Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow sees improvement in win over Cleveland Browns.
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Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow sees improvement in win over Cleveland Browns.
Technically, the Cincinnati Bengals did come away with a road win against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday 17-16, but they certainly aren’t bragging about it. The offense was poor for most of the day and they needed two missed field goals by rookie Cleveland kicker Andre Szmyt to escape with a win.
Head coach Zac Taylor said following the game that nothing is easy in the NFL, especially the first game of the season.
“There’s always adversity in Week 1,” Taylor said. “There’s always adversity when we play Cleveland. There’s always adversity when we’re on the road at Cleveland. It’s never simple. And so for our guys to just find a way to win it there at the end — I’m proud of them. The best outcome of this game was 1-0. Forget about the stats, forget about the score, forget about how it all played out.
“The best outcome could have been 1-0, and we’re proud of that. And we’ll make some corrections and move forward.”
Joe Burrow has a rough day, but says it’s still an improvement
It was a tough outing for quarterback Joe Burrow, who was 14-23 passing for 113 yards, one touchdown and no picks. Hardly the kind of game that fantasy football owners were imagining when they drafted him. It wasn’t a good day for him statistically or otherwise, but he correctly pointed out that last year this game most likely would have gone the other way.
“We didn’t win any of these games last year,” Burrow said.
He’s right. Last season, the Bengals lost six games when scoring twenty five or more points. And considering the team’s terrible starts in recent years, the Bengals should really just accept the win and move forward.
Zac Taylor was glad the Bengals didn’t beat themselves
Despite the sloppy, lackluster win, Taylor says he’s glad the team didn’t beat itself. I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about here, but if he’s glad the team didn’t turn the ball over five times, then yes, they didn’t beat themselves.
“Everything didn’t go our way on every single play, but I truly believe our guys did nothing to beat ourselves — to allow us to beat ourselves in Week 1,” Taylor said. “They just played disciplined. They kept rising up to the occasion on defense. Offense made enough plays there, especially early on to build us the lead where now we can play this game. Many times, I can think of when we lost here, we were playing from behind. And they were able to control the game as the game played out.
“So I’m proud of the way that the offense started off and got us a lead there in the first half, that allowed our defense to get their bearings straight and make some key stops for us. And that’s a great way to win. You heard me preach it all last year — we got to play with a lead so we can play the right way in the second half, and this is a great example of that.”
Let’s tap the brakes on how well the Bengals played today. The Browns are not a good team and they have plenty to be miserable about. The Bengals should get credit for the win, but there is a lot to fix moving forward.