Joe Burrow Says Cincinnati Bengals Are ‘Not At Championship Level’ After OT Loss To Baltimore

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow did not hold back after his team blew a ten-point fourth-quarter lead and lost in overtime to the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday.

“We’re not a championship-level team right now,” he said. “We’re not. I like to think that we’ll come back and improve throughout the season to get to that point, but right now, we are not, and we have to get better.”

The Bengals are 1-4 after a horrendous start to the season, including losses to the lowly New England Patriots and blown leads to the Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs. Coming back from a season-ending injury in 2023, Burrow did not play to his standards in the first few games of the year, but he threw for 392 yards with just nine incompletions against Baltimore, signaling he knocked the rust off. Still, the QB did not take any moral victories from the defeat.

“I know exactly how we are 1-4,” he said. “We’re not making plays at the end of the game to go and win it. Definitely not in disbelief. I know exactly what’s happening.”

The Bengals need to turn around their misfortune quickly, as they are already two games back in the AFC North of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ravens, who sit at 3-2. Coaching and defense are the most prominent problems they face, as head coach Zac Taylor made some questionable decisions last week, including running the ball three times to set up a 50-yard field goal that his kicker missed.

Of course, the game did not need to come down to a kick if the defense did not allow 30 points for the second time in three weeks. The loss of safety Jessie Bates in free agency to the Atlanta Falcons looms large over a secondary that continuously turns receivers loose in the back end. Next for Cincinnati: Sunday Night Football on the road against the New York Giants, where the Bengals are 3.5 point favorites, according to ESPN Bet.