The reporter barely finished phrasing his question when Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow delivered an emphatic one-word answer.
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Is Sunday a Must-Win Game for the Bengals?
“Yes,” Burrow said without hesitation.
That question typically is met with one of two templated answers, either “They’re all must-win games” or “No, there is still a lot of football left to be played.”
Burrow, however, captured the urgency of the situation created by a 1-3 start that has the team’s playoff hopes hinging on Sunday’s outcome.
Joe Burrow doesn’t hestitate at all to answer the must-win question. pic.twitter.com/hsUYz2N5Ly
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 4, 2023
What makes this a must-win game?
“A lot of different reasons,” Burrow said. “You’ve got to go in and get your win on the road. We haven’t had a road win yet. We pride ourselves on the road on playing really good football, good defense, good scheme. We need it for morale. We need it for our ranking. We need it for everything.”
Even the players who leaned on the notion that they are all must-win games added qualifiers that, yes, this one is more so than others.
“I think every week they feel like a must-win, but in order to get back on track, we need to win this one,” linebacker Logan Wilson said.
No one has more experience with must-win desperation than Tyler Boyd, a 2016 second-round pick who has seen his share of lean times.
“I’ve done been through worse, so I just know how to stay the course, keep my head down and work,” Boyd said. “Things will happen. You just have to go out there and collectively play together.”
But is this a must-win contest?
“Every game I feel like is a must-win,” he said. “I like playing with that chip on my shoulder because that’s how my upbringing was, and I had to fight that adversity throughout my whole career here. I believe, and I know we’ll get the train rollin’.”
MORE: Cincinnati Bengals Depth Chart
Boyd said he hears what’s being said about the team outside the building and on social media, and it amuses him.
“I think it’s funny because 10 weeks from now, they gonna be all tryin’ to be on our wagon and tryin’ to be a part of what we overcame and start sayin’, ‘I told ya so. I knew y’all was gonna do this and that,'” Boyd said.
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