FIRST TAKE | “Joe Burrow is elite, Bengals have a real chance to win it all” – Stephen A. Smith

FIRST TAKE | “Joe Burrow is elite, Bengals have a real chance to win it all” – Stephen A. Smith

Bengals would have to overcome. They’d need too much help from too many people. I mean, they’ve got games left at Buffalo. They’re home against Baltimore. They’re at Miami, home versus the Cardinals, and their home versus the Browns. So, these are winnable games for the Cincinnati Bengals. You can use the word spoiler. I think that would be very, very appropriate because they can score against anybody. By the way, give their defense props. Their defense didn’t look god awful. So, we got to take that into consideration. and they didn’t even have Trey Hendrickson at their disposal. And so when you look at all of that and how they can score and what Joe Burrow can do and how he can he can fling that football and then you see how he elevates their level of confidence, you know, unfortunately typical to form for the Cincinnati Bengals. They can run the table, end up finishing the season 9 and eight and miss the playoffs but spoil it for a few teams along the way. They’re very, very capable of doing that. But I think you can’t expect you can’t have this expectation that they’re going to make the postseason with eight losses with as many people that are ahead of them. I think that’s too much to ask. For the Cincinnati Yeah. For the Cincinnati Bengals though, it’s not this miracle run that gets you in the playoffs. It’s this run that allows you to have something to play for. That’s why Joe Burrow is back. When you saw him after the game and they were asking him questions about why play, you play because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You play because that’s what you love doing. You play because even after nine weeks, you can come out on the field against a divisional rival and be that good throughout the entire game and then fix your red zone woes in the second half. This team probably won’t make the playoffs because too much has to happen outside of them running the table. But he knows how to go into Buffalo and win. He’s not scared of playing the Ravens again. And the last three games are very winnable. They very well could see themselves ending up exactly where they were last year, which was a team that was nine and eight with a winning record, sitting right outside the playoffs. But Joe Burrow is back to give this team hope, and he did exactly that last night. Yeah, he worked his way into the MVP conversation late last season. I don’t know how it was kind of a long shot, but he if he plays good football, Cam, how do you see this team finishing out these next five games? I just it’s honestly speaking I don’t like that we keep having this same ending of a story for a team as talented as a C. Are we giving passes or circumstances or situations that led us to this point? Joe Burrow is supposed to be fighting each and every year to be a Super Bowl contender. That’s who he is as a quarterback. But yet, I don’t think, nobody thinks, and I do not believe that they’re going to make the playoffs this year being a spoiler attached with a Joe Boro or Jamar Chase or T. Higgins. No, these are contenders, not spoilers. It’s unfortunate and this is something that we have to take into consideration because we have to find answers sooner rather than later. We thought we had it this year. You know, even Stephen A was saying, “Hey, yo, why are they always starting 0 and2 or having a losing record in the first beginning of part of September and things like that?” Well, now they fixed that and they but they have an injury and they haven’t been able to find their footing. last night was a perfect indication of who the Cincinnati Bengals is, could be, and will be for a long time if they do their part, if they stay healthy. And those are all the the factors that they have been faced with, you know, but playing in the NFL. So right now it’s I’m displeased about Joe Burrow’s performances that we’ve seen in the last couple of years, but obviously optimistic that you know what he shows in these last couple of games is always to prove that he’s still a game changer in this league. This is my problem. This is my problem. I’m going tell you what I’m going tell you what my big problem is. RC, I’m going tell you what your big problem should be. Is that damn smile on Zack Taylor’s face after last night. That’s what you should be upset about. I’mma tell I’mma tell I’mma tell y’all why y’all should be upset about that damn smile. Okay, because Joe Burrow comes back and all is well. Well, what the hell you coaching for then? What you coaching for then? Because what we saw from the Cincinnati Bengals is a team that had epic collapses. Listen, Joe Burrow was great last night. How much points did they score last night, RC and Cam? Was it at 32? Yeah. Well, I saw Joe Flacco go on a football field and drop 38 and 39 in losses to the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears. So, if somebody was coaching the damn team when Joe Burrow was out and made sure that the other parts of the football team were ready to roll, you wouldn’t have lost that game. You’d be two games up right there instead of three and eight. Okay? You’d have been what is it? Five and six. You’d have been right in the mix. So, this is what we’re talking about here. So, Zack Taylor sitting there with this cheese George Foreman, God rest his soul. This George Foreman smile on his face just cheesing like all is well. No the hell it ain’t. What it should be is if I’m if I’m Cincinnati Bengals ownership, I’m looking at a coach and I’m like, “Yo, Joe Burrow was out, but we still had Chase. We still had T. Higgins. We we plucked Joe Flacco from the Browns. Got them to make a trade within a division that ticked Mike Tomlin off of the Pittsburgh Steelers for cried out loud.” Okay, all of that happened and the brothers still went out there and put up points, but we acted like we didn’t know how to play collective football, but all of a sudden Joe Burrow is back and all is well. To me, that I I he looks at it as a plus because they won a game. I look at it as an indictment against him because you could have found a way to win a couple of those games that Joe Burrow was out over three months so you could be in the damn playoff hunt. That’s my personal opinion. Yeah, I think the big thing is though when you watch this team last week, especially defensively, they were trending this way. They played extremely well against Drake May and the New England Patriots, even having a pick six from Gino Stone to put points on the on the board. It is an organizational failure that the Cincinnati Bengals are in the place that they’re in last night. But let me tell you why, Zack. cuz football is damn hard. And you work all week for three hours. And if in those three hours you find a way to win against a divisional opponent who is fighting tooth and nail to get into the playoffs, you damn right you going to smile. You damn right you going to be excited about the work that you did that week to come out victorious on that scoreboard. And the next morning you put it away and you start working on the next. RC, let me let me let me talk to you directly cuz you know you you you’ve been you’ve been bringing this stuff up a lot. Football’s damn hard. It’s a lot of stuff that people got to go through all this other. Let me tell you something RC, you understand? How many jobs of these exist? It’s 32 32 head coaching jobs in the National Football League. How many How many people are starving for those opportunities? everybody if not thousands if not everybody working for everybody work for so I don’t care how hard it is that’s what comes with it Zack Taylor that’s what comes with it your ass can’t sit up there and coach it all how many years have I been saying to you yo what is he doing how many years have I been calling for an investigation into what Zack Taylor does in the offseason I said yo you got spring you you got the spring you understand you got otaas you got the you got training camp you got preeason We’re talking about a team over six years, the first two games of the season. That’s 12 games. The man’s record was one and 11. He literally has shown factually that he never has his team ready to play at the start of the season. Okay? Only twice have they won have they won a couple of games in the six, seven years that he’s been there. I literally have said, “What the hell are you doing that repeatedly?” What a Joe Burrow. What a Jamar Chase. What a T. Higgins and these boys cuz they’ve been there. Somehow someway you’re behind on how this team ready to play at the very beginning and then you miss out on a playoff spot by one or two games. Okay, that’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about the smile on the face. Do your damn job. Do your damn job. As hard as it is, the fact is you wanted it. You wanted 32 head coaches. You coached the team to the Super Bowl before, but then you forget how to coach other times. You’ve rarely ever have them ready at the start of the season. Joe Burrow has been hurt. Not once, not twice, but this third season is almost the third season that he’s missed an entire year. How many games he miss? He missed three months this year. He missed two other seasons because you got him in shotgun. You don’t have him lined up behind center. You don’t protect him enough. You haven’t buffered the offensive line. It’s like, damn, that’s the franchise, right? protect him or make sure you doing your job in other areas so we don’t have to worry about that. That has not been that Zack Taylor. I don’t give a damn how hard it is. You wanted it. You getting paid to do it. Figure it out. Tell them why you mad, son. Tell them why you’re mad, son. I just did. I just did. I just All right, we got to go here. I mean, organizational failures usually lead to organizational fire Stephen A. We’ll see if that happens these next five games. All right, Dak Prescott, George Pickkins made their mark on this season. Has their connection lessened the impact of Dallas losing Micah Parsons? Plus, the Packers went into Ford Field and came away with a season sweep of the Lions. Were we moreing?

FIRST TAKE | “Joe Burrow is elite, Bengals have a real chance to win it all” – Stephen A. Smith