Bengals QB Joe Burrow Grades Viewers Lip-Reading Skills, Details Heated Sideline Exchange with Zac Taylor

CINCINNATI – Toward the end of last year’s Week 15 win at Tennessee, FOX cameras caught a heated exchange between Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Joe Burrow.

Taylor didn’t provide any context to the situation in his postgame press conference, saying only, “It was just a conversation back and forth.”

And though Burrow was wearing a microphone during the game, that week’s episode of “Hard Knocks: In-Season With the AFC North” opted to air only Taylor’s comments, leaving many to test their lip-reading skills to discern what had Burrow chaffed.

In the new season of the Netflix documentary “Quarterback,” no lip reading is needed.

The exchange is featured in Episode 6, which is the same one that features Burrow going into more detail about the burglary at his home than he previously has.

The episode shows some of Burrow’s great plays, such as the touchdown to Chase Brown in which he scrambles while holding on to the ball for 9.013 seconds before throwing it, and his deep touchdown pass to Tee Higgins to set the single-season franchise record.

But it also focuses on the large number of pre-snap penalties, which is what led to the exchange between Burrow and Taylor.

After one false start, Burrow yells “What in the f—k are we doing, man?” as he walks off the field.

“Wake the f—k up,” he adds.

The show cuts to a shot of Burrow sitting on the bench in the final seconds of the game, shaking his head.

That’s when Taylor approaches.

Here’s the transcript:

Taylor: “Way to finish the game. That’s a great drive finishing. I know it’s frustrating …”

Burrow: “That’s an embarrassing performance by us. F—king embarrassing.”

Taylor: “I know. We’ll address it. But at the same time, let’s enjoy some of these wins and …”

Burrow: “F—k that. F—k that. We sucked today. That was embarrassing. We jumped offsides f--king eight times.”

Taylor: “I know that. I know that.”

The show cuts to a sit-down interview with Taylor in a Bengals meeting room.

“Sometimes I walk into an emotional moment, and I know I’m walking into an emotional moment, and it becomes a really emotional moment,” he says with a laugh. “And they may be viewed as conflict. It’s really just passion for the game.”

That's followed by a montage of shots of Burrow stewing on the bench as a quote from him as played as a voiceover.

“I understand that we won the game, and we want to be happy that we won the game, but at the same time, when things aren’t good enough, I’m not gonna act like they were.”