Consider Sunday a five-year festival honoring the Bengals' Why Not Us AFC champions when C.J. Uzomah hoists the Ruler of the Jungle staff just like he grabbed that jailbreak screen that broke out Joe Burrow into the conscience of the NFL.

Week Four. Just like this one Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) at Paycor Stadium. The Trevor Lawrence Jaguars, just like that one on Sept. 30, 2021. Just like that one, Uzomah has the final say.

"I think in terms of you coming down to the wire, understanding what we have to do as an offense to win the game, I'd say 100% that gave us the confidence that we needed," Uzomah says. "Now if we're in a pressure situation as an offense, we're going to convert, and we're going to do what we need to do to win the game when it comes down to it."

Drew Sample, Uzomah's buddy in the tight end room who is the only Bengal left who was here when Burrow wasn't, agrees it was a springboard game.

"The Jags always have a good defense, a good team. It showed us all the weapons we had and all the continuity of having guys returning," Sample says.  "Everything is at the disposal, and just Joe seeing it and reading it and getting into what we think will help win the game."

Not only did Bengals 24, Jaguars 21 give the Bengals a confident swag, but it was also the moment Burrow's college legend collided with NFL prime time and produced a supernova viral moment.

"You can't zero me."

Or something like that.

The Bengals now had one of the baddest men in the league.

"He put people in the league on notice," Uzomah says. "They saw the confidence we had in him as teammates."

(Five years are light years in the NFL. On that Thursday night, Fitz and Whit were still playing, and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were calling it on something called NFL Network.)

That's the night Uzomah, who had two touchdown catches, anointed him "Joey Franchise," and the nicknames and the clips of Burrow's line-of-scrimmage genius have piled up ever since.

"I've been watching him since I've been watching football," says Bengals second-year linebacker Barrett Carter, no doubt watching that night at Clemson because of his guy Lawrence. "I've always admired his approach to the game. His brain. How smart he is. How quick he processes. He has the answers to the test before you give him the questions.

"Someone needs to do a dive into his brain to see what's in it and how he processes so fast. It should not happen that fast."

"You can't zero me." Or something like that Burrow said after unlocking Uzomah on the jailbreak screen.

Bengals 21, Jags 21. Sixty-nine seconds left. Burrow in the shotgun at the Jags 46. Second-and-13. Rookie kicker Evan McPherson had already hit a couple of 50s, but they still needed some serious yardage.

"There are hallmarks of what it looks like for the quarterback, and it's pure man-to-man coverage with no help," says Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher of the zero blitz. "And their gamble is that they're going to get to you before your guys can get open. That check was to the widest guy. The check was to number one to the field, the widest receiver in the field."

Pitcher, then the quarterbacks coach, admits that is a scrapbook moment. "You try your best to just give your guy the answers for anything he could see, and he just does a great job at accessing the answers, and he did a good job on that one."

So did everybody else as Burrow checked out of a minus-play against the zero. He had an empty backfield and five receivers in front of him with wide receiver Tyler Boyd tight, wide receiver Trenton Irwin in the slot, and Uzomah split wide on his right. On the other side, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was in the slot and running back Chris Evans was wide.

Uzomah had never run that check full speed. He knew about it, though. Burrow and the coaches made sure of that.

"I hadn't really done too much practice as the outermost receiver until that week," Uzomah says. "We have our checks and things like that, but usually the checks are to certain receivers and certain personnels, and that week we did go over it with the tight ends going outside, and Joe was like, 'I don't care who's where, we all have to know what to do … Let's just go through it if you happen to be out there,' and I happened to be out there."

Burrow checked to the jailbreak screen. Uzomah can still vividly see Boyd inside turning to him and saying, 'It's coming to you, brother." With all of Duval County in his face, Burrow corkscrewed a sidearm 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded to Uzomah.

The check to the widest guy to the field.

Pitcher: "C.J. did a great job. Really, Trent Irwin did an outstanding job on that play. He really blocked two guys. T.I. kind of blocked his guy into the guy that was lined up over C.J.

Indeed, somehow the slight Irwin guided safety Rayshawn Jenkins smack into rookie cornerback Tyson Campbell while inside Boyd buried cornerback Tre Herndon as right tackle Riley Reiff set sail for linebacker Myles Jack.

Jailbreak screen.

"I'll be honest with you," Uzomah says. "I don't think I ran the greatest route. I mean, I had enough leverage and good blocking to where I was good. But I was kind of looking back at him the entire time because I knew that I was going to have to come out pretty quickly just because of the fact that they were zeroing and the positioning that we were in on the field.

"I would argue that I probably should have just stopped looking back after I caught the ball and scored. But Evan will say, "Hey, well, you let me win it for us.'"

"You can't zero me," Burrow screamed racing down the field.

Or something like that.

An alert run-after catch. A 25-yard play. To the Jags 21. After a four-yard mush by the ever-reliable Samaje Perine at running back, McPherson won it as the night got swallowed in a sea of orange and black and "You can't bleeping zero me."

Ask Burrow about zero blitzes now, and he says simply, "You just have to be ready for it." Safety Jordan Battle gets it. They zero Burrow in training camp to get him and the defense ready.

"We always try to find a way to win the day on Burrow. Zeroing him is kind of hard, Battle says. "Once he sees zero, he gets into all the right checks."

Since that cool under pressure he displayed that night five years ago, that's been a big part of his M.O. despite some ill-advised shots taken after his fumble last Sunday in Pittsburgh ended the game.

Prime Video's Ryan Fitzpatrick, who now analyzes those Thursday night games, noted this week that the 27 times Burrow has had the ball with fewer than four minutes left with a chance to tie the game or take the lead, he has done it 18 times.

He's also got two postseason fourth-quarter wins. An exclusive Green Jacket club among active quarterbacks.

Like that night against the Jags, it's no surprise to his teammates.

"Burrow is a guy who's a quarterback, but I feel like if he wanted to be an offensive coordinator of his own team, he really could," Battle says. "That's how smart he is. That's how good he reads defenses."

That night the seed was sown  for a title run and Burrow became Joey Franchise, Uzomah had a career-high 95 yards, two touchdowns, and a jailbreak screen.

"The perfect game to come back and I'm honored they've invited me back," Uzomah says.

It's the first time he's been at an NFL game as a fan since was seven, taking the train with his dad to see the Falcons from the Atlanta upper deck. His folks are going to be there Sunday, along with his wife, toddler daughter, and some friends.

"They want to come watch Cincy, and now that I've retired as a Bengal," Uzomah says. "They're all like, 'All right, cool. We can root for Cincinnati. This is our team that we loved when you were there.'"

Uzomah's not sure what he'll do when he gets on the throne to exhort the crowd. He feels a call to Ja'Marr Chase may be in order. "He's pretty good with celebrations."

Welcome to the five-year celebration of a Super Bowl run that broke out of a jail. He calls "Joey Franchise," just "Joe," these days.

"We knew what he was as a team, but I think that was the part of that viral moment," Uzomah says. "Of  everyone else understanding what exactly we had in Cincinnati with him."