The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, but it wasn\u2019t for a lack of history being made.<\/p>\n
In an otherwise frustrating 22-17 defeat, Joe Burrow and Evan McPherson each added their names to the Bengals\u2019 record book.<\/p>\n
Burrow did it three times. McPherson did it with a field goal.<\/p>\n
And while neither milestone can make up for another loss, both are reminders of just how important the two players have become to Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Joe Burrow keeps rewriting Bengals\u2019 record books<\/p>\n
Burrow entered Sunday needing six completions to reach 2,000 for his career. He got there quickly.<\/p>\n
The Bengals quarterback became just the second player in NFL history, joining Patrick Mahomes, to reach 2,000 completions in his first 81 career games. Then he kept going.<\/p>\n
Burrow finished 39\/54 for 428 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, while adding a rushing touchdown. The 428 yards were a season high and helped him climb another spot on the Bengals\u2019 all-time passing lists.<\/p>\n
With 39 completions, Burrow pushed his career total to 2,033, passing both Boomer Esiason and Carson Palmer for third place in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Only Ken Anderson and Andy Dalton are ahead of him now. For a quarterback who has played just 81 regular-season games, that\u2019s quite a climb.<\/p>\n
And Burrow wasn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n
His 428-yard performance marked his 29th career 300-yard passing game, breaking his tie with Dalton for the most in Bengals history.<\/p>\n
Think about that company for a moment. Anderson. Esiason. Palmer. Dalton.<\/p>\n
Burrow has now passed them all in at least one significant franchise passing category. Of course, he\u2019d probably trade every one of those milestones for a win.<\/p>\n
The two interceptions and Cincinnati\u2019s inability to finish the comeback mattered far more than the numbers when the final score read 22-17. Still, it\u2019s becoming harder to talk about Burrow\u2019s Bengals career without talking about the record book.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not just approaching those records anymore. He\u2019s taking them.<\/p>\n
Even McPherson ties Bengals record<\/p>\n
Burrow wasn\u2019t the only Bengal making history.<\/p>\n
McPherson\u2019s 29-yard field goal in the second quarter extended his streak to 21 consecutive made field goals, tying Shayne Graham\u2019s franchise record from 2007.<\/p>\n
McPherson\u2019s last miss came in Week 9 of the 2025 season against Chicago. Since then, every field-goal attempt has gone through.<\/p>\n
And this isn\u2019t simply a streak built on short kicks. McPherson entered Sunday leading the NFL with five makes from 50-plus yards this season and fresh off AFC Special Teams Player of the Month honors for September.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s matched one of the longest-standing kicking records in Bengals history. One more make, and it\u2019s his.<\/p>\n
History is nice: Wins are better<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes Sunday so frustrating for Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Burrow reached 2,000 career completions. He moved into third place on the Bengals\u2019 all-time completions list. He broke Dalton\u2019s franchise record for 300-yard passing games.<\/p>\n
McPherson tied Graham\u2019s record with 21 consecutive made field goals. And the Bengals still lost.<\/p>\n
Those accomplishments will matter when the history of these players\u2019 careers is eventually written. Right now, though, they\u2019re footnotes to a 2-2 record and a team searching for answers after consecutive losses.<\/p>\n
The Bengals have the quarterback capable of rewriting their record book. They have a kicker putting together one of the best streaks in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Now they need those individual accomplishments to start producing something more important.<\/p>\n
Because Burrow can keep climbing the record book. McPherson can keep extending his streak. But eventually, Cincinnati needs the scoreboard to tell a better story, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, but it wasn\u2019t for a lack of history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1018888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,68603,84998,1561,2296,7,6],"class_list":["post-1018887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnati-bengals-history","tag-cincinnati-bengals-scores-and-results","tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117385978475377898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}