Steely McBeam
Well-known member
- Mar 20, 2019
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From last week to this week, the Bengals had 80-percent turnover on their offensive line. Other than right guard Alex Redmond, the rest of the starters were new, due to injury.
They held together very well, allowing zero sacks and drawing praise from quarterback Joe Burrow.
“They played great,” Burrow told PFT by phone after the upset win over Tennessee. “They really did. I can’t say enough good things about those guys.”
For the last Bengals win, Burrow got the game ball (and he put it back in the bag). This week, the game ball went to center Billy Price, a 2018 first-rounder who had fallen out of the starting lineup in 2020. He stepped in and stepped up for Cincinnati on Sunday.
“It was much deserved,” Burrow said of Price. “They did really, really well. . . . I was proud of that whole group.”
Burrow said that Price was instrumental in helping new players know where they needed to be and what they needed to be doing. Burrow said he personally directed most of the protections, but that he constantly conveyed confidence to the lineman in order to let them know “I believe in them,” and “[l]et them know that they’re professionals and they’re gonna do their jobs well.”
Indeed they did, allowing the Bengals to enter their bye week with a huge win. And maybe to come out of the bye week with more wins.
“I think the games we have coming up are all very, very winnable,” Burrow said. “We have a stretch here that we can rattle off four or five wins in a row that I think would be big for this organization and big for this team. I don’t think we’re out of it yet and if we continue to play the way we did today I think we have a good chance.”
There definitely are some winnable games on the horizon, but the next game up features the only unbeaten team in the NFL, in PIttsburgh.
Still, it’s great to hear the confidence from Burrow. Whatever happens this year, the future is bright for Burrow and the Bengals.