Joe Burrow is Inevitable

10 Things from Bengals W at Pittsburgh

On Sunday, Joe Burrow showed us why Joe Burrow matters, if we needed further proof which around here, we do not. Any national playoff talk that does not mention Burrow in the first breath comes from that part of the viewing public that does not watch Burrow play. It’s the product of the millions of experts who look only as deeply as Allen and Mahomes, while casting a sidelong glance at Jackson. Those are the smarter experts.

The really inexpert experts will include (Don’t Count Out Tom) Brady, Kirk (I’ve Never Won Anything, But My Numbers Are Great) Cousins and Dak (If I Played Anywhere But Dallas I’d Be Jimmy Garoppolo and I Haven’t Won Anything, Either) Prescott.

To the masses of the uninformed, here it is:

As long as Burrow is playing, the Bengals have a chance. In December, January. . . and February.

It was so clear Sunday, which team had Burrow and which team was going to lose. I picked one word to describe Burrow last winter: Inevitable. Burrow is inevitable. At some point in a game with big implications, he will assume the responsibility that comes from being irreplaceable. And he will deliver.

Burrow’s inevitability became plain in the 4th quarter. He led an inexorable eight-play, 93-yard, gottahaveit drive that ended with a 6-yard TD pass to Samaje Perine. That put the Bengals up 34-23 with 4:30 to play. It was Perine’s third TD catch of the game.

Ja’Marr who?

Point is not to diminish Chase. Point is, the Bengals have scored 79 points in the previous two games without him. Burrow uses who’s available. Come on down, Trent Irwin.

Meantime, Pittsburgh rookie Kenny Pickett was shrinking in the footlights. Other than leading the Steelers to a cosmetic TD in the last minute, the 1st-half Pickett yielded to the 2nd-half guy who yielded to the enormity of the stage, and of the moment.

Pickett shows signs of having the goods to be a capable NFL starter. If the Steelers can rebuild their team, Pickett might take them to steady seasons of 10-7. Not yet, though.

You could credit Cincinnati’s defense, which came out purposefully in the 2nd half. You could high-five the tackles, La’el Collins and Jonah Williams, who were good in silencing game-wrecker Watt and his accomplice Highsmith. Higgins needed a big game, he delivered. Boyd was there when it mattered, as he generally is. Perine, too, deserves big props for always running like his paycheck depends on it.

You could also say the Steelers aren’t very good.

Ultimately, it’s Burrow. So often late in a season, these are QBs games to win or lose. Mahomes won Sunday night, driving KC 75 yards in 75 seconds. Burrow did the same a few hours earlier. Burrow beat Mahomes twice last year, so. . .

There is only one question that needs to be asked nationally about the Bengals now: How far can Joe Burrow take them? Everything else is just talk.

Without further ado:

TEN THINGS. . .

1. Time to lose the FanBoy suit. Eleven weeks and 10 games might as well have been preseason. The proving starts in Nashville Sunday. The Men play the Tannehills, in what amounts to a preview of coming attractions, followed by the Mahomeses. An NFL team can play only so many Joe Flaccos and Cooper Rushes before it runs into the likes of Allen, Jackson, Brady and a suddenly decent Belichick team on the road. Can the scrappy local 11 win four of its last seven? That’s the question. It’s the only question.

2. “You have to run the ball to win the AFC North.’’ No and no. That gem is as old as Jerome Bettis. You have to be able to throw. A semblance of a running game is required, but only to keep defenses from ganging up on the pass. Yesterday was a perfect day to crush the old-school thinking, or validate it. Freezing and breezy. What won the game? Hint: It wasn’t Najee Harris off tackle.

3. Germaine Pratt was omnipresent.

4. DJ Reader was not.

5. Not a fan of the white and black unis. The real white tigers don’t exist in the wild. One hasn’t been spotted since 1958. They’re all in captivity and inbred. Zoos are wonderful and necessary places, helping to ensure species survival. They’re also sad, such as when we see such a magnificent animal spending its decades behind a wall and a moat.

   

6. Plus, the color scheme just looks wrong, yeah?

7. The D played well when it had to, but don’t let it slide that it was the same D that gave up 20 to Kenny Pickett. In the first half.

8. Not having Awuzie is going to cost The Men hugely at some point in the next seven weeks.

9. Players who aren’t QBs don’t often decide games. TJ Watt does. He almost did yesterday with that impossible INT in the 3rd quarter. That gave Pgh a 1st down at Cincy’s 21. Pickett & Co. managed only a field goal.

10. Continually weary with the media’s ceaseless need to ascribe deep meaning to every Bengals game. How many times have The Men “found their stride’’ after a W this year. (Hint: Evidently after every W.) How many times have they “saved’’ their season? (Ditto.) This week’s “roll’’ is next week’s banana peel. Was Sunday’s win the culmination of a season-long fight with consistency? Or just a nice showing against a 3-7 team? If you have the definitive answer, please let me know. I’ll haul a few bags of cash money to Belterra this week and dump it at the window on the Bengals.

Now, then. . .

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I WAS ASKED if the UC Bearcats should bench senior Ben Bryant and go with Evan Prater at QB the rest of the year, the idea being to groom Prater for next fall. I was a little taken aback. Did the Bearcats lose their chance to win the AAC title and a possible trip to a New Year’s Day bowl?

They did not, and now, they’re a win over Tulane away from clinching a reg-season title and homefield in the conference championship game. Navy mastodon-ed its way to a win at UCF Saturday, opening the door wide for UC. I love watching the Midshipmen play. They’re nearly always outmanned, they run an offense first designed on cave walls. Yet, there they were Saturday.

You have to be patient to beat Navy, and disciplined. Their life training is highly applicable to their football training. They don’t go away, they play for each other. And they did the Bearcats a mighty solid. Support Our Troops indeed.

THE US PLAYS WALES AT 2 TODAY, in the World Cup. I’ve been canceled by soccer fans every time the Cup has been played, simply because I don’t embrace the Cup like a winning Powerball ticket. So be it.

I’ll watch. It’s great theatre and occasionally great drama. And when the US men are eliminated, great gnashing of soccer teeth. By now, there are no teeth to gnash, just scarred gums.

(Christian Pulisic)

NBS Sports’ Peter King generally ignores the Bengals, but this week he did a nice job talking with soccer expert Grant Wahl about the US importance of today’s game:

This is a really important game for the U.S. if they want to advance. Wales and the U.S. are fighting for second place in the group. I’d say it’s crucial for the U.S. to get at least a tie heading into the second game Friday against England, which is one of the best teams in the tournament. You don’t want to be without a point heading into a game against England. Wales has Gareth Bale, one of the true stars of the sport. A tremendous threat, though he’s getting older. The U.S. [only has] one player—DeAndre Yedlin—who was on the team the last we were in the Cup in 2014. I think the failure of the U.S. to make the [tournament] in 2018 led to the U.S. going so young this time. The top two teams in each group make the next stage (after a round robin). Overall, I think it will be a tremendous disappointment if the U.S. doesn’t advance out of the group.”

Generally, the folks who run FIFA are crooks. Often, Cup sites are won with bribes. Occasionally, the countries that get the Cup are hoping to use it like the Saudis are using LIV golf: As sports-wash for the lousy way they treat their own people and, by extension, the rest of the world.

Take Qatar. (Please.) Qatar used slave labor to build this World Cup’s facilities, including seven air-conditioned stadia. An estimated 6,500 migrant workers died doing the constructing, but what the hell. None of this will matter in the slightest to those enthralled with the Beautiful Game.

OK, SO I STOLE THIS TOPIC FROM A LOCAL TV STATION. Is there a Cincinnati accent?

I say yeah. It’s not obvious, as accents are in Philly, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Noo Yawk and New England and anywhere south of the Ohio River. But it’s there. Ask your favorite native Delhi-sian to say “traffic’’.

It comes out TRAY-uh-fic. Or something close.

Amirite?

I’m from DC, one of the few accent-less places in America. We speak perfect English there, too. No “dese’’ and ‘‘dems’’ in the Nation’s capital, pally.

I’ll put that theory to the test in a few weeks, when I’m back for my nephew’s wedding, in Annapolis.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . If you’ve never watched Live at Daryl’s House on YouTube, you’re missing out. Here’s Daryl (Hall) with Smokey Robinson. It’s achingly beautiful.