The Bengals made history Sunday in Baltimore when they ripped off five straight touchdown drives to become the first team since Harry Truman, a Paul Brown title team in Cleveland, and 1950 to win a game by 20 or more points after losing by 13 or more points after halftime, via ESPN.
Now they'd like to repeat history with the Titans coming to town this Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12), although you don't have to go back that far. And the 2-5 Titans don't have a top record, but they do have a dangerous defense.
It was only three years ago when some believe the Joe Burrow Bengals put together their most dominant back-to-back games against top teams. On Oct. 28, 2023, they went out to San Francisco for a 31-17 win and then came right back to Paycor Stadium to beat the Bills, 24-18.
After drilling the 4-2 Ravens Sunday, 35-13 behind Burrow sifting the third-best passer rating of his career by hitting 19 of his last 21 passes and finished at 73% for a rating of 143.3, offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher was asked Monday if it reminded him of the game in Frisco. That's where Burrow hit 87.5% of his 32 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns. On Sunday, Burrow passed for 292 yards and four touchdowns against the 4-2 Ravens.
"It was a little different because I don't know that it was quite like a tale of two halves," Pitcher said. "I feel like that was probably a more complete game than what we played yesterday. But I don't know if we've played a better half than what we played yesterday."
Pitcher hopes he has just watched a season's turning point.
"It's a hard league to score five touchdowns on five straight drives. That doesn't happen very often, even for great offenses," Pitcher said. "There's a lot of momentum that can be drawn from how we played the second half of that football game, so we're going to do that, and we're going to do our best to make sure that it's a it's a launching pad for who we can be moving forward."
Here Comes Joey Numbers
It's time to remember that the only quarterbacks who have ever had multiple seasons completing 70% of their passes are Joe Burrow and newest Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Brees.
After the smoke of Sunday's attack cleared, Burrow still leads the league at 71.7% as he guns for his third 70 season, (Brees has seven) and his passer rating of 110.4 is behind only Jared Goff's 112.5.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, record-breaking quarterback at Nebraska and long-time NFL quarterbacks coach before guiding Burrow to the NFL's all-time completion percentage record (68.7 to Brock Purdy's 68.1) jokingly deadpans, "I don't know," when asked what makes Burrow so accurate.
But it's no laughing matter. Taylor watches his every move in practice to learn even more about the position.
"I don't talk to him about it that much. From a distance, I always sat there and watched him in all sorts of areas, and tried to improve my own quarterback knowledge," Taylor said Monday. "Because it's really impressive watching how he goes about putting himself in position to make the plays he does. It's going to be as accurate as he is because he's the most accurate in in the world. He is the most accurate. He's really impressive."
The stats are piling up again like they did in '24, when Burow led the NFL in touchdown passes and yards. He's tied with Purdy for 15 touchdown passes and they trail leader Kirk Cousins by one. Burrow's 1,653 yards are 11th, but only a 343-yard game behind Matthew Stafford.
"Watching how he works in practice between reps, watching how he works in pre-practice, watching how he throws in pregame, watching his body movements and how important that is," Taylor said. "Watching him in routes on air, put himself in different body positions.
"Normally you take a three-step drop, hitch, you throw. He doesn't really do that. He works on moving in the pocket and awkward body throws. He works on how his body feels and the weight distribution he's got, and it's really impressive. I've never been around that detailed of a guy."
Tight Squeeze
The Bengals are getting hammered at tight end. A week after losing Tanner Hudson (pectoral) for the year, Erick All Jr., having the best game of his comeback from right knee ACL surgery that took him out for a year-and-a-half, limped off the field Sunday with an injury to the same knee. He left after making his third catch of the day, a nine-yarder over the middle into the red zone on second down that Ravens middle linebacker Roquan Smith ended with a tackle that set up the Bengals for a short conversion on their way to taking the lead at 14-13 lead on Tee Higgins' touchdown grab.
While All made two huge catches in the red zone on that pivotal first drive of the half, running back Chase Brown also danced behind him for key pickups in the run game.
The play he went down showed his two-way value, helping left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. with a chip on Trey Hendrickson before drifting into the middle as a check-down and turning it into a healthy gain racing past Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton.
The uneasiness over All's status didn't lessen when Charlie Clifford's report on Cincinnati's Channel 5 said the Bengals had signed old friend Cam Grandy off the Vikings practice squad.
Grandy may not be the receiver All is, but his blocking prowess and knowledge of the system gained in 13 appearances over the last two years in some big games (he caught Burrow's first pass in the 2024 do-or-die Denver game), make him a nice pickup.
Taylor said Grandy was good enough to make the roster at the end of training camp, but there was no room.
"He's somebody we can rely on, somebody we've got a lot of trust in. He was really a make-it roster guy for us," Taylor said. "It's just we were so deep at a lot of spots, we can't keep nine tight ends.
"It was a really tough one for us. To get him back I think is really critical because he's somebody we've always felt like was a part of this thing, and so happy to get him back, and he's going to help us."
Jack Of All Trades
Taylor isn't sure of the extent of All's injury and wouldn't say what the corresponding roster move is with the addition of Grandy.
But it accelerates the learning curve of seventh-rounder Jack Endries, and his nine snaps Sunday showed why they drafted him out of Texas in the seventh round.
When Hudson got hurt, Endries had played two games with one scrimmage snap. His second snap came Sunday with Burrow looking at first-and-10 from the Ravens 13 after running back Samaje Perine converted All's nine-yarder into a first down.
Endries had been ready to go in as part of a three tight-end package, but suddenly he was summoned as the only tight end in a three-receiver set and was the first to greet Higgins on his touchdown since they were both in the end zone.
Which meant he had to know All's spot in that alignment despite rarely being on the practice field with Burrow, and when he is, Endries says it is mostly unscripted stuff.
When Perine scored his touchdown moments later from one-yard out from a double tight-end set, Endries went in motion from right to left to block the edge.
"The play, based on the defensive formation, we alerted something to our wide receivers, but it was nothing crazy like change the play," Endries said. "It was pretty basic."
That maturity and football IQ is what the coaches have seen. That's why he'll be spending a lot more time with Burrow.
"Jack's done a really good job preparing himself," Taylor said. "You've got to know every tight end spot. You've got to know a lot of different roles you could play there when you're a backup tight end. Jack has been inactive and now active because of Tanner's injury, and now more playing time because of Eric's injury, obviously. So it's unfortunate why it's happening, but we're fortunate that Jack has put himself in a position to be ready, and now he's certainly going to get a lot more opportunities. I expect him to take advantage of it."
Slants and Screens
Backup safety Kyle Dugger (quad) returned for the first time in two games, but apparently re-aggravated the injury and has been declared out for this Sunday by Taylor …
How good has right tackle Amarius Mims been? Taylor said Monday, "I think Amarius Mims continues to be best tackle I put my eyes on this year. He's been dominant out there."
The analytics say it. According to Next Gen Stats, Mims leads all tackles allowing a 3.4% pressure rate on his 234 blocks, and has allowed half a sack. Against Baltimore, another day at the office with 34 drop-backs and no pressures.
"He's doing the right stuff from a preparation standpoint," Pitcher said. "It's one of those things where it's like I don't have a whole lot to say about it, and that's part of why it's as remarkable as it is because it's just kind of becoming commonplace for him, and that doesn't mean we don't appreciate it because we do, and he'll keep working, and hopefully we keep getting the same results." …
Zac Taylor and Ja'Marr Chase are on the same page when it comes to Chase's angry halftime speech Sunday. A guy like that, Taylor says, doesn't have to ask to take the floor.
"You don't need to," Taylor said. "When it's a player that's earned that right, no, there's no need to. We're all in there just trying to make it work, and he was great." …
