With one throw, Bengals QB Joe Burrow shows everything he's capable of
The Cincinnati Bengals had run the same play countless times in practice, but quarterback Joe Burrow had never finished it with a throw to tight end C.J. Uzomah until this week.
While the Bengals prepared for their Week 1 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati worked on one of its go-to plays. With Burrow under center, he has the option to hand the ball off, make a play action pass to the running back or hold onto the ball and throw to one of two tight ends leaking down the field.
On Sunday, in the Bengals 27-24 win over the Vikings, Burrow found Uzomah on a 32-yard pass when the Bengals ran this play in overtime. Uzomah’s reception on 4th and 1 brought the Bengals into field goal range for rookie kicker Evan McPherson’s game winner
Doc: The Bengals so often lost games like these. Today, they won.
Analysis: What we learned from Cincinnati Bengals OT win against Minnesota Vikings
It only happened because of how well Burrow read the defense and because he spoke up on the practice field.
“When the game is on the line and I have the ball in my hands, I think I’m prepared to put myself in those positions,” Burrow said. “I’m always ready for them.”
The Bengals ran this exact play twice last season, including a goal line pass on 4th and 1 to former Bengals running back Giovani Bernard against the Cleveland Browns that nearly was a game winning touchdown. In the first game against the Browns last season, Burrow connected with backup tight end Drew Sample on that play.
But before this week, despite all the times Burrow had practiced the play, he never found Uzomah.
When the Bengals practiced it this week and Burrow was looking for a tight end, he didn’t see backup tight end Drew Sample. So Burrow threw the ball to Uzomah.
Burrow’s throw was off target, and Uzomah wasn’t ready for the pass. So Burrow stopped practice and said they needed to run the play again.
“If Joe doesn’t like what he’s getting at practice, of course he wants to run it again because he wants things to be perfect,” wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said.
So Burrow and Uzomah practiced the play again. This time, just like in the game on Sunday against the Vikings, Burrow connected with Uzomah over the middle of the field for a big pickup.
“We had to re-do it because of something I did, actually,” Uzomah said. “I was supposed to do something a little intricate with how I was kind of leaking out, and we ran it back. It really is serendipitous, the fact that I caught that, because we had to run it back (in practice). Three years, and I’ve never gotten the ball. So it’s good we did it again.”
In overtime against the Vikings, Burrow went to the line of scrimmage with two potential plays. Earlier in the game, Burrow had run a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-short for a first down.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer had noted the Bengals are a good quarterback sneak team, so Minnesota’s defense had a nose tackle over the center and three other defensive linemen right up the middle. After the game, McPherson said when he was on the sideline, he thought the Bengals were going to try to run the ball for a first down.
Zimmer had a better sense of what was coming. During his post-game press conference, Zimmer said he saw both times the Bengals ran that play against the Browns last season and he mentioned it to his defense in practice.
Even if the Vikings defense had a sense of Burrow’s potential options on the play, Burrow made the right decision on the throw to Uzomah.
“It honestly was the perfect look for it,” Uzomah said. “We had a little miscue on the practice field, but it worked out (here).”
Burrow’s game-clinching throw was the last piece of his first game-winning drive in the NFL. When the Bengals drafted Burrow, head coach Zac Taylor designed the entire offense around Burrow’s strengths instead of schemes Taylor used with the Los Angeles Rams.
The final result was the play the Bengals used to beat the Vikings. On Sunday, Burrow executed it perfectly.
“We trust Joe with everything that we’re about,” Taylor said. “There’s a lot higher responsibility that on his plate with those play calls. Joe does a lot with this offense, and that doesn’t go unnoticed by our staff.”