Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow seemed to take Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers especially hard.
Buy Bengals TicketsBurrow threw four picks during the 23-20 loss, plus seven sacks and still had the team in a position to win the game multiple times.
While Burrow was blatantly rusty after an erratic training camp (he missed a chunk of it after surgery to remove his appendix) and his new offensive line wasn’t on the same page, Burrow was plenty level-headed during exchanges with the media after the game:
“You talked about the roller coaster effect. How difficult was it for you to slow things down, take deep breaths and focus on moving the ball down field?
“I thought we did a good job of that. When things weren’t going well we didn’t overreact and when things were going well, we didn’t overreact as well. I thought we stayed even keeled. Obviously, we would have liked to have come out with a win.”
But post-game accounts from reporters tell a different story, such as these notes from Fox 19’s Jeremy Rauch and ESPN’s Ben Baby:
Update: it’s been 45 minutes since the game ended. Media leaving locker room. He’s still sitting there.
His only brief break was a quick press conference.
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) September 11, 2022
Bengals room is almost empty and there’s still one guy who’s at his locker and hasn’t even bothered getting dressed: QB Joe Burrow.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) September 11, 2022
We’ve known in the past how hard Burrow has taken his mistakes (like after sack-taking miscues in the playoff game against Tennessee) and this falls right in the same bracket.
Fans might have a sense of deja vu here too after the ugly 1-1 start last year before Burrow and the offense erupted. This feels a lot like that, so to say fans should expect a motivated Burrow next week would be a gross understatement.
