Bengals QB Joe Burrow Stands in Opposition to Growing Discontent as He Throws Support Behind Coaches, Front Office

CINCINNATI – As the voices outside of the Cincinnati Bengals organization get louder and angrier, the most important voice on the inside continues to throw his support behind head coach Zac Taylor and the front office.

After suffering the first shutout of his career and clinching a third consecutive season in his prime, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was asked if he still has confidence in the coaching staff and decision makers who build the roster.

“A lot of confidence,” he said following a 24-0 home loss to the Baltimore Ravens. “Because I know how hard people work at it. We’ve got the right people. It starts with players playing better, and today it was me.”

Coming off a Wednesday press conference where he questioned why he would continue to play if he wasn’t having fun, comments that had national media speculating whether he was trying to talk his way out of playing for the Bengals, Burrow was adamant about two things:

“My comments had nothing to do with Cincinnati,” he said. “My comments had everything to do with me and my mindset in football.”

Burrow also said that mindset and the fallout from Wednesday’s comments had nothing to do with how he played Sunday.

He was 25 of 39 for 225 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, of which the Baltimore tandem of linebacker Kyle Van Noy and safety Alohi Gilman combined to return 84 yards for a touchdown with 7:38 remaining.

After the loss, Burrow stood in front of the team and put the loss on his shoulders.

None of his teammates wanted to share exactly what Burrow said, but they agreed his words were similar to what he told the media shortly after delivering that address and walking into the news conference room still in game gear.

Burrow balked at the notion there is too much on his plate due to the organization’s inability – refusal, some might say – to surround him with a playoff-caliber roster.

“I want everything on my plate,” he said. “That’s the position I want to be in. I feel confident in all those guys in the locker room. There’s not a team in the NFL that would have won the game today if I was the quarterback.”

In addition to the pick 6, Burrow also took a 15-yard sack on third down early in the game that knocked the team out of field goal range.

He wasn’t sharp from the onset, throwing behind Ja’Marr Chase on a pass in the red zone early in the game and missed him on a pass later in the first half that went off the receiver’s hands for an interception.

Burrow called the performance an outlier.

“I’ve been consistently great for years and years,” he said.

But it’s hard to miss the playoffs three years in a row with a quarterback who is consistently great.

Asked how far off the Bengals are from being a losing team at 4-10 and getting back to the postseason, Burrow said, ‘Not that far.”

Burrow had a huge impact on how the team attacked last offseason, signing Chase, Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki to extensions and giving Trey Hendrickson a big raise when a multi-year extension fell through.

It will be interesting to see what he says he wants after this season is shoved into the dirt at the organization’s expanding graveyard of unrealized potential.

Hours after the worst performance of the career, he wasn’t in position to make any demands.

Or assess damage other than to state the obvious.

“Losing sucks,” he said. “We haven't been a good football team. Bad football teams do losing things. If you're wanting to compete for championships and be in the playoffs, No. 1, your quarterback has to play better than I did today.”