Play.
Uzomah hits the Ickey Shuffle after Burrow finds him for a touchdown.
Joe Burrow hit C.J. Uzomah to put the Bengal up in the first quarter. (0:31)
11:30 PM.
Things become possible when you find your quarterback.
The Cincinnati Bengals won a game. It had been 31 years since that last occurrence. Four players on the current roster are still alive. There was no such thing as a text message at that time. The team they beat to win that game was called the Houston Oilers, but they're now called the TennesseeTitans. The Las Vegas Raiders beat the Cincinnati team 26-19 on Saturday, a week after the Los Angeles Raiders beat them.
It was almost six years before the birth of Joseph Lee Burrow, who was the first pick in the 2020 draft and went on to play in the playoffs in his second season.
This wasn't supposed to happen here. If you were a fan of the young roster the Bengals were putting together, you wouldn't have picked them to make the playoffs. Cincinnati has a quarterback, which means things are possible that weren't before.
"We've got all the faith in the world in Joe, so there's never any panic on our end," Taylor said. I promise you my heart rate would have been as easy as possible if they had scored at the end of the game and we had to kick a field goal to win it. I was not surprised when it happened.
What is the impact of someone like Burrow? Taylor was not among the six head coaches who were fired last week. The Giants' Joe Judge was. Brian Flores is a player for the Dolphins. David Culley of the Texans and Vic Fangio of the Broncos were both fired. What are those situations like? The long-term answer at quarterback is still not known. The inability to get consistent production out of the quarterback position is a big part of why Matt Nagy was fired by the Bears.
Taylor was on shaky ground entering this season. He was 6-25-1 in his first two seasons. With all of the promise this roster had, another two-win or four-win season might have prompted team ownership to move on from him. Taylor said Saturday night that if he'd been working in another organization, he wouldn't have made it to Year 3. He might be right. His predecessor did not win a playoff game in 16 years. It didn't hurt that he had the confidence and hope that come with him. The kind of player that makes people money is called a player like Burrow. Taylor and his coaching staff had a hard time getting going. The Broncos are going to give contract extensions to all of their staff, including Brian Callahan, who is on the head-coaching list.
"Joe's a great leader," Tyler said. He came into the league with a lot of confidence and was ready to go. He embraced the role. Guys are going to fall in behind him if a guy like him comes in and works hard and plays with a chip on his shoulder like the rest of us do. That's what happened.
Ja'Marr Chase, who caught 84 passes for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdown for LSU two years ago, was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 5th pick in the draft. Their connection was on display as Chase set rookies' records and propelled the Bengalers to their first playoff appearance in six years. There was a point Saturday where it looked like it was going to be someone else who was going to throw the ball. Chase had nine catches for 116 yards. The two touchdown passes went to C.J. Uzomah. There were no hard feelings.
Chase said that they started clicking in college. We have been helping each other get smarter as the game goes on.
In the win over Las Vegas, Joe Burrow completed 24 of 34 passes for 244 yards and two touchdown.
The Bengals didn't play their best on Saturday. They went into the red zone five times against the Raiders defense, which allowed more than 81% of opponents' red zone possessions to be scored on. They came away with three field goals. The Raiders had a seven-point lead in the final minute and had a chance to tie the game, but they couldn't get it done.
The largest football crowd in the history of Paul Brown Stadium was all out of their minds when Germaine Pratt picked off Carr at the goal line with 12 seconds left. No one knew what to do when Burrow took the field for the final kneel-down. Dozens of team members with guns formed a ring around the field in case fans decided to charge it. That's not a thing in the NFL, and it didn't happen Saturday, but give Cincinnati a break. Thirty-one years is a long time. There is a lot of scars on this fan base. They might not know how to handle success.
Sam Hubbard has never had a playoff win. I feel like we broke a curse. It's hard to put into words what it means to everyone in the city, and I'm really happy to be a part of the team that was able to do it. We have a lot more in store.
It's time for the fans to rethink their expectations. The real deal is a fearless player who is determined to keep getting greater. He and his coaches came up with a plan for how to improve his arm strength after he decided he needed to do that to succeed in the NFL. It might have been easy for him to scrap his plan after he tore his knee. He returned this year with improved arm strength after deciding to do both.
"There's definitely more speed on his ball, and that's something he emphasized," said Callahan last week. He has been able to throw a little bit faster, a little bit tighter, and a little bit farther because of the strength training he has been doing.
Good players can stay great for a long time with that kind of stuff. There's always room for improvement and the determination to pursue it. When you draft a quarterback, you're hoping he has the kind of stuff that Burrow has already shown.
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