Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan has seen plenty of elite performances from quarterback Joe Burrow, and he said Sunday night’s is on the short list of the best.
Burrow completed 31 of 44 passes for 348 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-18 victory against a Buffalo defense that hadn’t allowed that many passing yards in a non-overtime game since Week 17, 2020.
“It’s hard to play much better,” Callahan said. “Truthfully, he was fantastic.”
What Made Joe Burrow’s Performance Great vs. Buffalo?
Burrow didn’t complete 19 consecutive passes the way he did the week prior against San Francisco or finish anywhere close to the career-high 87.5% completion rate he posted in that 31-17 road win. But the Bills presented one of the bigger mental challenges Burrow has seen and sliced right through them for back-to-back touchdown drives to start the game, in addition to making some big plays late when the team needed them most.
“They did a really nice job varying their looks, disguising the coverages,” Callahan said. “I thought they made it challenging on him mentally, and it didn’t really seem to faze him.”
“But it was a lot of work, a lot of adjusting, a lot of things going on over the course of the game,” he added. “Just to see him handle that in his traditionally calm and cool collected way was pretty awesome. He played about as good a game as you can play.”
Joe Burrow leads all #NFL QBs with a 20-2 overall record when scoring first. Can he make it 21 wins tonight 🤔#Bengals are back ➡️ https://t.co/NTZyPANs5u pic.twitter.com/1Mbq4q6xg7
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) November 6, 2023
One of the bigger challenges the Bills presented was a scheme intent on removing Ja’Marr Chase from the game plan. So, on the first drive of the game, Burrow led the Bengals on a nine-play, 76-yard touchdown that saw six players record touches, none of whom were Chase.
Pass to Joe Mixon for eight yards. Pass to Mixon for 15. Trayveon Williams runs for seven and one. Burrow to recently elevated tight end Tanner Hudson for six, converting 3rd-and-2. Burrow to Tee Higgins for 18. Mixon run for three. Burrow to Irv Smith Jr. for 11. Burrow to Smith a seven-yard touchdown.
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“They were pretty hellbent on not letting (Chase) have 10 catches,” Callahan said. “They said, ‘Let’s make Tee prove it and see what these other guys can do.’
“They took a pretty aggressive approach,” he continued. “There was almost always a safety near him, over him, cheated to him on almost every passing down in the game.”
Chase finished with four receptions for 41 yards, with 32 of those yards coming on one catch. But Chase also injured his back on one of Burrow’s rare poor attempts when he underthrew a deep ball. Buffalo cornerback Dane Jackson bumped Chase as he leaped for the ball, causing him to land hard on his back and putting in question his availability for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans.
“That’s a good football team, and it’s a good defensive staff, and they did a good job of that,” Callahan said. “But the benefit we have is we have a lot of other guys that can play football well, too, which ended up being a big night for Tee and for our tight ends.”
Higgins proved it with a season-high 110 receiving yards, and the tight ends combined for that position group’s best output of the season with Drew Sample, Hudson, and Smith combining for 10 catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns.
Joe Burrow connects with Irv Smith for the early tuddy and a 7-0 #Bengals lead❕ pic.twitter.com/M7McQznHoH
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) November 6, 2023
Burrow completed at least three passes to seven different receivers, one shy of his career high, which he set in his second NFL start in 2020 when he attempted 61 passes, which still stands as his career high by a wide margin (53 is his next most).
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A 32-yard pass to Tyler Boyd on Burrow’s final attempt equaled his longest pass of the night. The Bengals had gotten the ball back with a six-point lead and 3:32 remaining. If they gave the ball back to Buffalo, a touchdown and extra point could have beaten them.
But instead of pounding Mixon into the line on first down, Burrow took a shot for Boyd and didn’t miss.
“That last one, the 1st-and-10, there were three minutes and 40 seconds or whatever it was, just a core play for us that our guys have executed a million times,” head coach Zac Taylor said.
“It was man coverage. Joe did a great job of reading it. TB was where he needed to be. The throw was kind of thrown before he came out of his break, knowing he was going to flatten it, TB, ‘knowing I’ve got to flatten it here’ and knowing where Joe’s going to throw it, and then staying in bounds, getting more yards, getting us into plus territory there so that we could finish the game off the right way. I can’t say enough good things about the chemistry that those two guys have.”
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