10 Things: Bengals Win Leaves Questions

The NFL's Most Famous Limp survives to play another day

(sportingnews.com)

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You take the win and limp on.

You’re grateful for a QB talented and gutty enough to triumph on one leg and you are very, very grateful Trey Hendrickson is on your team. Smart people like to say, “It’s hard to win in this league,’’ which is a stupid thing to say, because half the teams do it every week. But Monday night, it contained a grain of truth.

But here’s the question:

Did that W make you feel good about the Bengals? Specifically, about their Super Bowl quest?

The Rams are mediocre and surprisingly didn’t look very well coached last night. They lost two O-linemen to injury, including their left tackle. For whatever reason, they didn’t make Joe Burrow uncomfortable. Which given the QB’s gimpy circumstances, seemed the obvious thing to do. The Rams respected a firepower that wasn’t there.

Burrow started the game throwing from two-step drops, then as it became evident the Rams were not willing to blitz him much, he went to more conventional dropbacks and throws beyond 5 inches, er, yards.

Burrow looked OK, given his circumstances. He looked like August. He didn’t look like a QB who could win a ring. This is all typed with an asterisk, of course. If Burrow’s calf somehow survives and thrives and by December he looks frisky again, all bets are on. In the short term, the schedule says at Tennessee, at Arizona and Seattle at PayJoe Stadium. Not daunting,

The long view is more complicated. The schedule stiffens, the strategies for taking advantage of a one-legged QB become more sophisticated and diverse. Can Burrow’s calf get getter while Burrow is asking it to practice and play tackle football?

Did Monday give you enough answers to that question?

Herewith, 10 Things from Bengals 19, Rams 16.