Joe Burrow sends message to fans after Bengals snap 31-year playoff drought
Joe Burrow isn’t holding back when it comes to the new culture he’s building with his Cincinnati Bengals’ teammates.
While the entire city has spent the week celebrating the franchise breaking its 31-year playoff drought, the former LSU Tigers star made a point to brush it off.
“I think the fans were very excited, but I tried to downplay it and all that because this is how it’s going to be from here on out,” Burrow said in his press conference. “It was a great win for us, but this is the standard — the bare minimum every year going forward.”
Burrow finished the game 24-of-34 passing for 244 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no turnovers. He hasn’t committed a giveaway since Cincinnati’s Week 13 loss to the Chargers.
Joe Burrow noted his mentality wasn’t much different for last week’s game since the Bengals needed to keep winning in December to make the postseason.
“I think I’ve just played in a lot of big games throughout my career, whether it’s this year — I mean, every game in the last half of the season was a playoff game,” Burrow said. “Or those games playing in the College Football Playoffs and the championship, I think I’ve been in that situation before.”
Ja’Marr Chase makes prediction following Cincinnati Bengals win
For the first time in 31 years, the Bengals have won a playoff game thanks to Ja’Marr Chase and the explosive Bengal offense after defeating the Raiders 26-19 Saturday afternoon.
“We ain’t accomplished nothing yet,” Chase told Kinkhabwala. “We just got the first win. We’ve got more to go.”
Chase hauled in nine receptions for 116 yards (12.9 yards per reception) on 12 targets and carried the rock three times for 23 yards, something that hasn’t been done in a Cincinnati Bengals uniform in over 70 seasons.
“I haven’t played running back in a long time,” Chase said after the game. “They gave me those tosses. I got hit by linebackers, and I know what those feel like again. I’m built like a running back. They only do those plays for receivers who are built like running backs.”
In doing so, Chase broke the franchise record for most receiving yards in a playoff game (Cris Collinsworth, 107, Super Bowl XVI) and logged the third-highest receiving yards ever by a rookie in the Wild Card Round behind DK Metcalf (160) and Jeremy Maclin (146). Chase also passed Bill Groman and Randy Moss for most receiving yards (1,571) by a rookie in a season (including playoffs), according to NFL.com’s Jeremy Bergman.
“It’s always part of the game plan to target Ja’Marr Chase,” Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said after the win. “It was never forced. There was not one ball that was forced there — there’s always options. He just made the most of his opportunities.”
The Raiders nearly pulled off a comeback that would have forced overtime, but Germaine Pratt came up with a huge interception inside the 10-yard-line with under 15 seconds remaining in regulation that sealed the Bengals’ victory.
With the Chase-Joe Burrow connection running wild on the NFL this season, whoever matches up with Cincinnati next weekend will have a tough time containing the dynamic duo out of LSU. So far, no one has been able to stop the connection from making plays this season.
“Leaving me one-on-one is the wrong thing for a team to do,” Chase told NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala.
While we have to wait for the rest of the wild card matchups to finish, but we know the Cincinatti Bengals will play the Titans if Kansas City wins Sunday night, but will play Buffalo if the Steelers somehow pulls off an upset against the Chiefs.