40%
38.30%
Sunday
20.00%
33.30%
27.60%
His 27.6 percent of all throws going to the sticks ranked third lowest on the weekend, ahead of only Washington Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Justin Fields. It was reminiscent of the injured-calf game plan used in the first four games of last season.
“There are things that you call beyond the sticks, that you’re not just throwing the ball beyond the sticks, because that’s oftentimes where they are,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “It’s a fair question that makes sense. I could get into every single rep on why it happened.”
He didn’t need to; the theme was clear.
Taylor attributed much of the dump-off barrage as a symptom of the ugly three consecutive three-and-outs start that put the team in a quick hole and allowed the Patriots to play a softer brand of defense.
“We’re all accountable for that,” Taylor said. “I go to bed feeling awful; Joe goes to bed feeling awful. There’s plenty of other players that feel (bad) about (those) little things that they could have controlled that would have been better early in the game.”
During those three three-and-outs, the third-down pass came in short of the sticks with almost no chance to succeed the first two plays. On the third, Burrow went down for a sack due to a blitz and breakdown on the right side.
“There’s all the hallmarks of sloppiness that we work really hard to not do, and we did it,” Pitcher said. “That’s why we found ourselves where we did.”
Perhaps there was a feeling of apprehension when the first dropback of the season also involved new right tackle Trent Brown whiffing on Keion White for what turned into a punishing sack-fumble and the first hit on Burrow’s wrist since surgery.
.@Patriots #KeionWhite with key plays all day starting on the 2nd play of the season. Takes most DL a year to figure it out. Keion is Koming.
Burrow often looked like a quarterback not trusting the pocket in front of him. Could that be because the trust was broken with two early sacks? Feeling sped up in the pocket certainly can be a problem, especially for a player in his first game coming off a serious injury.
“I think it can — you’d have to ask Joe that question. Yeah, that’s something that can happen,” Pitcher said. “We go to great lengths to try to limit those situations. It’s a challenging defense. They do things that make you go to the line with one thought, and that’s not what you always go to the line doing. Because you’ve made an adjustment based on an adjustment they’ve made. That’s the cat-and-mouse game. That happens sometimes. That can affect the quarterback. We try not to let it. As the quarterback, you try not to let it affect you. But sometimes it does.”
There were even more give-up checkdowns as the game progressed. On first-and-10 near midfield and a clean pocket all around, Burrow tossed a soft pass in the flat that Zack Moss dropped.
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Midway through the third quarter, pressure against Brown struck again as an opportunity to throw a bench route to Chase or find Iosivas running free down the opposite sideline was thwarted by a Josh Uche sack.
Even when Burrow would find time and confidence to unload downfield, there were questions. On the first of a three-play stretch in the second quarter that each could have been touchdowns, he escaped to his right while Trenton Irwin was sprinting down the goal line with coverage trailing behind him and no one in front. Burrow fired a ball on the run that sailed to the back of the end zone instead of on a line Irwin could run into.
It looked like a throw Burrow could have made in his sleep for a touchdown in years past.
Later, on a drive into New England territory on fourth-and-2, Burrow called an audible to a bubble screen to Iosivas. He was thrown down by Jonathan Jones a half-yard shy of the mark.
The coaching point focused on Iosivas needing to make that play more than any Burrow decision to again throw short of the sticks.
“We give Joe a toolbox to make adjustments as he sees fit, and those adjustments have garnered us tremendous victories and tremendous success over the course of his time here,” Pitcher said. “That’s how we want to play. That’s how I believe the best teams play. He’s always going to have those tools available to him. In the moment, he makes a decision. I thought he made a decision that should have garnered a first down. That’s a play we need to make.”
With enough opportunities squandered, that left the final drive and heroless ball that rounded out an opening-day flop.
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Burrow stated explicitly after the game that his wrist felt good and he was comfortable in the pocket. What he has yet to say since the injury is that the wrist feels 100 percent.
He made all the throws you would want to see in training camp, especially in the final joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts. There was confidence in what the Bengals saw as an encouraging August, the first Burrow has fully participated in during his career.
Yet, with all that buildup, when they most needed Burrow to be the guy, he was just a guy.
Where’s the aggressiveness? Where’s the confidence to allow his receiver to make a play? Where’s the “F-it, Ja’Marr’s down there somewhere”?
That attitude wasn’t present Sunday. The Bengals and Burrow are charged with fixing it. Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones await the answers in Kansas City.