Cincinnati Bengals: Is Joe Burrow not receiving enough blame?

Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals commenced the 2024 season with a dud, losing at home to the New England Patriots, 16-10. 

In his first game since suffering a season-ending wrist injury in November of last season, Burrow finished with just 164 passing yards, while New England out-gained Cincinnati 290-224 in total yards. 

Is it already time to sound the alarm on the Bengals?

On Wednesday's edition of "The Facility," cohost James Jones opined that Burrow continually gets a pass compared to the critiques of other premier quarterbacks.

"Joe Burrow has not been good the past two years. He was 5-5 last year and then went out with an injury. Then, they [Bengals] went 4-3 without Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow without top, elite wide receivers is average," Jones said. "We keep living on the Super Bowl appearance, but we don't live on other stuff of other quarterbacks. Joe Burrow's not playing good football right now, and we keep putting him up there, saying ‘he's better than Josh Allen. He's the No. 2 quarterback in football.' A lot of people say it. … you just lost to the Patriots. There's a lot of people that picked the Patriots probably not to win one game this year. …

"You're supposed to be the second-best quarterback in football. Everybody praising that you're the only one that can challenge Patrick Mahomes and all this. Well, the last year-and-a-half, you have not been a good quarterback, and if it was any other quarterback, we wouldn't keep saying ‘oh man, if this, if that, if that, if this.' No, the man's got to play better."

Prior to going down with a wrist injury last season, Burrow totaled 2,309 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, six interceptions and a 91.0 passer rating, while completing 66.8% of his passes in 10 games. 

In 2021, Burrow helped lead the Bengals to the Super Bowl, beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, and then losing to the Chiefs in the AFC title game the ensuing year (2022). Burrow totaled 4,400-plus passing yards and 34-plus passing touchdowns in both seasons. Cincinnati missed the playoffs last season, while Burrow's 2020 rookie season was also cut short after 10 games due to a torn ACL.

Burrow has had the luxury of throwing to wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Chase — who played for the Bengals in Week 1 despite an ongoing dispute over a contract extension — has been a Pro Bowler in each of his three seasons in the NFL, and Higgins totaled 1,000-plus receiving yards in both 2021 and 2022. This past offseason, Cincinnati lost veteran receiver Tyler Boyd to the Tennessee Titans, who also hired former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their new head coach.

The Bengals are 29-23-1 in the regular season and 5-2 in the postseason with Burrow under center. They travel West to face the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl-champion Chiefs on Sunday.

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