The Cincinnati Bengals have scored 30 or more points in their last three games. Despite how many points they’ve scored, quarterback Joe Burrow believes his offense can be even better.
“There’s always room to improve,” Burrow said Wednesday. “We feel like we should go out and score 40 every single week.”
Burrow said the offense left points out there in the 34-31 loss to the New York Jets in Week 8. The Bengals were 4-of-6 in the red zone and the second-year quarterback thinks the game came down to this area.
“Yeah, it was a frustrating game,” Burrow said. “It was. It really came down to missed red-zone opportunities. We don't score on one. And we have to kick the field goal on the other. And if we score a touchdown on one of those drives, we probably win the game.”
The Bengals’ offense is starting to look like the unit everyone expected it to be at the beginning of the season with Burrow and all the weapons he has at his disposal. Eight different players have scored touchdowns, with rookie Ja’Marr Chase leading the way as he’s responsible for seven of the 21 total touchdowns.
Cincinnati’s next opponent, the Cleveland Browns, owns the toughest defense the Bengals have faced to this point. The Browns rank No. 3 in total defense allowing 304.9 yards per game. Two areas Cleveland has been particularly good in this season is their run defense and getting pressure on opponents’ quarterbacks.
Bengals vs. Browns:Sunday's game will show the state of the Cincinnati's O-Line
Bengals film room:Joe Burrow's five most interesting plays against the New York Jets
Burrow’s offensive line will need to play well to combat a Browns’ defense that has recoded 22 sacks. All-Pro defensive tackle Myles Garrett continues to play at a high level and leads the NFL in sacks with 10.5.
“He’s a great player,” head coach Zac Taylor said of Garrett.
If the Bengals can protect Burrow long enough and not let Garrett and former first-round pick Jadeveon Clowney wreck the game, Cincinnati can exploit the Browns in the passing game.
One area the Bengals are improving in is their off-script plays with Burrow and his receivers. The connection between Chase and Burrow is elevating the play of the entire group. Tyler Boyd showed he’s also capable of being on the other end of some of the off-script throws and it’s likely we could see more of that moving forward.
“That’s been a big part of our offense the last couple of weeks,” Burrow said. “Guys like Ja’Marr we have done it over and over again. We scored a couple touchdowns by doing that this year. Then I think guys like (Tyler Boyd) who haven’t done that much in the past then see Ja’Marr catch a couple of touchdowns, he’s like, ‘Hey, I want a couple of those touchdowns and big plays in that situation.’ I think TB has really made the most strides in that area. It’s nice to see that progression from guys like that and we are just going to keep getting better at it.”
Source link
