Joe Burrow and Bengals offense need quicker starts

The offense stumbled out the gate, and that likely cost them in Week 1.

The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the New England Patriots in Week 1 to the tune of a 16-10 defeat, where the offense struggled to get rolling most of the game.

You can hardly pin this loss on anyone or anything solely, but you instantly have to look at the offense that has some of the highest players on the team. Them putting up 10 points is a very rough look, and the head of that is quarterback Joe Burrow.

Burrow finished the game completing 21 of his 29 passes, but he only had 164 passing yards on the day. We didn’t see Burrow really air it out until late in the first half, and even then, most of his passes were within five yards of the line of scrimmage.

You have to acknowledge that the Patriots’ entire defensive game plan was to prevent big plays, but that has been every team’s defensive game plan facing Cincinnati since the 2021 season. It still seems like this team sometimes has difficulty working around that issue.

You can also note that wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase didn’t practice up until this week with the team on the field because of his hold-in and Tee Higgins was inactive with a hamstring issue. The offense is also now under Dan Pitcher and Zac Taylor’s control after Brian Callahan became the head coach with the Tennessee Titans.

You can try and make all the excuses in the world, but this kind of outing is unacceptable for a player of Burrow’s caliber, even if he has to go out there without Chase and Higgins. These are all guys who have been here the last two seasons and should know how this offense needs to function. Still, they seem to come out each season like they have to figure out what this team is again.

Three 3-and-outs to start the season is inexcusable for a guy like Burrow and this offense. Burrow at least technically threw two passes worthy of touchdowns on the day. One was dropped by tight end Mike Gesicki in the end zone, and on the next play, Tanner Hudson fumbled it as he was also headed into the touchdown. That won’t show up in the box score for Burrow, but that was just a single drive.

On a Sunday where we also saw quarterbacks like Josh Allen lead his team back from a slow start, you have to come out and say that guys like Burrow need to play better.

Now, that doesn’t mean we should doubt Burrow can turn this around. We have seen him do that exact thing so many times in his career. Getting more practice reps with Chase will surely help their connection.

And the more comfortable Pitcher and Taylor get without Callahan, the more things open up. We also saw a brief glimpse of the running game that was abandoned early and had signs of life with Zach Moss and this offensive line.

Hopefully, this will be just a speed bump in the 2024 season, and this offense and Burrow will show us more of who we know they are.

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