No Bengal is around from the Dec. 22, 2019, Burrow Bowl in Miami, the Dolphins’ exhausting 38-35 overtime win that gave the Bengals the first draft pick of the 2020s in the person of record-shattering quarterback Joe Burrow.
Yet one of the two most important figures in the Dolphins’ victory that day is one of Burrow’s go-to guys in Sunday’s game that is one day shy of six years of the Burrow Bowl (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) in Miami and will no doubt have a hand in him making more history Sunday.
Old friend Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins quarterback that day, routinely credits himself for the Burrow Era in Cincinnati, and well he should since the ex-Bengal threw for 419 yards and four touchdowns.
His main man that day, current Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki, was a second-year player who had six catches for 82 yards that included two touchdowns and a 14-yarder that set up Jason Sanders’ 37-yard field goal on the absolutely last snap of a full 70-minute game that took four hours and several lifetimes.
It was his 13-yard touchdown catch from Fitzpatrick with 8:28 left in the third quarter that gave Miami a 28-6 lead before all hell broke loose and the Bengals sliced a 35-12 deficit with just over six minutes left in the game.
“I was young, just trying to make plays. All that stuff,” Gesicki said after Friday’s practice. “Fitz was the same way. He would call his own plays, and that was one where I was thinking, ‘Hey, I might get the ball here,’ and it ended coming off a scramble drill.”
Gesicki says everybody knew going in that it was the game to see who would get Burrow, LSU’s Heisman Trophy winner. But he wasn’t thinking of Burrow when he hit the grass with the ball in overtime.
“It’s funny how things work out. Now I’m playing with him,” Gesicki said. “From an outsider’s perspective, it’s, ‘Oh, you have to lose this game,'” Gesicki said. “Nobody I’ve ever been around said, ‘Let’s go lose this game.’ Coaches work too hard, and players care too much.”
How Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton responded the same way he and Fitzpatrick did. How Dalton lofted a 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tyler Eifert on the last play of regulation when all his receivers ran into the end zone. How he scrambled for the tying two-pointer to throw his last Bengals’ road appearance into overtime.
“A crazy sequence, no doubt,” said Gesicki, targeted 12 times by the relentless Fitzpatrick. “Classic him. Never knew what to expect. It was fun.”
You can’t make this stuff up. Burrow returns to the scene of the Burrow Bowl needing just 40 yards in his 75th game for 20,000 career passing yards. Only Patrick Mahomes in 67 games, Matthew Stafford in 71 and Dan Marino and Andrew Luck in 74 got there faster.