Joe Burrow Opens Up About ‘Unlucky’ Injury… Stage Set for Epic Return vs. Ravens

Joe Burrow Opens Up About ‘Unlucky’ Injury… Stage Set for Epic Return vs. Ravens

Bengals quarterback Joe Bro is back and will start for the team on Thursday night on Thanksgiving in Baltimore just 69 days after undergoing surgery. I asked him about that play that he got hurt on if he would do anything different. What Joe had to say, my thoughts, plus a key decision that we know Zack Taylor made, plus Thursday’s game. Will the Bengals find a way to get to four and eight? Let’s get to all of it right now on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. [Music] Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. We are very, very thankful to each and every one of you for supporting the channel, for supporting us as we continue to grow. And and let’s dive in here because I think there’s a few interesting topics. one, let’s go back to the play that Joe Burrow was hurt on in September against the Jaguars because anytime Joe Burrow gets hurt, it turns into this discussion and he was asked multiple times over the past couple of weeks this discussion about his play style, how he plays, all of those things. And in September, I was like, look, he’s trying to it’s a quick game. He’s trying to to pass the ball to Jamar Chase. And we broke it down a 7-minute video here on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. He’s trying to throw it to Jamar Chase. Jamar Chase is jammed up. He doesn’t throw it to Jamar Chase because of that. And then there’s pressure in his face and then he pulls it down and then boom, he gets tangled up and and gets hurt. This wasn’t him trying to be Super Joe and put the cape on and and do something that he didn’t need to do. I understood it. I understood why he reacted the way he did in the moment throughout the play. And no one and I I wasn’t here. I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago when Joe was activated. And so I didn’t get to ask him and so I asked him on Tuesday about that play. Take me through it, what happened. And then I went on to ask him if he would do anything different. Here’s what he had to say. you know, you’re trying to get the ball out and some unexpected things happen that, you know, you can’t really let it go and then, um, pocket starts to collapse and you try to buy a little time and then I just tried to give myself up and my foot got caught in the turf. So, um, unlucky. Is there anything you could have done differently? I mean, he’s obviously jammed up. It’s not free. You’re trying to hit him right away. Like, quarterback wise, is there anything that you would have done differently in that moment? hindsight’s 2020. You can’t you can’t play a play or a game or a practice or anything worried about getting hurt or doing anything like that. So, um there’s not anything I would have done differently in that play. I completely agree. I do. I I think he handled that play correctly because if he throws that to Jamar and Jamar doesn’t end up winning and Jamar did win, but if he doesn’t end up winning, and initially it didn’t look like he was going to, then that could be an interception. That could be a huge play in that game in the first half. And instead Joe pumps and then by the time Jamar is open and he goes to throw it, well, there’s pressure in his face. Then he tries to go one way. pressure cuts back in and just it’s an awkward landing and his toe gets caught. I mean, that’s it. That’s it. Sometimes it’s bad luck. And Joe Burrow’s injury was bad luck. And I I think that was important bring up and mention and and point out because he’s going to play football again on Thursday and there’s always going to be an injury risk. There’s always going to be discussion and discourse and all of those things when in reality we’re going to see Joe Burrow get pressured on Thursday night and he’s going to go off script. He’s going to roll out to his right. He’s going to try to spin out. He’s going to try to do some of the Joe Burrow things that make him special. And those plays, I get it. They’re concerning and scary. He hasn’t really been hurt on those plays. Think about the wrist. He didn’t get hurt because of that. He got hurt w with the wrist because he landed on it in Baltimore and it was just a routine play. This toe routine play where he pulls it down because he didn’t like what was happening with Jamar Chase initially and then there’s pressure in his face and he’s trying to get a throwing lane and that’s it. So routine plays happen. He feels strong, healthy, ready to go. And I think that’s the other element here that’s really interesting. I took a lot of heat on Saturday when I came out and I said the Bengals are making a mistake. If they’re going to play Joe Burrow this season, they should play him against the Patriots. And a lot of you like, James, you’re insane. Why would you do that? And the reason why you would do it is the same reason why they should have done it. Because they were three and seven. They could have been to they could have be four and seven right now. And I think they would be if Joe Burrow had played and they’d be right there in the division. It would feel differently going up against a six-5 Ravens team because if you win, suddenly you’re five- seven. The Ravens are six and six. They play Pittsburgh next week, the Steelers have the Bills this week, and you feel right back in it. Right back in it. And that’s it. That that that was my point there is if you gave Joe Burrow an option, would he have played? What went into that decision? And he made it very very clear. It was Zack Taylor’s decision. I thought this was really important to put out there how Jo was feeling after multiple full practices last week. He said it was a good decision. He didn’t throw Zack Taylor under the bus, but he also made it clear that he was ready to play. At the end of the day, it was Zach’s decision. You know, we went into that week. I had a good workout early in the week. Uh I was feeling good. And Wednesday, Thursday practice happened. I took a lot of reps. My body was pretty sore. um not necessarily my toe. My toe feels great, but just the rest of my body being back out there for so long. And uh I was confident that I could get that right in order to to play on Sunday. But um Zach ended up thinking that Thursday was it it was better to to wait the extra four days and I think that was a good decision. So So if he said green light, you would have been prepared to do it. Correct. I would have. But um I’m not trying to put you against Zach. I’m just I got you. I gotcha. Uh yeah, it was uh at the end of the day it was head coach’s call. I would have played him. I sue me. Do whatever. I would have played him. It isn’t hindsight. I wrote it like a week ago that hey, if if you’re going to do this, if you’re going this route and going down this path, give Joe a real chance to salvage the season. And it’s just going to be much much tougher right now. It just it’s they’re three and eight. They went 1 and8. Joe Burrow gets hurt September 14th. They finish that game out and then they go one and eight without him. One and eight. Like it’s unbelievable how bad they’ve been from a win loss perspective. And I get it. The offense has flashed some. The defense has been better as of late. The offensive line, the run game, like there’s been little pieces, but that’s what bad teams are. They’re inconsistent. And that’s what they’ve been. And so now they’re asking Joe Bro to do the impossible. And that starts with a win in Baltimore on Thursday night. It’s just a really tough ask. Put it that way. And by the the impossible, I don’t mean win in Baltimore. or I mean win six straight and find your way into the playoffs. It It’s It’s just a tough ask. It is. When in reality, they could be after this week a game out of first place. Like that’s that’s how close it could be. That’s how tight it could feel with a win over the Ravens, with a win over the team that uh that you clearly feel like is the favorite in the division. And so that’s why I would have played him. Especially the general soreness type comment where it was like not necessarily my toe. Everything else like I was like, “Oh, like in the moment as he was saying that I’m like really?” And and I’ll read it. He you know, it’s one of those things where you try to read everything and and as a player, I feel like I have a pretty good read on Joe Burrow now. And yeah, he probably came in Friday and said, “Yeah, I’m sore. I mean, I’ve been throwing, running, moving, and I’m sure his toe was sore, too, but he should be sore. And what does a couple of extra days do? There’s going to be so many people that say, “Yeah, but two games in 5 days.” And it’s like, “Yeah, I get it. Two games, 5 days, chance to save your season.” Realistic chance to save your season. Win two games in 5 days, catch your breath, have a long layoff. You know, the mini buy. have a whole weekend to recover before you get back to practice or be 3-8 and play one of those games. I think I know what Joe would take. And Joe certainly plans on beating the Ravens on Thursday night. How do they beat the Ravens on Thursday night? Will they beat the Ravens on Thursday night? Let’s get into this Thanksgiving matchup coming up next. Today’s video is brought to you by Ridge. Ridge Wallet is changing the game. It’s changed things for me. Look at that. I have all my cards in there in that thin little wallet that uh keeps my life in order. Look, it is a busy time of year for everybody. You have the holidays. Obviously, it’s football season, traveling. The last thing you want to do is be wondering where your money is, where your cards are. Look at this. Bing, bang, boom. There you go. You just slide them in. And it’s sleek. It’s light. 10% lighter. RT wallet 2.0. Holds up to 12 cards. They have over 100,000 five-star reviews because they’ve been in the game for 12 years. Joe Bro was in high school when Ridge came out. And that’s the beauty of it is maybe you want to support the Bengals. Well, they have over 50 different colors. They have every NFL, MLB, or college team that you’re looking for with Ridge. And right now, for a limited time, Rididge is having their Black Friday sale. Head to rigge.com. Ridge.com to get up to 47% off your order. by far the biggest discount they’ve given all year. That’s Ridge.com for up to 47% off your order during the biggest sale of the year. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show. Tell them we sent you right here on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. Again, that’s ridg.com and tell them we sent you. All right, let’s get to Thursday night’s matchup. It’s a big one. It It’s a big one. The Bengals obviously have to run the table to have a realistic chance at the playoffs. Anytime Joe Burrow versus Lamar Jackson, Burrow and Jackson are on the same field, it’s exciting. Look, this Bengals team needs to run the football. They’ve been really good at that in recent weeks. That needs to continue. Chase Brown has 100 yards or more from scrimmage in each of the past five to continue. Would be a Bengals record, by the way. Joe Burrow has a chance to win his eighth straight start. That’s big. They they won five straight last year. They won two his two starts this year. Could win on Thursday. That’s a a note for sure. And that’s what I look at. I look at this offense and I say, “All right, can you be without T. Higgins? Can you be dynamic? Push the ball downfield when needed. Get the ball out quickly. Get the ball into the hands of your playmakers. Jamar Chase obviously back this week. Chase Brown. I think Noah Fant is someone that’s grown in this offense with Joe Burrow out and is ready to go, ready to contribute more. Mike Cassiki is back. That’s huge. This Bengals offense needs to score 30 plus. They just do. And I say that because even defensively, if you were better last week, can I trust them to stop Lamar Jackson? They’ve never been able to stop Lamar Jackson. Can I trust them to stop Mark Andrews or Isaiah likely? like those guys have had success in the past against the Bengals and the Bengals have been awful against tight ends this year. That doesn’t include Derrick Henry who I think they’ve had pretty good success, but this is the first time that Barrett Carter, Demetrius Knight, that these guys are going to have to deal with Derrick Henry. And so that’s a real thing. And so, yeah, I I want to see Gino Stone follow it up, his best performance as a Bengal last week with another big performance. Miles Murphy can build on uh the the first two really breakout performances of this season for him. One against the Steelers, then a few days ago, I thought he was pretty disruptive as well. Can he do it again? Can he start to string together some success? We’ll see. McKinley Jackson flashed some, Chris Jenkins flashed some. You need all of these things to be more consistent. But regardless, the constant if the Bengals are going to beat the Ravens has to be Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Chase Brown has to be your stars. You don’t have any stars on defense right now outside of DJ Turner, which is a big one. And I do wonder on defense like DJ Turner, do you just put him on Z Flowers? I think that’s a really interesting matchup. Dax Hill, you moved him outside. He had some penalties. People got frustrated there. Overall though, they held those Patriots receivers in check. They did. And outside of Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, I thought the corners held up really, really well. So, what do they do to limit these Ravens tight ends and not let Z Flowers, because he’s really the one, I mean, there’s some other receivers, of course, but Z Flowers is really the go-to in Baltimore receiver-wise. We’ll see, but it’s it’s it’s a really interesting matchup. I keep going back to Burrow. Like, it’s it sucks. It sucks to put him in this position. It would have sucked to put him in the position on against the Patriots. By the way, I’m not saying it’s an ideal position. The ideal position is having a a significant number of wins, not three wins. If you have six or seven wins right now, it just feels different. But the Bengals aren’t there. There is no margin for error. And so, they have to sweep the Ravens to have any chance at uh at being anything this season, and that’s how they’re feeling. I know you may be feeling a certain way of ah well, it’s over. And that’s fine. I totally get it and I believe it. But Joe Burrow doesn’t Joe Burrow thought he was going to run the table last week and go 7-0. Now he doesn’t have that opportunity. Now he thinks he’s going to go 6-0, but you can only get to to 6 and0 if you get to 1 and0. And I think this is going to be a really tough test. Early in this game, you need the offense to go get points early in this game. You need the defense to get a stop. Maybe a big crazy changing uh turn of event, you know, a big turnover, a sack, fumble, interception, anything like that. Force F, anything like that. Like the Gino Stone play that really did set the table for the Bengals to upset the Patriots. And Joe Flacco gave it back. So obviously Joe Burrow can’t do that. We’ll see. We’ll see. One of the injuries I’m paying attention to what’s going to happen with Kyle Hamilton. He was a limited participant, the Ravens star safety. If he’s out there, obviously he’s a game changer for Rocoan Smith always seems to play well against the Bengals and gets fired up for this matchup. Meanwhile, on the other side, like Jamar Chase was awesome against the Ravens last year. You need him to be awesome again and the Ravens know that and so they’re going to try to take him away. And so when they do that, Andre Yosvage, you need to be ready. Mitch Tinsley, you need to be ready. Mike Gassiki, Noah Fant, Chase Brown, all of these guys need to play big roles and will likely have if the Bengals win, they will have big plays. And then for Joe Burrow, hopefully you don’t have to throw it 45 times, right? Hopefully it’s it’s a 30 throw game where you’re dropping back 34 times, you throw it 30, Chase Brown has 15 to 20 carries, runs it really well. I think SamJine is going to try to play. We’ll see. But I I think that’s the plan for Sama to try to play. So, we will see here. I’m excited to watch Joe Burrow again. I think you’re excited to watch Joe Burrow again. You want him to stay healthy for sure. Two things there. One, got hurt on a freaky play. He doesn’t have any regrets. I don’t blame him for any decision he made on that play. And two, he felt ready to go toewise certainly on on Sunday against the Patriots. So, we’ll see. He’s going to wear a carbon fiber plate in that that cleat of his. should help protect against reinjury. We’ll see how he’s moving around. Does feel like he he’s figured out how to move around with it in his cleat. So hopefully he can hopefully he can move around. He can be the Joe that we know. And uh he had the best What’s crazy is it feels like forever ago now, but he had the best training camp of his career. Like he was awesome. Like even his his meh days were really good days for for an NFL quarterback in practice. So will that continue? He’s thrown the ball well in practice. For all intents and purposes, we will see. I’m excited to see him. And now it is officially prediction time as always. Brought to you by Rivertown Anchory. You got to get to Rivertown.com right now. It’s the holiday season. You want Cincinnati Apparel. If you want to check it out in person, obviously you can. Their Finley Market location, their Oakley location. You got to support Rivertown Incor. I love them. By the way, if you’re watching on YouTube, made this. Rivertown Incor made this. This perfect Cincinnati Bengals stock polo. It’s my go-to. You’ve seen me wear it a ton. And so check them out today at rivertownery.com. Tough for me to pick the Bengals here. It is. It’s tough for me to pick the Bengals, but I also live by the saying, doubt Joe Burrow, doubt Jamar Chase at your own risk. And that’s that’s given me pause here because there’s a lot of reasons why the Ravens should win this game. But Joe Burrow has been thinking about this for months. Jamar Chase I know is going to to come out and play with his his hair on fire. This defense showed a little bit of something last week and I just have a feeling that that maybe the Bengals find a way to get past the Ravens. I I came into that came into the season feeling that way and now that Joe’s back, now that Jamar’s back, wouldn’t be shocked if they they do something that I’m not sure many people are expecting them to do. I’m going to pick the upset. I’ll go with the Bengals. Give me the Bengals. They win by three in a a game that’s really close. It’s down to the wire again and they find a way. Much like the Thursday night football game against the Steelers where they won 3331. This one a little bit different, but not much. 3330 the Bengals get a win. They get a win on Thanksgiving. Joe Burrow is eating turkey legs with Jamar Chase afterwards. And this Bengals team gets to four and eight. We’re going to have you covered after the game. If there’s any news between now and then, of course, we have you covered. If you’re looking for more on the Bengals, check out bengalalk.com. Until next time for Andrew Fox Miller, I’m James RP. Thank you so much for watching and listening to Cincinnati Bengals Talk.

Take advantage of Ridge’s Biggest Sale of the Year and GET UP TO 47% Off by going to https://www.Ridge.com/BENGALSTALK #Ridgepod

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is officially back, and he’s ready to face the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving. Burrow spoke about his return on Tuesday, including his thoughts on the play he was injured on, whether he would’ve done anything differently, and how he felt going into last week. James Rapien reacts to Burrow’s comments, Zac Taylor’s decision to hold him out, and what it means for the rest of the Bengals’ season. Plus, a preview of the Bengals’ Thanksgiving matchup against the Baltimore Ravens. Can Cincinnati pull off the upset and get to 4–8? What does Burrow need to do? Who steps up without Tee Higgins? How do the Bengals slow down Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, and the Ravens’ tight ends? Plus key matchups, injuries, players to watch, and a full score prediction.

PRESENTED BY SLEEPER: Use promo code BENGALSTALK on Sleeper and get 100% match up to $100! https://sleeper.com/promo/BENGALSTALK. Terms and conditions apply. #sleeper

LISTEN wherever you get your podcasts!
Apple: https://tinyurl.com/53j7djb6
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/snwujmmh
Amazon: https://t.co/EHmQK9B7wg

Bengals Sports Illustrated content at www.BengalsTalk.com
Follow us on social media! https://linktr.ee/CincinnatiBengalsTalk
Cincinnati Reds Coverage: https://www.CincinnatiRedsTalk.com

Content creator, Video Production & Editing – Follow Andrew Fox Miller: https://linktr.ee/AndrewFoxMiller

Serious Business Inquiries: bnazari@hogmedia.co
#bengals #nfl #cincinnatibengals #whodey #bengalsnews #cincinnatibengalsnews #sponsored