Bengals RG Dalton Risner Details 'Devastating' Regret After Allowing Sack That Injured Joe Burrow

CINCINNATI – What should have been a fun kickoff to homecoming week for Cincinnati Bengals right guard Dalton Risner instead turned into a draining, red-eyed slog of a victory Monday.

Risner said he feels horrible that quarterback Joe Burrow has to go through another surgery and lengthy injury rehab, and he feels even worse about the role he played in it.

“For me personally, it's super tough because I got beat on the play,” Risner said. “You can make as many excuses as you want, but I got beat, and it killed me. I didn't get much sleep last night. I've been super upset about it.”

Risner is going through the same thing Michael Jordan did in 2020 when he missed the block that resulted in Burrow’s torn ACL.

Jordan said he couldn’t watch the play for “a really long time” and quit social media because of how ugly people were being.

That was the first of two season-ending injuries in the first four years of Burrow’s career.

If he’s unable to come back from his pending turf toe surgery, it will be three times in six years.

Risner didn’t say whether he’s endured any of the online nastiness.

But his own knowledge and regrets have been hard enough to deal with.

“That one play has really been devastating for me because I got beat on the play,” Risner said. “I think he got tackled by two or three guys, but I know my guy was in on the tackle. It just makes your stomach hurt. It just sucks.”

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher weren’t interested in pointing any fingers.

“Listen, it's nobody's fault,” offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “That's our standpoint. We're trying our best to win football games. And we're 2-0. It was an innocuous football play, and a terrible outcome occurred.

“I wish it didn't happen,” he added. “I feel terrible for Joe. But it's a football play.”

Taylor said there is no reason to lie fault at the feet of Risner, or even pin it on the entire offensive line.

“If people are looking at the offensive line as the number one reason, that was an all 11 people on the same page (situation),” Taylor said. “So especially early on, there's some things that we got to correct at every position to be able to all be on the same page. It is simple as that. And that's coaching, that's the receivers, that's the tight ends, that's the running backs and that's the offensive line and the quarterback all working in unison with each other.

“The line always takes all the blame for it,” Taylor added. “I've got confidence in those guys, and we're going to continue to get their best going forward.”

As Risner prepares to head back to Minnesota, where he started 25 games the last two seasons, he isn’t thinking about his return to the city of a reunion with former teammates.

His trip down memory lane barely extends back two weeks when he signed with the Bengals, with Burrow being perhaps the biggest influence on his decision.

“A huge reason,” Dalton said. “He's one of the greatest quarterbacks to do it right now. The success that he's had, just whenever he's healthy, he's been able to play his game. So not keeping him healthy, man, it's such a tough deal.”

It wasn’t just the play in question that was running through Risner’s mind and preventing him from sleeping.

It was the heavy dose of “what if?” and the alternate reality that tortured the psyche.

“All night I was wondering ‘was that injury inevitable?’” he said. “Was it gonna happen no matter what? If this one thing changes, does that happen to his toe? Who knows, maybe I kick so much butt on that rep that my guy never gets anywhere close to him and maybe nothing ever happens. Or maybe it does.

“Man, if that's not a lesson about life, I don't know what is. You can try to control everything you can, but sometimes things are out of your control,” he continued. “For me, I look at it as 'I have to be better on that play. I don't know what changes if I am. All I know is I'm here to do a job, and I didn't do my job on that play. It's a pill I have to swallow and move forward.”