By Cole SullivanShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberThe Cincinnati Bengals entered Thursday night’s matchup against the Baltimore Ravens sitting at 3–8 and facing long playoff odds. But star quarterback Joe Burrow — sidelined since Week 2 with a significant toe injury — didn’t care about the math. He simply wanted to play.
“We're getting paid a lot of money to play a kid's game,” Burrow said before kickoff. “I just want to put on a show for the fans.”
He did exactly that. Burrow led Cincinnati to a dominant 32–14 road win, marking the Bengals’ fourth victory of the season and extending his personal streak to 8–0 in his last eight starts.
After the game, while his teammates carved into their Thanksgiving turkey, Burrow got emotional discussing yet another injury setback and the long road back.
“I’m most grateful to all the people in my life that helped me through the last 10 weeks. It certainly wasn’t easy,” he said. “The things I've been through in my career so far… I’ve got people that just want the best for me and put me in a position to get back out on the field — physical therapists, trainers, doctors. It’s fun to be back out here with the guys.”
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While there were some expected rusty moments after missing the last nine games, Burrow eventually settled in and delivered a strong performance, completing 24-of-46 passes for 261 yards, two touchdowns, and no turnovers.
He was also without one of his top weapons in Tee Higgins, who was sidelined with a concussion suffered in last week’s loss to the New England Patriots. Still, Burrow made it clear how much it meant to be back out there helping his team walk away with a win.
"Putting in work for a long time and going out and it paying off, there’s just no feeling like going out in front of the world with a group of guys that work really hard to go try and win games. Going out and putting on a good performance and winning that game," Burrow said. "Obviously, we have a lot of games left, but we’re going to enjoy this one. We have a mini bye weekend. Everyone’s going to go home and have Thanksgiving with their family, smile and eat, and feel good about it.”
...Cincinnati still remains outside the AFC playoff picture, and their most realistic path appears to be winning the AFC North — which, surprisingly, is still up for grabs after the Bengals’ win over the Ravens, moving Baltimore to 6-6.
If Cincinnati can somehow win out, as they did last year, most scenarios would see them finish 9-8 with the tiebreaker over both the Steelers and Ravens, potentially allowing them to claim the division. Unlikely? Certainly. Impossible? Absolutely not.
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