Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase pick up the Bengals in an ugly win in Arizona

GLENDALE, Ariz. ––  There’s a chance that three months from now, when the regular season wraps up, the only aspects of the Cincinnati Bengals’ ugly Week 5 win that will end up mattering will be that quarterback Joe Burrow proved that he can move outside of the pocket, the offense looked dynamic again and the Bengals picked up a victory in a must-win game.

In a 34-20 win for the Bengals over the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium, Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase bailed out a Bengals team that played an up-and-down game against one of the worst teams in football.

The Bengals have a long way to go and a lot to fix. They still look nothing like the team that won 10 straight games last season.

But the Bengals are surviving a stretch of the season where Burrow hasn’t fully been himself, the offensive line hasn’t communicated well enough and the defense keeps getting in its own way.

Even though mistakes are piling up and flaws are obvious with the 2023 Bengals, Sunday’s win over the Cardinals gives Cincinnati the opportunity to get its season back on track.

“When you trust in what you’re doing and believe in your process, there’s plenty of time for it all to take shape and for us to get the footing that we need to get,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “Today was a good step in the right direction in that way.”

Ja'Marr Chase: Sets Cincinnati Bengals single-game record for catches, gives ball to dad

Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase looked unstoppable as Chase set the franchise record with 15 receptions. Chase also picked up 192 yards and three touchdowns as the Bengals pulled away in the second half.

With the win, the Bengals improved to 2-3 on the season, just one game back in the AFC North standings. They beat a Cardinals team that’s in a total rebuild and may end up with the No. 1 pick in the draft next spring. The Bengals have much tougher tests ahead of them, but Burrow and Chase still showed that the offense is trending in the right direction.

“We’ve still got a lot of room to improve,” Burrow said. “We left some yards and points out there. But this was a good start.”

Burrow played his best game of the year. For the first time all year, he was mobile and elusive in the pocket. He still struggled against the blitz and made a handful of inaccurate throws, but Burrow looked much closer to the MVP-caliber quarterback who has led the team the past three seasons.

His improved mobility was clear on the Bengals’ first drive of the game. On 3rd and goal, Burrow side-stepped a pass rusher, slid around a defender and re-directed Chase to the back right corner of the end zone. Burrow set Chase up for a touchdown that put the Bengals up 7-0.

“The great quarterbacks, you can’t just keep them in the pocket and put them in a little box,” Taylor said. “They’re going to extend plays sometimes when maybe they shouldn’t. They’re going to hang onto the ball for a second longer than people feel comfortable with. Usually, great things happen when that happens. That’s the special magic that he’s got.”

The rest of the first half was a borderline disaster for the Bengals. Arizona schemed up a deep pass to their best receiver against a fifth-string corner, and Marquise Brown beat Jalen Davis for a 25-yard touchdown. Cardinals running back James Conner escaped a tackle for a loss, reversed field and broke three tackles and picked up 35 yards on a scoring drive that gave the Cardinals a 14-10 lead.

The Bengals defense has missed far too many tackles this year, and safety Nick Scott briefly got benched for rookie Jordan Battle after missing a few on Sunday. Conner missed most of the game due to a knee injury, and the Cardinals still had success with their power run game.

In the last two minutes of the first half, the Bengals’ offense had one of its most concerning and problematic stretches of the year. Looking to take the lead heading into halftime, the Bengals faced first and goal. They ran the ball four straight times and got stone-walled at the goal line on a turnover on downs.

It looked like the Bengals’ lack of a power run game was costing them at the worst possible moment. It looked like the Bengals red-zone offense was back in a rut. It looked like a bad Cardinals team was imposing its will on a Bengals team that has Super Bowl aspirations.

Then two plays after the Bengals turned the ball over on downs, Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs threw a pick six to Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, which gave the Bengals the lead for good.

“There are plenty of things we need to clean up,” Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “This game was a good step forward for our communication and for us playing as a unit.”

The Bengals took a 17-14 lead into halftime and then opened the third quarter with the type of play that can change how defenses play Burrow in 2023. He threw a 63-yard touchdown to Chase that put the Bengals up by 10 points, and even more importantly it showed what he’s capable of coming back from the calf injury.

Burrow took a deep drop back in the pocket on a play action pass. He planted off his previously injured right leg, led Chase into the end zone with a beautiful throw and made one of the prettiest touchdown passes of his NFL career.

“We’re taking a step closer to who we really are,” Chase said. “We keep facing adversity this year. It’s not going to be an easy season. Right now, we’ll just take it step by step.”

The Bengals took a 24-14 lead with the longest air-yard completion of Burrow’s career, but the defense nearly handed the Cardinals back the lead.

Due to the Bengals’ poor tackling, terrible run defense and inconsistent coverage over the middle of the field, the Cardinals scored a touchdown and then made it inside the red zone on their next possession with a chance to take the lead. Linebacker Germaine Pratt forced a turnover on downs with a tackle for loss, and Burrow sprinted for a first down two plays later to get the Bengals their momentum back. Burrow’s third touchdown pass to Chase put the Bengals up by 11 points in the fourth quarter.

The Bengals didn’t save their season on Sunday, but they got a win. With all the adversity that the Bengals are facing, they’ll take it.

“We’re going to be in great shape if we can just take care of our own business,” Taylor said. “That’s what our guys did today.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals get win against Arizona Cardinals in NFL Week 5