Entering Sunday’s matchup with the Browns, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had thrown at least two touchdown passes in every game this season.
The only TD he threw in Week Nine was a 99-yard pick-six to cornerback Denzel Ward.
After defeating the Ravens in Baltimore to improve to 5-2, Cincinnati has lost its last two games to the Jets and Browns. Burrow had arguably his worst game of the season, rivaled by the Week Two loss to Chicago. He finished the game 28-of-40 passing for 282 yards with two picks. He was also sacked five times and fumbled once, though Cincinnati recovered it.
“I didn’t play very well,” Burrow said in his postgame press conference. “If I play better, we’re in that game, we have a chance to win that game. I just didn’t play well. That’s all there is to it.”
But with the Bengals at 5-4 heading into their bye, Burrow said it’s not time to panic.
“We’ve still got everything in front of us,” he said. “We’ve lost two in a row — so what? We’ve got eight games and still a chance to win the division and make the playoffs. So, that’s our focus moving forward.
“We still have a really good team. We’re 5-4. We’re excited about where we’re at going forward. We’re going to come back to work ready to go. We’ve got a tough, resilient team, and we’re going to come back to work, get better each day, and focus on the next one.”
The Bengals will head to Las Vegas to play the Raiders for what could be an important matchup for potential AFC playoff seeds in Week 11.