The Cincinnati Bengals know that they need to avoid the slow starts that have plagued them in recent seasons. As a result, they’re playing their starters more in the preseason than they typically have in the past, including star quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow had a solid outing in Thursday’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles, with both of his possessions ending in touchdown passes. Still, he feels like everything needs to be better moving forward.
“It’s good to play football again,” Burrow said, according to Pro Football Talk. “I could’ve been better, I missed the first throw. I threw all the other ones where I wanted to put them, but I could have spun it a little better. . . . We got to be better.
“Too many procedural penalties, too many errors. Things like that are gonna happen, but I think it just wasn’t clean enough, across the board.”
Fans reacted to Burrow’s statement on social media.
“I mean they played against a bunch of backups and guys that are gonna be outta the league in a couple weeks I’d hope he doesn’t take that too seriouslly,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“The idea that playing a few series in a preseason game is going to magically make the team play better when the season starts is actually comical,” someone else wrote.
“Joe Burrow was almost as good against second and third stringers as Tanner McKee was against the Bungles starters!” another person added.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Bengals’ new strategy pays off in the early weeks of the season.