Joe Burrow’s Return Has Re-Ignited Rich Eisen’s “the Bengals’ Season Isn’t Over Yet” Hot Take

Joe Burrow’s Return Has Re-Ignited Rich Eisen’s “the Bengals’ Season Isn’t Over Yet” Hot Take

I do know this that going into the weekend after the Bengals beat the Ravens and the Steelers were getting set to take on the Bills who did in fact knock the Steelers back to six and six, we did see the Browns for a brief bit on the in the hunt columns on other playoff picture graphics put together by our colleagues around the league. As you know, around the Rich Eisen Show, it’s called sniffing it. Do you sniff the playoffs? Cuz you’re in the air. It’s the aroma of the playoffs in your nasal vicinity. That’s why we say sniffing it. And now the Browns aren’t there, but there is a team from Ohio that is in fact at 4 and eight somehow someway sniffing it. Now, a lot of people thought I’ve been the one sniffing something something and I picked the wrong week to stop to stop, right? Yeah. When I was saying when Burrow went down, here comes Jake Browning. Season’s not over because in the previous season where Burrow went out, Jake Browning came in and actually performed well. He he won games and I thought he would be the guy to do it again, especially since I I do listen to our friend Jordan Palmer when he comes on this program. It makes a lot of sense and he was saying Browning’s got the experience in college and he could do it again. I thought I was wrong. Then Flaco gets acquired in October. I said again what I said in September, the season’s not over. for the Cincinnati Bengals. Well, yada yada yada. Flaco won only once in his place of Joe Burrow. My uh take of the season’s not over looked pretty silly. Then I said in November, hey, listen, nobody’s running away with it. You could say that’s higher register. That the season still isn’t over. So, now that it’s December, you take a look at the standings in the National Football League’s American Football Conference North Division. Who’s just two games back? Who’s just two games back with the Ravens and the Steelers playing each other this week? And Joe Burrow back for the Bengals going into the spot where he once upon a time ended a Bills season and reportedly allegedly a bromance between Josh Allen and Stefon Davis. That’d be Western New York. Oh, the Bengals. And you know, it’s not just burrow on offense e. It’s amazing what a franchise quarterback’s return can just do for everyone. We call it a halo effect. But Cincinnati against a Ravens team that just has a quarterback has now three straight games with no touchdowns. That said, this Ravens offense, no matter how much they’ve struggled, was going against the Bengals defense that couldn’t stop a Colt. A season low 14 points the Bengals defense gave up and a season high five takeaways. Their plus four turnover margin was the best in a single game by the Bengals since week 8, 2018. We haven’t seen what we saw defensively on that Thanksgiving night in seven years. Way back when Joe Burrow was just a kid putting on a LeBron jersey and taking selfies in a mirror. Way before he went to the Ohio State before they told him to beat it. Listen, there you go. These Bengals are two games out and I don’t care about the circumstances. That caused me to say the season’s not over. I’d have been highly inaccurate about why I felt that way, but at the end of the day, TJ Jefferson, I ask you, Mhm. is the season over for the Cincinnati Bengals as of right now, December 1st, 2025. Two games out, Joe Burrow’s back. Is the season over for the Bengals? I mean, technically, no. Thank you. I mean, you want to be technical about it. Chris Brockman. Hey, is the season over for the Cincinnati Bengals? You know, it’s it’s probably speaks to more about the teams ahead of them. Excuse me. No, it’s not. It is not. Joe Burrow, speak. I don’t even care what the setup to the soundbite is. I want to hear his voice. Hit it. Yeah, it felt great. You know, obviously had to knock some rust off there in the first half. You know, I thought second half I started to to put it more where I wanted and settled in a little bit. Uh certainly miss some throws early that I typically make. Um but you know after that I felt felt pretty comfortable back there. I thought the line did great. We ran it well. Obviously defense played great. So um I’m just going to keep getting better. That’s right. He’s throwing you know he’s throwing it through Hudson and Yoshas which sounds like the the the Tango and Cash sequel or the what the the uh Brazilian Isles. What do you think? I couldn’t concentrate on what he said because I looked like this jacket. You bet, man. You bet. Look at that. That jacket season is just I need that jacket. That’s right. With the hair. Joe Burr, work your hand through the hair. Wow. I mean, yeah, man. Burrow’s back. Three. He is back. Bangled. Feeling it. Hudson and Yoshivas. I think you call them if you’re getting into an accident. Yeah. Following Rosolian out. Guess what? They’re on a bus. They have billboards on sunset. The bus. Season is not over. Oh no. If I’m ultimately correct, at the end of the day, oh my god. Name me another redemption story. It’s the same. Carol from The Walking Dead. Name it. I don’t I don’t get that. Name it. You got to see Walking Dead. It would be It would be on par of Lane Kein winning at LSU. Name me another redemption story from the ashes, right? Uh, it is not over. Ben Affleck finding love with someone named Jennifer. He beats the Bills. Okay. And the and the uh Ravens beat the Steelers. Possible. Possible. The Steelers handled business at the No, what I’m saying is that if the because the Steelers the Steelers they’ve already played them. They’ve already played them. All they would have to do, okay, so they’d still be two back is keep winning, beat the Ravens one other time and have the Ravens lose to say New England. That’s possible. I know you think that’s possible. Say it’s better, right? Or the Ravens losing to Philadelphia and all, right? All they got to do is sweep the Ravens. Right. That’s it. Sweep the Ravens and then have the Ravens slip up when they don’t. That’s all. And they’re at Miami, home for Arizona, home for Cleveland the rest of the way. Get out of here. How big is this game in Western New York? Not for for the Bills, for the Bengals chances, but most importantly for my redemption story. So if the worst take I’ve had since coming back to ESPN, the most grief I’ve gotten for it could eventually be proven correct that the season was in fact not over because you kept dabbling down on it. That’s why you kept getting triple. On Thanksgiving Day, game day morning, we have the jive turkey segment, okay? Where we either gobble gobble a take that we’ve had by saying we’re going to still double down on the take or say we’re jive turkey for having that take. Uh, for instance, I think they had Gerald taking the Chargers out of the playoffs and putting the Raiders in in our pregame preseason show like that. Just to give you an example, oh man, of the takes that our producers will try to clown us with. Sure. Sure. They had a montage of me saying the season’s not over from this chair on this show from September, October, November. Want to talk about quadrupling down? This is now the fourth straight month I’ve said this. Mhm. And by January, I could be proven correct. Oh my goodness gracious. Redemption. Or they could lose to the bill. Like I might get I might spend the money I might spend the money to get the rights to that Bob Marley song. Send those refunds. Not sure if we can afford that. Rich, I know that. That’s Robert. We probably need to get together and start TJ plusing. Oh, we could do that. Listen. Oh, how great would that be? For you and us and the effect. I told you. for you, too. I’ve said this a few times. We we’ve been robbed of Joe Burrow not being out there this season. So, it was great to see him back. Yeah. In Buffalo with the Bills coming coming in 8 and4. Is that a Is that a Hello Jim game? It might be. Yeah. I don’t know. I have no idea. There’s so many big games there. There’s a lot of Hello Jim possibilities, but the Patriots are on a buy. You know, this is the one game the Bills are playing while the Patriots are off. Oh, wait. Here we go. Oh. broadcast, right? It’s got to be I think it’s got to be right. I mean, talk about exciting. Or as Romo said yesterday, uh a fresh of breath air. No, Romo’s in Baltimore with dance. See where’s Ravens? Okay. All right. Maybe uh Iron and JJ Watt get that assignment, huh? That’s a plum plum assignment. Was it Fox? Is it Brady? It’s Fox. It’s Joe Davis and Greg Olsen. Okay. All right. Fun. They Oh, that’s right. They give games. They don’t do I think the Packers and the Bears are going to get Burkhart and Brady Andrew. I’m telling you, week 14 is deep and playable. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

Rich Eisen explains why (for his own selfish reasons perhaps???) the Cincinnati Bengals’ playoff hopes are still alive with the return of Joe Burrow.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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