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Can the Bengals win again in 2020 without Joe Burrow under center?

Chris Roling
·3 min read

Before the injury to Joe Burrow, it looked like the Cincinnati Bengals had a somewhat-easy finish to the 2020 regular season. A few wins would dramatically improve the 2-7-1 record and provide a little momentum for the future before another offseason of major roster overhaul.

Now it’s hard to guarantee any win at all in the wake of losing Burrow.

Cincinnati’s remaining games are as follows:

With Burrow under center, the Bengals stand a good chance in all of those non-AFC North games. If he kept improving, maybe the divisional games aren’t so embarrassing the second time around, either.

But everything changes without Burrow. Onlookers saw how deflated the team was in the second half of that loss to Washington. His poise, accuracy to targets and ability to move around and mask severe offensive line problems are gone. So is the respect defenses have for the passing game.

In is either Ryan Finley or Brandon Allen. Finley, a guy Zac Taylor traded up for, completed three of his 10 attempts with an interception and four sacks in relief of Burrow last week. He completed 47.1 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and interceptions over three miserable starts as a rookie last year.

Allen also has three starts to his name (in Denver) and completed 46.4 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and two interceptions, going 1-2.

Besides quarterback, there’s no guarantee Joe Mixon plays again this year. Defensive centerpiece D.J. Reader is out of the year and Geno Atkins has quietly been missing in action.

And that schedule isn’t that easy. The Giants have won two in a row and have a solid defense. Miami’s doing a superb rebuild under Brian Flores and Tua Tagovailoa has flashed. Dallas is very, very bad, but has even managed to win three games, all against bad teams.

Pittsburgh? Forget it after that heartless, 36-10 loss out of the bye. Beating Houston would require slowing Deshaun Watson, which isn’t happening. And the Ravens haven’t really had problems with a Lou Anarumo defense to date, including this year’s 27-3 loss.

If the Bengals lose out, it’ll mean even more scrutiny on Taylor’s job and whether the franchise should fire the whole staff. And lack of fight from the players — something they always seemed to have for Marvin Lewis — would say quite a lot. Players have already had to fight back against allegations of a toxic culture in the locker room and Seahawks star Carlos Dunlap has hinted at it.

But if they lose out and face those questions, it probably means — at worst — the third pick in the upcoming draft, too.

All things to keep in mind as the Bengals head into this Burrow-less stretch, which barring a stunning development, won’t feature a ton of marks in the win column as the team finishes out this season in the cold.

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