Never has a simple 10-yard scramble been so important for a player, a team, or a fan base—but that’s the measure of Joe Burrow’s importance to Cincinnati (team/franchise/city). When he took off up the middle during Sunday’s 34-20 win over Arizona to move the sticks, pump-faking a defender and sliding before popping up in the “drop the mic/football” celeb popularized by Joe Mixon, it allowed us all to exhale at last after five long weeks of breath-holding and calf-watching.
Burrow couldn’t have done that in any of the previous four games, of which Cincinnati lost three, a number directly related to the calf injury. “From the get-go you could see it,” wideout Trenton Irwin said about Joe’s improved movement. “It was cool to see it, cool to have him scamper for a first down when he hadn’t done it in a while. You could see it in his eyes though. We were feeding off that, and everyone in the whole huddle was hyped.”
We were hyped too, to put it mildly. Joe had showed plenty of signs of increased mobility throughout the game in the desert, but it was the scramble that truly signaled he was back. He may not yet be 100 percent, but after a game where Burrow rifled balls with mustard to the far sideline, threw darts between defenders in the seams, moved around in the pocket and reset to hurl touchdown passes, and most spectacularly threw the longest ball (58.1 air yards, per NFL Next Gen Stats) of his career for a 63-yard touchdown to Ja’Marr “7-11” Chase, it’s safe to say he’s close enough to his top form now to give the Bengals a chance to win every game.
Ah yes, Ja’Marr. Mister “I’m Always (Bleepin’) Open” backed up his words, as great players do, to the tune of a franchise record 15 grabs for 192 yards and three touchdowns—or three more than he had all season to that point. Chase did it all Sunday, showing off his full skill set: blazing speed, toughness, great hands, tackle-breaking strength, and agility. By our efficiency stat DYAR (find it at FTNFantasy.com), it was Chase’s second best game ever, after his mind-blowing effort in 2021 against the Chiefs. All but one of his 15 grabs on Sunday went for either a first down or a touchdown.
The coaches helped out by aligning Chase all over the field and getting the ball to him quickly, borne out by the fact his yards per catch was just under 13 for the game, rather low given his usage and the big bomb he caught. With Tee Higgins missing the game with a rib injury, Chase moved out of his standard “X” receiver role to line up in the slot and the backfield, in bunch formations, and—more than normally—as a motion receiver. Wherever he went, he was indeed open, and Burrow got him the ball on time, their mind-meld in full effect. It would seem prudent to include this as part of the basic offensive structure going forward, with or without Tee.
At least there was one part of the hobbled offense that looked like it was supposed to. The rest remains a work in progress. Yes, 34 points (actually 27, with one score coming on a pick-six by Cam Taylor-Britt) against a shoddy defense sounds just fine, but the rest of the attack is still low-octane. Mixon pounded out 81 yards, but at just 3.2 per carry, and was stuffed at the goal line twice immediately before the interception by CTB that changed the game. Cincinnati still can’t seem to mount a powerful ground attack, even against a hollowed-out defense such as Arizona’s.
Take out Chase’s numbers, and the passing attack was mostly “cloud of dust” as well—the Other Guys caught 21 balls for 125 yards, basically six yards per reception. Some of that’s due to Higgins’ absence and some of it a highly dubious penalty that wiped out a TD pass to Tyler Boyd. But mainly it remains true that the playbook and the execution isn’t accounting for anything explosive outside of Uno.
And while the defense played well enough and made a handful of enormous, game-deciding plays (the pick-six, a key fourth-down stuff with Arizona driving down 24-20, Trey Hendrickson’s close-out strip sack), there were still too many free runners and blown tackles on Sunday. Even after James Connor went down with an injury, the immortal Emari Demarcado gashed the Bengals’ run defense. In all, the Cards piled up 145 yards on over six YPC, a number that would have been worse if the Bengals hadn’t seized the lead in the fourth quarter. One player, beyond Hendrickson, did stand out: rookie corner D.J. Turner, who filled in for Chido Awuzie with aplomb.
The Seahawks will pose a far stiffer challenge this Sunday afternoon at Paycor Stadium. The last time the PNWs came to town, in 2015, it was an all-time classic contest, with Cincinnati pulling out an overtime win over the Legion of Boom and Russ Wilson to stay unbeaten. (Yes, I was there.) This version of the Hawks may not match that squad, who were coming off back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, but they’re off to a damn good start.
Seattle is 3-1, eighth in overall DVOA and balanced throughout offense, defense, and special teams. They’re rested off their bye week and no doubt will have devised some special plans for our Bengals. The last time Seattle took the field was against the Giants, and they put up 11 sacks and thoroughly dominated the hapless G-Men.
While Burrow hopefully won’t take that many sacks and appears to be spry once more, as we know this sort of calf injury is sinister and can reappear at any moment. More to the point, the Seahawks sport a top corner in Tariq Woolen and a new weapon in rookie Devon Witherspoon, who will move around on defense in much the same way Chase moves around on offense. Arizona knew Cincinnati would try to get the rock to Ja’Marr but didn’t have the personnel to do anything about it. That isn’t true with Seattle.
Seattle is one of only five teams in the DVOA Top 10 in both running and passing offense; Cincinnati, by the way, is 24th passing and 20th rushing. Even with injuries at the tackle position, Seattle’s line has been excellent at opening lanes for backs Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, my would-be Bengal draft crush. They haven’t been quite as successful in protecting Geno Smith in the pass game but are solid enough.
In other words, it will take another further ramp-up in play for the Bengals to be able to win their second in a row and reach their bye week at 3-3. But now that Disco Joe can show off his moves and dance once again, there is every reason for optimism—for the first time in a while.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, Deadspin, and Football Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter at @robwein. Listen to him on Mo Egger’s show on 1530AM every Thursday at 5:20 p.m.
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