Bengals
Word came through on Monday morning that Bengals QB Joe Burrow would indeed need surgery for a severe turf toe injury, sidelining him for at least the next three months. It’s a crushing blow for him after entering the season completely healthy for the first time in a long time, and it’s obviously a big blow for the Bengals to try and replace a top-five quarterback. But WR Ja’Marr Chase said none of their opponents are going to care.
“It’s a rollercoaster,” Chase said via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “Every game is going to be a rollercoaster. Every week from here on out, we’ve got to focus and execute. That’s the only thing. Our quarterback got [knocked] down, we’ve got to [say] ‘Next man up,’ and it’s on from there.”
Once again the Bengals will turn to backup QB Jake Browning, who had a 4-3 record and nearly got Cincinnati into the playoffs in 2023 when Burrow was hurt midseason. Browning threw three picks Sunday but HC Zac Taylor and the team never lost confidence in him. Browning rebounded to lead the game-winning drive.
“Beating the Jaguars is hard enough. Dealing with a coach yelling at you after a third pick would make it harder. Credit to him,” Browning said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lose his cool. It makes it really easy to get thrown into a hard situation when you know he’s got my back and staying steady.”
Browns
The Browns suffered a 41-17 loss to the Ravens on Sunday and it obviously wasn’t particularly close. The team has a number of areas to improve at this point and veteran DE Myles Garrett summed it up succinctly.
“I mean, the shit’s embarrassing,” Garrett said, via Pro Football Talk. “We got to be better on defense. We got to be better as a team. They slowly chipped away and we did a solid job, holding them to three when we could, and then eventually the dam broke and they just did whatever they wanted, and we have to continue to play a 60-minute game.”
Steelers
For the second straight week, the Steelers surrendered more than 30 points to an opponent, only this time they came out on the wrong side of the result. That total was amplified by a botched special teams touchdown that counts against the defense despite not being directly its fault, but the fact remains that Pittsburgh has underperformed on that side of the ball relative to expectatins.
“It’s upsetting,” Steelers LB Patrick Queen said via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “… I don’t like people just having their way, and we did that again today, let ’em have that way. So it’s definitely aggravating, but I can’t wait to get back to work. It’s a long season. This season can turn around real quick for the good for us.”
“Clearly it’s the same issues that are rearing their head from last week, and in the NFL you don’t have time to go back after each and every game and make the adjustments,” Steelers OLB T.J. Watt added. “You need to make the adjustments before they happen, and if they happen in-game, before they’re allowed to continue to snowball like they did today, and like they did last week.
“I’m sure there’s a multitude of different reasons why this is happening, but we’re way too talented. We have way too good of schemes to allow this to continue to happen week after week.”
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