Football is a team game played by individuals, which means that occasionally an individual can single-handedly undo the work of an entire team. The kicker who misses a crucial field goal, the quarterback who throws a crushing pick-6, the defensive lineman who commits a backbreaking penalty… when a player’s failure is the turning point where a game is lost, it’s maddening. , but at the same time every player realizes that one day he too could be that player.
The exact opposite scenario is currently playing out in Cincinnati, a strange dynamic in which the team undoes the excellence of the individual. Joe Burrow is playing the best football of his career… and the Bengals defense is taking all that hard work with a sledgehammer.
Look, “Joe Burrow of the 4-8 Bengals deserves MVP consideration” is the kind of clickbaity headline that makes everyone hate the media, but it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. The numbers are quite staggering, starting with the fact that Burrow leads the NFL in passing yards per game (278.1) and touchdowns (30) and ranks fourth in passer rating, behind only Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff and Tua Tagovailoa.
The Bengals rank fifth overall as a team in points scored (27.9), tied with Tampa Bay and behind only Detroit, Buffalo, Baltimore and Washington. And thanks to Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase’s 1,142 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns both lead the NFL.
The problem is simply that Burrow plays on a team with an atrocious, almost worst defense in the league. For example, consider the many ways Cincinnati reaches or sets questionable losing records despite offensive fireworks:
Bengals are losing this season
* 2 with more than 38 points (T-most by any team ever)
*3 with more than 34 points (T-most by any team ever)
* 4 with more than 33 points (most of any team)
* 6 with more than 25 points (T-most by any team ever)— Doug Clawson (@doug_clawson) December 1, 2024
Only Carolina has given up more points per game than Cincinnati’s 28.3. The Detroit Lions average 15 more points per game than their opponents. The Bengals score about half a point less.
In other words, Burrow’s offense needs to score more than four touchdowns per game to outrun its own defense. That’s a phenomenal burden on your shoulders every game, and Burrow admitted after Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh that it’s weighing on him.
“I feel it. I feel it. I feel the pressure on me to be great,” he said, before deftly pivoting away from an indictment of his own defense. “That’s part of playing QB in the NFL. I have to play to the absolute peak of my ability to go out and win every week.”
He does his utmost. Sunday marked the third straight game in which Burrow threw for at least 300 yards and three touchdowns. The Bengals’ record over that stretch: 0-3, thanks to Cincinnati’s defense allowing at least 34 points in all three of those games. All told, Cincinnati has held exactly one team to fewer than 14 points this season: the woeful New York Giants, who managed just seven in October.
Burrow is certainly doing his part. In Week 13, he was rated as the NFL’s best quarterback by at least one standard:
Figure: Quarterback class and EPA through Week 13 (pending MNF).
Highest rated QBs from Week 13 alone:
1. Burrow (lol. Poor Joe Burrow)
2. Stafford
3. All
4. Richardson
5. Bryce Young!Lowest rated QBs in Week 13:
27. Hurry
28. Purdy
29. Cousins
30. Baker
31. Laurens pic.twitter.com/u9mHkfKdlF— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) December 2, 2024
Even more impressive, he’s racking up numbers that put him in the company of giants – and not the terrible New York kind. Only six players in NFL history have averaged 275 passing yards, 30 passing touchdowns and thrown five or fewer interceptions in 12 games: Burrow, plus Tom Brady (2007), Aaron Rodgers (2011, 2014, 2020) and Patrick Mahomes (2020) . All but Mahomes would be named MVP. Guess who is the only player on that team with a losing record?
It’s all enough to almost make Burrow… almost – break the code of clubhouse omerta that defines football. At the very least, he launched fireworks into the locker room on the Fourth of July.
“We’ll learn a lot about who we have in the locker room, the guys we can count on in the future and the guys we can’t,” he said Sunday. “I think the next five weeks will say a lot about the future. Who we can count on and who we can’t.”
Under any normal scenario, these five games would offer some hope of a league-leading offense. Cincinnati ends the season at Dallas, Tennessee, Cleveland, Denver and Pittsburgh. The playoffs are all but out of reach: Cincinnati is five games behind Pittsburgh for the division lead, and two and a half games out of the seventh playoff spot. But dignity is still on the table. If the Bengals can manage to come out of 2024 with some degree of self-respect, they can figure out what to do on defense this offseason. More than any team in the league, the quarterback isn’t the problem.
