Joe Burrow broke the Ravens and broke the Bengals‘ single-game passing yards record with 525 yards on Sunday. It was the fourth-most passing yards in one contest in NFL history. He completed 36-of-47 passes with four touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s 11.4 yards per attempt. Somehow, it didn’t equate to a perfect quarterback rating. But 143.2 will do. Any time. In any game.
This contest deserves highlighting. Obviously. Let’s dive in. Burrow put his full, advanced skill set on display in the pivotal outing against Baltimore.
And Burrow was locked in from the jump. The first play of the game foreshadowed that it was going to be a long, arduous afternoon for the Ravens defense. The former No. 1 overall pick took a bad sa…. nope, spun out of the defender’s grasp and found Tee Higgins for 10 yards.
That was vintage, LSU Burrow, parlaying every last ounce of his athleticism into surprising improvisational mastery. He led the SEC in the unofficial “deflating near sacks” metric in 2019 and showcased his ability to make those types of plays against professional defensive linemen.
With 2:24 to go in the first quarter, Burrow connected on a throw with Ja’Marr Chase in the sideline hole in Cover 2 that was textbook. After Chase passed the underneath outside cornerback, Burrow pulled the trigger and the rocket arrived in Chase’s hands a split second before the safety responsible for that half of the field.
The anticipation. The ball placement. The velocity. All gorgeous. And unstoppable defensively.
Late in the second half, with Cincinnati holding a 10-point lead, Burrow uncorked a moon ball to Higgins that traveled nearly 55 yards in the air. Sure, it was made into tight coverage, double coverage to be exact. But historic passing performances come with calculated risks. And Burrow giving his rebounding specialist an opportunity near the goal line with under two minutes to go in the first half? Calculated risk.
Note that Burrow released the football when Higgins had yet to reach the 35 yard line, and the pass was completed just inside the 10. Of course, a tremendous catch from the second-year wideout. But that’s why the Bengals drafted him.
With a 17-point lead in the fourth, head coach Zac Taylor elected to keep the pedal to the floor and kept his offense on the field in a 4th and 5 situation.
Higgins (top left of the screen) ran a classic comeback route near the boundary. The Ravens cornerback turned his head to see the route, and broke on the football.
It was another example of Burrow hitting the passing trifecta of anticipation, velocity, and ball placement. And it was a low-key vital point in the game.
Early in the fourth, Burrow cranked the velocity to a level I had yet to see from him this season, on an in-breaking route to Higgins, who quietly went over 1,000 yards for the season on Sunday.
Because of the timing of the route and the location of the underneath defender, the pass had to be a four-seam fastball, and it was.
Much to the chagrin of John Harbaugh, the cherry on top of the Bengals’ beatdown of Baltimore was the splash play down the sideline to Joe Mixon at the two-minute warning. It was the ending of the historic performance just like it started, with Burrow evading pressure and dropping a dime.
Subtle drifting in the pocket, and no dip in accuracy on the run. Hit Mixon in stride. Was nearly another score.
Burrow’s talented group of skill-position players did work against Baltimore’s secondary Sunday — 231 yards were accumulated after the catch.
But the Bengals franchise quarterback was exquisite as a passer en route to shattering a lofty team record to take control of the AFC North.
