Ben BabyESPN Staff Writer September 26, 2023, 2:13am ET4 minutes read
Burrow on health after win against Rams: “We’re there”
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow tells Laura Rutledge he is still working toward 100 percent recovery from his torn calf.
CINCINNATI — One thing was most important when Joe Burrow played Monday night: When the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback felt good enough to compete, he wanted to be on the field.
Eight days after suffering a strained right calf muscle, Burrow played every offensive snap and helped the Bengals to their first win of the season, a 19-16 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
The Bengals (1-2) were facing their first potential three-game losing streak since Burrow’s rookie season in 2020. That was a big factor in Burrow pushing hard to play in the main game despite the calf problem.
“There is a risk of going out there and potentially getting injured again,” Burrow said. “But there is also the risk of not going out and being 0-3. So I wanted to be there for my guys and was confident that I would be able to do what I needed to get the win.”
Burrow completed 26 of 49 passes for 259 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Afterwards, he acknowledged that he and the offense need to get better. However, their performance was enough on a night when Cincinnati linebacker Logan Wilson had two interceptions and the defense tallied six sacks and held the Rams to one touchdown on four red-zone drives.
Burrow said he practiced Monday morning and felt good enough to play. He said the criteria was simply that there were no setbacks. As he practiced Friday and Saturday, he said he was confident he could be competitive and expressed that feeling to team personnel.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase has been vocal all week that Burrow wouldn’t play unless he was fully healthy, and Chase reiterated that sentiment before the game.
“I thought, ‘You’re crazy, boy. I didn’t want you to play,'” Chase said. “It just shows that Joe is stubborn. But he’s a football player, man. You can’t stop him from being so tough. There aren’t many quarterbacks that tough.”
Burrow responded by telling Chase that he would get the ball a lot against the Rams (1-2). And that’s exactly what happened: Chase had 12 catches on 15 targets for 141 yards, including a 43-yard completion that tested Burrow’s calf.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor, the team’s offensive playcaller, dialed a fake throw to Burrow in which he rolled to his right without protection. He found a completely open chase for Cincinnati’s longest play of the season.
Taylor said the decision to have Burrow exposed in this way was the result of a discussion in the days leading up to the game about whether the two were comfortable doing so. The coach and quarterback had another conversation before the game, which ultimately led to a field goal.
“I’ve asked him a few times and he had a good feeling about it,” Taylor said. “It’s a quick throw, probably seven steps before he got the bench route out to Ja’Marr.”
The Bengals didn’t need Burrow to move a ton. They just needed him to be mobile enough. Burrow said he was cautious in extending plays and wasn’t afraid to throw the ball away quickly as he tried to get through the play.
Despite being sacked twice and hit six times (with Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald recording two of those hits), Burrow remained on the field until the end of the contest.
The signal caller knows the calf injury could flare up later in the season. But Monday’s performance was a promising sign for the Bengals’ preparations for a road game against the Tennessee Titans.
“We didn’t have any setbacks today, but it’s still business as usual,” Burrow said. “I learned through this process that it can happen at any time.
“It was good to get through that. And that means we will be stronger this week.”